Former City of Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito loses round one in his bid to get his job back...

I'm sure you've all heard by now that former City of Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito has lost his appeal to get his job back before a panel of three circuit court judges.  The opinion was written by none other than circuit court judge Valerie Manno Schurr, check it out...


Expositio Circuit Court Decision


That's all well and good, I don't necessarily agree with the courts findings and I'm sure former chief Exposito will be taking his case to a higher court.

Valerie Manno Schurr

So how about the judge who wrote this opinion, the honorable Valerie Manno Schurr?  From what I've been able to glean from various sources, her rulings have been reversed by higher courts in 45% of her cases that have been appealed.  You have to ask yourself, what kind of judge gets nearly half of her rulings that are taken to appeal reversed?  Does that seem like the hallmark of a judge that knows what shes doing?  Take a look at some of these excerpts from various appeal court rulings against Manno Shurr and judge for yourself...

“the trial court violated a clearly established principle of law and departed from the essential elements of law by indefinitely staying this action.”

Nice.

“There is no competent evidence on either ground adopted by the trial court to support its conclusion..."

LOL.

“trial court abused its discretion...”

DOH!

“we conclude that the circuit court appellate division departed from the essential requirements of the law and deprived State Farm of due process.”

Isn't that special considering that part of Exposito's appeal hinged on "due process"?

As if all that weren't enough, here comes the icing on the cake, everyone remember the two foster kids that were adopted by the Barahona family that were tortured by their foster parents where one sibling was found dead on the side of the road bathed in acid while the other was on the verge of dying? These poor kids suffered untold beatings at the hands of their foster parents, when their biological family tried to take the kids away from their foster parents before the gruesome roadside incident that we all watched unfold on TV, guess who was the judge who denied their pleas and kept the poor kids with their foster parents? You guessed it...

Judge Manno-Schurr denied the children a chance at a safe, normal life when she turned away pleas in 2007 to adopt the twins from their biological uncle and aunt, Isidro and Ana Reyes. Ana is the sister of the father of the twins. They told Judge Manno-Schurr that they could take care of the children, and provided references and financial statements to prove their worthiness.
Yet, Judge Manno-Schurr said no, preferring to keep the siblings in the foster care of the Barahonas. The DCF says that decision was “based on an incorrect assumption by all professionals involved in the case that it would be harmful for children of this age to experience a change in parents.”
When asked why Judge Manno-Schurr didn’t listen to the Reyes couple, their attorney, Steven Grossbard, said, “That is a piece of the puzzle that is not clear to me to this day, and I find it somewhat troubling.”

I guess you can tell by now that I'm somewhat disappointed by the courts ruling in the Exposito case, disappointed but not surprised. Considering the track record of the judge heading the panel, I expected no less. No worries though, I'm sure considering former Chief Exposito's tenacity and Judge Manno Schurr stellar record on appeal, Expo will be back again, take my word for it.