U.S. Courts

Federal Judge Leaves Miami on the Hook for Cops Who Fired 130 Rounds and Killed Suspect

In August 2010, three Miami police officers fired at least 130 rounds into 21-year-old Gibson Belizaire, who died from his wounds behind a Little Haiti shop. Belizaire was the sixth young black man killed that year by MPD under then-Chief Miguel Exposito. Belizaire's mother then sued the c ... More >>

More Medical Mishaps at Miami's FDC: Deaths, Delays, and Drug Mixups

In this week's New Times, we investigate the death of Keskea Hernandez, an inmate at Miami's Federal Detention Center (FDC). She died January 9 while cuffed to a hospital bed after prison officials, prosecutors, and a federal judge all brushed aside her pleas for help.But Hernandez is far from the f ... More >>

Design Place Addresses Some Complaints Raised in Discrimination Lawsuit

A nonprofit organization that fights housing discrimination recently scored a partial court victory against SPV Realty, the New York-based company that owns Little Haiti apartment complex Design Place. HOPE Fair Housing Center is suing SPV in Miami federal court, alleging the rental real estate firm ... More >>

Miami New Times Sold! Looks a Lot Like the Old Miami New Times

A quarter-century ago, my old, good buddy Mike Lacey came to Miami and decided to start a weekly paper. He wanted to move here, but a mugger and a prudent wife convinced him cocaine-fueled Miami wasn't the place to raise a family.Today, Lacey bowed out. Along with his partner -- and another guy I co ... More >>

Florida's Kids Can Now Donate The Maximum Amount to Political Campaigns

Just because they can't vote apparently doesn't mean that Florida's children shouldn't be able to donate as much as an adult can to state and local campaigns. A Miami federal judge essentially lifted the two-decade old ban that limited the amount of campaign contributions minors could make, saying t ... More >>

Luke's Gospel: Obamacare Is as American as Apple Pie and Free Speech

Obamacare Is American As Apple Pie and Free Speech

Luther Campbell, the man whose booty-shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. Today, Luke weighs in on Obamacare. As someone who's knows what it's like to fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, I'm very happy for ... More >>

Obama Has a Chance: Federal Judge Blocks Florida Voting Restrictions

A federal judge in Tallahassee this afternoon blocked some of the most severe restrictions of a voter registration law passed last year by the Republican Florida legislature. The law has been severely criticized by opponents as an attempt to limit minority participation this fall's election. It was ... More >>

Rick Scott Still Wants To Drug Test State Workers As Miami Court Hears Challenge

​Never before has America seen a governor so obsessed with forcing other people to pee in cups as our own Rick Scott. Two of the first orders he issued after taking office required welfare recipients and all state employees to urinate into cups -- all to make sure drug fiends aren't secretly infil ... More >>

In 2011, Luther Campbell ran for mayor, sued Nevin Shapiro, and called out rappers

Michelle Bernstein: Magic City Martha Stewart

Bangkok, Phuket, and the Miami Gym Teacher Who Got 15 Years in Prison for Molesting 70 Boys

via Wikitravel.orgPhuket.​After a pedophilia world tour that got him arrested in Thailand in 2006, former Miami gym teacher Charles Todd Stokes has been sentenced in U.S. federal court to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of molesting 70 boys, according to media reports.The Thai tow ... More >>

Robaina promises thousands of jobs for Dade residents

Black Tuna Pot Smuggler Gets Five Years In Prison After Three Decades On The Run

​One of the strangest chapters from Miami's pot-smuggling glory days came to an end in federal court today, when a judge sentenced Mark Steven Phillips -- a long-lost associate of the Black Tuna ring -- to five years in prison. Phillips fled during the gang's infamous 1979 trial and hid under fake ... More >>

Mayor Luther Campbell would tax strippers for the public good

Bikini model tries to sue Luke

Florida Judge Worried Obama Might Make Us All Buy Broccoli

via​A federal judge today began hearing arguments in outgoing Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum's lawsuit against the Federal Government, which alleges that forcing citizens to buy health insurance is unconstitutional. The trial is expected to be an in-depth, mature and scholarly proceeding. ... More >>

Today In Cocaine: Ten Busted in Juarez-to-Miami Ring, Colombian Coke Lord Due In Federal Court

