Judge Keith White was a last minute appointment to the bench by former Governor Charlie Crist and started serving on Feb. 1, 2011. He has been drawing fire from family court advocates ever since for his gross insensitivity to women victims of domestic violence and many of his court decisions validate those claims. White is another in a long line of judicial appointees who come from law firms who litigate for corporate clients. He does have an opponent in his race, Jose Torroella. Torroella is in direct contrast to White. He came to Orlando 25 years ago after graduating from Suffolk University Law School in Boston. He then spent three years as a prosecutor in the Orange/Osceola State Attorney’s Office before opening his own successful criminal defense practice. In his law practice Torroella deals with real people every day, the kind of people who make up a majority of the cases before the Ninth Circuit, and he has developed sensitivity as to how to handle cases involving people.
Below are two recent examples of how White has aroused enmity from community activists:
Homeless woman’s domestic-violence case outrages advocates
Orange circuit judge denied permanent injunction because she didn’t live in a “dwelling unit”
November 12, 2011|By Bianca Prieto, Orlando Sentinel
An earlier version of this story misidentified one of the three judges dedicated to domestic-violence-injunction cases in the 9th Circuit. Circuit Judge Sally Kest is the third judge who handles those cases.
Judith Colanderi woke to find her then-boyfriend’s knee in her chest and his thumbs crushing her throat. A large gash in the back of her head bled profusely where she’d been bludgeoned with a brick.
Colanderi, whose head was repaired with six staples, was granted a temporary domestic-violence injunction against her on-again-off-again boyfriend Christopher Romans.
But when she went to court to get a permanent injunction, it was denied — even though Romans had been arrested and charged with attempted murder as a result of the attack.
“The judge asked me where we lived, and I said we were homeless,” Colanderi, 33, said. “He didn’t even open the file.”
In an action that has outraged advocates for the homeless and battered women alike, Orange Circuit Judge Keith White determined Colanderi didn’t meet the criteria that would allow her a permanent domestic-violence injunction — because the couple never resided together inside a “dwelling unit.”
And White, one of three judges dedicated to domestic-violence-injunction cases in the 9th Circuit, denies immediate injunctions more often than his counterparts. With greater regularity, White opts for “Order Setting Hearings,” which offer the alleged abuser an opportunity to appear before a judge. In those cases, victims remain unprotected while their alleged abusers are notified of the injunction hearing.
Colanderi believed she and Romans were “living together” on a stoop at the First Presbyterian Church in downtown Orlando on the night of the September attack.
White — apparently adhering to the legislative definition of the law — didn’t see it that way.
“I don’t believe that living ‘outside’ [meets] the legislative definition,” White can be heard saying in the audio recording of the short hearing. “I don’t understand how ‘outside’ could ever meet the definition of ‘dwelling unit’ … I just don’t.”
During the final seconds of the 12-minute recording, Colanderi began to cry and said, “He tried to kill me.”
Colanderi later petitioned for an injunction under the dating-violence statute — which doesn’t require the couple to live together — and was granted permanent protection from Romans by another judge.
The complete article can be read at this link.
CourtWatcher: How to re-victimize a victim, Part 1
http://courtwatchflorida.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-to-re-victimize-victim-part-1.html
Last month, the mother of a 15-year old girl filed a petition for injunction for protection against sexual violence on behalf of her daughter. The respondent was their 16-yr old next door neighbor and his father, appearing on his son’s behalf. The teens had never dated. They do not go to the same school. She is home schooled because of physical and mental issues.
After reviewing the explicit allegations in the petition, Judge Keith White granted a hearing which was held earlier this month. So far, so good.
As you might imagine, anyone who has been forcibly raped – orally, vaginally and anally – would be terrified to be in the same room with their perpetrator. To force a teenager (or anyone for that matter) to testify for over an hour about the ordeal because your mother cannot corroborate the actual incident (having not witnessed the crime personally) goes beyond the scope of what is necessary for a civil injunction. Judge White required this girl to go into excruciating detail in spite of the comprehensiveness of the allegations that were in the written petition (caution: graphic language).
Remember, the burden of proof in civil cases is a “preponderance of the evidence,” and not “beyond a reasonable doubt,” as is the requirement for criminal cases.
To make matters worse, the Respondent’s father & the perpetrator laughed at the victim’s allegations and claimed that the sex was consensual (not at all uncommon in these cases). The victim denied consent.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge White told the Petitioner that her job was to meet the burden of proof necessary for him to be able to grant an injunction. You could almost see her holding her breath in anticipation of being denied the order for protection that she so desperately sought.
Judge White, however, did grant an injunction to the girl.
A six month, “no hostile contact” injunction.
So this perpetrator is currently not in violation of the court order if he chooses to contact her, as long as he’s “not hostile” towards her.
For six whole months.
After that, the injunction expires. Unless of course she wants to go back before the same judge and request an extension. How likely do you think she’ll be to do that?
Judge White failed this girl. And he failed to do much to hold the perpetrator accountable for his actions.
Let’s hope that law enforcement and the State Attorney’s Office are able to prosecute this sex offender to the fullest extent possible.
CourtWatcher promises that there is more evidence of White’s poor judgment and that it will be forthcoming upon verification.
