The judges who have recused themselves from cases I have been covering continues to grow.
The latest scalp appears to be Judge Ivonne Cuesta of the Miami-Dade County Court.
Judge Cuesta has been presiding over the case of Gabe Shapiro and his ex-wife Patsy Alcantar-Salcido.
I interviewed Gabe along with Megan Fox on June 30, 2021; that broadcast is below, starting about thirty-seven minutes in.
Gabe described how his son disclosed to him that he was being abused his family of his ex-wife's new boyfriend. Gabe said as soon as this happened the system turned against him. Child Protective Services (CPS) did not do a proper investigation, choosing instead to interview his child in the presence of his mother. Then, the CPS caseworker, Derrick Lovett, threatened to testify that Gabe was putting these thoughts into his children's heads.
Gabe was coerced into an agreement which now allows him only sporadic visits, mostly supervised. Cuesta has previously ordered Gabe to pay for Morales, the Guardian ad litem (GAL), and even the attorney the GAL then hired.
Gabe's ex-wife was represented by Dori Foster-Morales, the powerful local attorney who is the outgoing president of the Florida BAR.
Since then, Shapiro and others who I have reported on who are litigants in the Miami-Dade area have had their first amendment rights threatened or even taken away. Check out that article. Below are some of the things Gabe is not allowed to speak about.
The Mother, a private person, has a constitutional right of privacy in Florida to keep her mental health evaluations and diagnoses confidential. (15) The allegations in the Mother’s Verified Emergency Motion for Injunction and the evidence presented at the evidentiary hearing on June 30, 2021 are sufficient to establish good cause, that the Mother and minor children will suffer irreparable injury, loss or damage if a narrowly tailored temporary injunction is not granted pursuant to Florida Law. (16) On August 18, 2020, this Court entered an Agreed Order Appointing Psychologists to Perform Evaluations of the parties and the children. The Court reserved jurisdiction to enforce and/or modify the terms and conditions of the order. Accordingly, this Court orders that all psychological evaluations and the information contain therein are to remain confidential and not be released and/or disseminated by either party and/or their legal representative to anyone. (17) This Court finds that the Mother has met her burden of proof and has determined that this injunction is necessary and that certain limitations must be made on the Father’s rights to disseminate information in this matter. The Court is narrowly tailoring this injunction only as to extra-judicial statements which are substantially likely to materially prejudice a final hearing in this matter and/or impede on the Mother's and minor children's right of privacy. Accordingly, this Court enjoins the Father from disseminating information that he learned from confidential court documents.
That order was signed on July 6, 2021 by Judge Cuesta, but now she is no longer on the case.
The happenings came fast and furious. Shapiro's attorney, Leslie Ferderigos filed a motion to have Judge Cuesta withdraw, but on August 23, 2021, Judge Cuesta denied that motion. That order is below.
But Gabe's attorney quickly filed an appeal with an appeal's court and that appeal is below.FILE_9059 by mikekvolpe on Scribd
In it, Ferderigos states in part, "Prior to substituting new counsel, Catherine Rodriguez, Esq., the Former Husband stated to Ms. Ferderigos that he had to find new counsel because he felt that Judge Cuestas did not like Ms. Ferderigos. Thus, it would prejudice his case by not allowing him impartiality of the Court. Ms. Ferderigos is an out of county attorney, who has an office in Orange County, Florida and not a local MiamiDade county attorney."Post Script
Please check out the previous parts of this Miami-Dade series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4
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