​It's already been a busy week for the drug that made Miami -- or at least for the feds' perpetual war on the white stuff. First, the DEA arrested 10 people, mostly from Miami and Hialeah, and charged them with organizing a ring shuttling coke from Juarez to South Florida.Then came word that a muc ... More >>

China Grill, Prime One Twelve Latest to Be Sued by Ex-Employees for Tip Skimming

China Grill in South Beach is in hot water over a recent lawsuit​When we head to most South Beach restaurants, we customers expect to get fleeced: $200 steaks, $50 sushi rolls, $15 mineral water. But the employees? According to two lawsuits filed earlier this summer, fancy South Beach restaurants ... More >>

Porn Site Cocodorm Loses Latest Round of Legal Battle With City of Miami

​The latest judgment in the ongoing legal battle between Cocodorm and the City of Miami is a bit of a boner killer for your friendly, local gay porn voyeur site.Cocodorm owns a house on 27th Street east of Biscayne Boulevard, a short walk from New Times HQ, where several men, primarily African-Ame ... More >>

Manley Business

Cutler Bay man smuggles cigarettes through the Port of Miami and goes to prison

Republicans Want Fair Districts Initiatives Off Ballot

via FDF​On first glance it seems a little strange that despite the fact Florida is a classic swing-state that currently actually has more registered Democrats than Republicans, that the GOP controls both houses of the state legislative by large majorities and sends more Republicans to the House in ... More >>

Hialeah Boat Captain Gets 3 Years for Human Smuggling

The young Hialeah boat captain caught transporting eight immigrants to Boynton Beach this past January will serve up to three years in prison. U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth A. Marra sentenced 28-year-old Jovel Dominguez-Hernandez to 36 months yesterday for human smuggling. The indictment notes ... More >>

'I Was Cooperating with Evil': A Former Gitmo Prosecutor Sounds off About a Corrupt Process

Two years ago, when Darrel Vandeveld flew to Guantánamo Bay to work as a prosecutor, no one else believed more in the detention camps and all they stood for in the War on Terror.Courtesy Wikimedia Commons"I was totally gung ho," Vandeveld tells Riptide. "I was convinced that we actually had the 'wo ... More >>

Obama's Chief Counsel Dismissed from 'Black October' Case

Two months ago, the New Times brought you the story of the "Black October" legal case in Miami's federal court, where a handful of poor Bolivians are suing Gonzalo "Goni" Sanchez de Lozada and Carlos Sanchez Berzain -- Bolivia's former president and defense minister -- for allegedly leading the mass ... More >>

Florida Supreme Court Takes Three Amendments Off the Ballot

BREAKING NEWS: Liberty City Seven Verdict -- Give up, Mukasey!

New Times Owners Arrested

Mock Trial

Miami’s immigration judges are not interested in your problems

Golden Conflict

This judge has some 'splainin’ to do

BEST HERO

Judge William Hoeveler

BEST JUDGE

William Hoeveler

BEST LOCAL GIRL MADE GOOD

Cecilia Altonaga

Best About-Face

Latin Grammys

Cough It Up

The man who created Josie and the Pussycats can't understand why his girls don't belong to him

Frank Talk About Free Speech

Attorney Victor Diaz chats up the ACLU's Howard Simon

Speak Your Mind, Lose Your Job

Full Metal Racket

Attorney John Mattes led a crusade on behalf of lost commandos. Now he wants his millions.

Stealth Indictment

Bye-Bye, Baba

The King Was Shot but Survived

And now federal proescutors face a daunting challenge: Take down Raul Martinez once and for all

Birds Do It, Bees Do it

But is that any excuse for Matthew Block's lawyer to send Shirley McGreal a card that shows zebras doing it?

Gorilla Warfare: Part 2

Ape trader Matthew Block has been sentenced in the case of the Bangkok Six. But the monkey business continues.

Junkies

It alters perceptions and skews the ability to tell right from wrong. Ultimately, it results in a dysfunctional society. But it's not a drug. It's the War on Drugs.

Gorilla Warfare

Vilified by animal protectionists, indicted for smuggling, praised by the feds. Matthew Block surprised everyone. Maybe even himself.

The Further Adventures of Willy and Sal

Chapter Two, in which the alleged drug kingpins are linked to a cellular telephone smuggled into their unit in the federal pen

Falcon and Magluta

Break a Leg, Sweetheart!

Two local producers say former theater king Zev Bufman also broke the law. Now all they've got to do is prove it.