BACDL Newsletter for the Professional Criminal Defense Lawyer Volume VI: First Quarter Issue January-March 2015

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1 B R O W A R D DEFENDER BACDL Newsletter for the Professional Criminal Defense Lawyer Volume VI: First Quarter Issue January-March 2015 BACDL Website: PHONE: [ ] OFFICERS Lloyd Mankes, Esq. President Jason Kaufman, Esq. Vice-President Huda Ajlani, Esq. Treasurer Jason Blank, Esq. Secretary BOARD OF DIRECTORS Seda Aktas, Esq. Barry Butin, Esq. Carlos Canet, Esq. Marla Chicotsky, Esq. Renee Dadowski, Esq. Melissa Donoho, Esq. Edward McGee, Esq. Terrence Moon, Esq. George Reres, Inc. Grant Schwarz, Esq. Guy Seligman, Esq. Teresa Williams, Esq. NEWSLETTER Ira Still, Esq. Editor-in-Chief PAST PRESIDENTS The Hon. Leonard Fleet Ray Sandstrom, Esq. The Hon. Alcee Hastings Robert T. Adams, Esq. Charlie Rich, Esq. Ben Grigsby, Esq. The Hon. Leonard Fleet Alex Siegel, Esq. Norman Kent, Esq. Hilliard Moldof, Esq. William Laswell, Esq. Bruce Lyons, Esq. Michael Wrubel, Esq. Larry Davis, Esq. Deborah Carpenter, Esq. Jeffrey Harris, Esq. David Vinikoor, Esq. Bradley Collins, Esq. Steven Hammer, Esq. James Benjamin, Esq. Michael Tenzer, Esq. Ian Seitel, Esq. The Hon. Raag Singhal The Hon. Charles Kaplan Michael Gottlieb, Esq. Jason Kreiss, Esq. Eric Schwartzreich, Esq. Russell Williams, Esq. Bradford Cohen, Esq. Kenneth P. Hassett, Esq. Ira Still, Esq. PLEASE NOTE: All of the opinions expressed in this Newsletter are exclusively those of the individual authors and/or Editor and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BACDL or any of the members of the Board of Directors. BACDL believes whole heartedly in the First Amendment right of freedom of press as expressed in the Constitution of the United States. Any member wishing to contribute is welcomed to do so.

2 Criminal Defense Lawyer Civil Rights Activist Sued to Establish New North Broward Jail Sued to win the establishment of Covenant House Free Speech; Freedom of the Press Forerunner in the Medical Marijuana Defense since 1973 Radio Talk-Show Host Live from the Flo, it s the Norm Kent Show! Editor of Numerous National Newspapers Including South Florida Gay News Broward Traffic Hearing Officer A Man who always brings Change! Past President of BACDL NORML s President-Emeritus Well known Broward Lawyer; also nationally known in Civil Rights Brooklyn Dodger Baseball Fan Norman Elliot Kent, Esq. 2

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4 Meet Norman Kent, Esq. 12 SE 7 th Street; Suite 709 Ft. Lauderdale, FL norm@normkent.com by Ira Still, Esq. Norman Kent was born in Brooklyn, NY to Jesse and Gertrude Kent. Norm s father, Jesse Kent designed bagel restaurants all up and down University Drive where he designed and established many turnkey businesses before his death. Norm s mom, Gertrude Kent, worked as a secretary for their Temple. Norm has two brothers: Richard Kent lives in Coral Springs and is the General Manager for Aspects Eyewear; his other brother, Alan Kent, is a Psychologist at the University of Denver where he is the Director of Wellness. Growing up in Brooklyn was fun. Norm played stickball in the streets. This was known as a New York City sport until it evolved into full fledged softball. Norm s dad owned several bungalows in the Catskill Mountains and the family began splitting their time between Brooklyn and the Catskills. No wonder Norm grew up loving the Bums that is the Brooklyn Dodgers until they decided to move out to the west coast. Norm s office is a virtual Dodger museum. Growing up, Norm remembers his kitchen sink. The family had hot and cold water faucets plus a real soda machine right there on the sink. It was a kid s dream. Norm s family moved back to Lawrence, Long Island and Norm went to Lawrence High School. After high school, Norm went to Hofstra University. He worked at the radio station, WVHC-88.7 FM, announcing the NY Jets games. He found that this was one of his favorite jobs and still longs to be picked up as a sports announcer. A local newspaper hired Norm to publish a weekly column called Youth Quake. Then his journalism career was launched. Norm heard about a sophomore, Andrew Rifkin, at Massapequa High School who came under siege for a column he had written in his high school newspaper that the authorities didn t much care for. Norm realized that Andrew needed a place to publish his article based on free speech and the First Amendment, so Norm published it for him in Youth Quake. Years later Norm saw the name Andrew Rifkin while he was arguing a case in the 4 th DCA. Andrew had argued earlier that morning and had already left, so Norm looked him up and the two civil rights advocates met up years later via . Norm sent Andrew a copy of the article. Both had become highly successful lawyers. Norman Kent graduated from Hofstra University in 1971 with a B.S in Sociology. He went right on to Hofstra Law School. While there, Norm founded the law school newspaper called The Conscience. He also started the Community Legal Education Project. After Norm graduated with his J.D. from Hofstra in 1975, he took about six months off to get his head together. At that time, it was a very popular thing to do. He left NYC for the mountains of Colorado and lived in a commune in Boulder. There he became a massage therapist. When he returned to New York in 1976, Norm tried his hand as a Stand-up Comedian in Manhattan comedy clubs. He recalls that one of the other comedians at the clubs circuit, Jay Leno, told him, Don t leave your day job. Norm s wit has always been somewhat wry and intellectual. He had fun and learned much about life and social issues. Norm learned a very important lesson firsthand, When you stand up, you stand alone! Norm came to Florida in 1976 as a Professor in Criminal Justice at FAU. He taught there until 1979 when he was admitted into the Florida Bar. Norm moved from full time to part-time teaching at FAU and also part-time at Nova. It was at this point that Norman Kent jumped into civil rights litigation. He filed a very unpopular lawsuit in federal court against the Pompano Jail which had terrible conditions. His litigation led the county to build a brand new jail. After all the flack he received over his law suit, once the jail was built all the County Commissioners came out to be seen cutting the ribbon and patting themselves on the back for their new and modern jail building. Norm Kent from that time on was known as the radical lawyer. In 1982, Norm sued the State of Florida for spraying the marijuana fields with a strong pesticide called Paraquot. This was meant to kill the local grown pot plants, but it was also injuring and killing people. Meanwhile Norm noticed that there were an enormous number of youth collecting on Ft. Lauderdale Beach. These were run- 4

