Kendall Coffey Discusses Consolidation of Marriage Equality Suits in Florida

Motions filed to consolidate gay marriage suits

Motions filed to consolidate gay marriage suits

By Dan Sweeney, Sun Sentinel2:27 p.m. EDT, July 31, 2014

Two same-sex marriage lawsuits currently winding their way through the Third District Court of Appeals may soon be combined into one

Circuit court judges in both Miami-Dade and Monroe counties have struck down Florida's same-sex marriage ban, but both decisions were stayed pending appeals.

"Consoldiating the two cases makes all the sense in the world, not only because of the importance but because of the commonality," said Kendall Coffey, an adjunct professor at the University of Miami's School of Law.

Kendall Coffey is an attorney in Miami and former U.S. Attorney for the Southern Region

• Lawyers for both sets of plaintiffs have filed motions seeking the consolidation and the defendant county clerks have not objected.

Both sets of plaintiffs are also asking the court of appeals to let the case move straight to the Florida Supreme Court because the issues addressed "are of great public importance.''

Such action is "occurs in truly extraordinary cases," Coffey said. He also said the appellate court could also accelerate the speed at which it heard the case.

dsweeney@sun-sentinel.com, 954-356-4605 or Twitter @Daniel_Sweeney

See the story here:  Motions filed to consolidate gay marriage suits

Kendall Coffey Talks Bullies and Prisons on News Max TV

Kendall Coffey appeared on the Steve Malzberg show last week on October 18 to discuss legal cases such as the Rebecca Sedwick suicide in Florida and the California Supreme Court ordering reductions of prison populations.

Malzberg asked Kendall Coffey about the Polk County Sheriff's investigation into the parents of two alleged bullies. Twelve year old Rebecca Sedwick committed suicide last month. It is believed her death was caused by continual harassment from peers, primarily online. Police arrested two girls, 12 and 14, in connection with the case. When parents did not appear to comply with authorities requests to keep the girls off of social media, the sheriff decided to launch investigation into liability of the parents.

While Coffey expressed that the parents involvement is not the best example of parenting, the Florida attorney insisted that no crime has been committed.

She the whole video of Kendall Coffey on The Steve Malzberg Show below 

Billy Martin and Kendall Coffey Analyze the Potential Reaction from the Jury in the Zimmerman Trial

The friend who was on the phone with Florida teenager Trayvon Martin just moments before he was shot and killed finishes two days of testimony in the George Zimmerman murder trial. Key witness Rachel Jeantel spent more than five hours under cross-examination by the defense.

Zimmerman is facing second-degree murder charges and claims he shot Martin in self-defense.

In a recent appearance on MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation,” criminal defense attorney Billy Martin and MSNBC legal analyst Kendall Coffey discuss Rachel Jeantel’s performance on the stand and whether the jury finds her as an unreliable or a sympathetic witness.

In the court of public opinion, people have come to her defense or ridiculed her as she admitted she’s unable to read cursive. Jeantel claims that she wrote the letter with a friend, describing what happened on the night of the shooting and sent it to Martin’s mom several weeks after his death.

Former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey told MSNBC's Al Sharpton, the jury may not be able to relate to Jeantel, but her testimony is consistent.

“What I think the jury is seeing, is somebody who is there, doesn’t want to be there was brought in by a horrific twist of destiny and tragedy to have to talk about what happened in the final minutes of the life of a friend of hers. And who is by and large being truthful and being truthful is a lot more important than sympathetic than any other word when it comes to the key witness for the prosecution,” said Coffey.

Jeantel said that Trayvon Martin used slurs when describing Zimmerman in their final conversation. As a former chief prosecutor in Washington, D.C.'s homicide unit, Billy Martin says the jurors typically look past the language.

“This is not unusual in a homicide case to have vulgar language and activity that people feel and fund uncomfortable. I think a juror and jurors look right through that and look at what are we trying to determine. They’re not trying to see if one was a good person or a bad person. There are facts here. Who was the aggressor? Who had the ability to flee? And who had the gun? I think they’ll look right past these slurs and find the facts that will really help them decide this case."

George Zimmerman Trial Update

A judge has rejected a motion to delay the second-degree murder trial of George Zimmerman, the man facing murder charges in the death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.

According to reports, Zimmerman’s attorneys needed more time to research one of the state’s witnesses. 

Circuit Judge Debra. S Nelson says both sides have had enough time to prepare. Jury selection is set to begin on June 10.

Nelson also denied the state’s third attempt at a gag order on Tuesday as pretrial publicity generated with a court filing by Zimmerman’s attorney. Attorney’s say the teenager’s text messages show he was “hostile” and had been arguing with someone on the day he died.

Judge Nelson ruled that Martin’s text messages and school records are not admissible; however, she left  the possibility open if the defense could show relevance later during the trial.

In an interview on MSNBC’s “Politics Nation,” Former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey says Zimmerman’s attorney is attempting to try the case in the court of public opinion.

“It’s inflammatory, it’s damaging, and frankly potential jurors are going to find it very hard to unsee what they are already seeing on television, the Internet and in newspapers,” said Kendall Coffey.

Prosecutor Paul Henderson says the information could be harmful.

“They only reason that they are including it as evidence that they would like to introduce, when they know that it won’t be introduced, is to try to and taint the jury pool, and to try and change public perception with this information that they have.”

In the interview, Coffey and Henderson discuss the role of the 911 tapes in the case.

Watch the rest of the interview here.

The Modern Employment Dilemma – Zero Job Prospects or Zero Privacy

Kendall Coffey on his Spinning the Law LinkedIn Discussion group

Kendall Coffey

Companies that want to avoid and minimize criticism or high-­profile embarrassment from Facebook and other means are increasingly conducting more thorough background investigations to monitor their employees. As a result, employees should be aware that they may suffer consequences for publishing words they had deemed innocent or private.

While most established companies have a policy or an employee manual that specifically gives the employer full permission to review what its employees are browsing online, this is very different from investigating an employee’s personal Facebook account and penalizing him or her for that content.

Several states are now considering legislation to control this breach of privacy. In the meantime, everyone from student-athletes who risk losing scholarships to prospective employees who risk not getting hired must endure this advanced scrutiny. While companies and employers are jusifiably concerned with protecting their brand, entering someone’s Facebook account provides access to private communications that reveal information on the author’s personal thoughts and viewpoints.

The courts soon might have to rule on whether this is overreaching by employers. With private employers in an at-will state that can terminate an employee for any reason besides an illegal one of discrimination, it is difficult to prevail in a legal challenge, but public employers are subject to a number of Constitutional provisions.

Student-athletes have a stronger position, for example, than a prison guard or law enforcement official because society demands a more exacting scrutiny in certain areas of employment where public security and pubic interest are an issue.

Unless legislation is passed to protect student-athletes and employees from their respective universities and employers, this society will inevitably become one in which public and private information mesh until the lines between them are indistinguishable, bringing us closer to Orwell’s prophetic '1984' state.