5 aways. They were children who were homeless and unprotected. The City of Ft. Lauderdale began sweeping up the children and forcing hundreds of them into small rooms with no A/C. Norm Kent filed a class action law suit against HRS to put an end to Ft. Lauderdale s no probable cause arrests. His litigation was successful and when he attracted Father Bruce Ritter from New York City things began to change on the beach. The Catholic Church opened a home called Covenant House that is still in operation to this day. There run away children could be housed, fed, clothed and otherwise protected during their difficult struggles with growing up. The leader of the fight for a Run-Away Shelter was civil rights activist, Norm Kent. When Norm first came to Florida, he recalls that the Broward County Law Library was on the 4 th floor of the old courthouse (then referred to as the new building). You could find there a 16 x 24 photo plaque of all the members of the Broward County Bar Association. Curiously, they were all white men. How things have changed for the better in just a few short years! Norm urges, Just look around and you will quickly find the burning social, civil rights issues of the day. Don t be afraid to stand up for what is right, even though you will likely stand alone. In the early 1980 s the City of Ft. Lauderdale passed an anti-obscenity law. Norm sued to keep the adult bookstores open under the theory of basic freedom of the press. In became a chaotic waste of the city s time and energy. Norm warned them, You are defying U.S. Supreme Court decisions that such businesses were legal. It was a hotly contested time in this county s history. Politicians were photographed at the shooting range firing handguns and implying they were tough against obscenity. Thanks to law suits by Norm Kent and others, look how things have changed in a few short years. Today, all a person needs to do is type into Google the word porn and it is all over the place. Norm didn t start it nor did he ever say it was good; just that it was legal and the government was trampling over individual rights of citizens. Norm was dubbed radical lawyer. Norman Kent first became connected with an organization based out of Washington, D.C. that was begun by Keith Strope called NORML. Norm didn t only get involved because the organization had his name in it. He got involved because he saw the benefits of personal use of the historical plant, Marijuana. Norm realized the growing civil rights issue in working to reform the marijuana laws. In the early 1970 s the Washington, D.C. Police Chief announced there would be no more arrests for the personal recreational use of pot. Norm Kent joined forces with Keith Strope. Since then Norm has been National Chairman of the Board NORML since Today he is retired and known by NORML as President Emeritus. Norm has been actively involved in constitutional amendments and drafting legislation in every single state that has adopted medical Marijuana amendments all the way to complete legalization of marijuana. Throughout the 1980 s Norm has championed the legal defense of medical marijuana extolling the virtues as well as human right to the use of marijuana during Chemotherapy and for conditions such as Glaucoma and seizures where the medical benefits of the plant are well documented. In 1987, Norm Kent went on the radio doing a talk show that aired midnights. It was WFTL-1400 AM. The station was scrapping all of its programming except they wanted the Norm Kent show and they moved it to mornings. Norm says, When the GM asked me to do a show, I figured it was as a sports announcer. But he wanted me because I was a known civil rights lawyer. He wanted a talk show. Norm did this show for about 10 years and did 4-hours per day. The show was called Weekday Legal and it was broadcast live from the Floridian Restaurant on East Las Olas Blvd. It always started with the quip, Live from the Flo, it s the Norm Kent Show. Norm would do live interviews. This worked because so many local lawyers went there for breakfast. He would just look around to see who was there and call the person up for a spontaneous interchange over the air. Norm would call up Dave Bogenshutz and other well known local lawyers to talk on the air and give their opinions. Out of this grew a show that Norm did with lawyer (now Miami Judge) Al Millian. Al s dad had been into radio and so Al jumped in for lively battles between himself as a very conservative thinker and Norm Kent the wild liberal. At times our talk show almost went to punches right on the air. Norm recalls this as terrific radio and journalism at its best. In 1989, Norm won the National Championship of Fantasy Baseball out of 1800 participants. The following years, during the 1990 s, Norm s attention was drawn to his own personal battles against cancer. He finally beat the cancer. Now Norm has made a comeback in journalism through his multiple nationally prominent newspapers, one of which is called South Florida Gay News. In 2002, Norm Kent was listed by the Sun Sentinel as being among the top Power Brokers in Ft. Lauderdale. To this Norm says, Unfortunately, half the people on that list have been indicted! Fortunately, I have not been! The Broward County Commission named November 18, 2004 as Norm Kent Appreciation Day in thanks for his many civil rights contributions over his career. 5

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