Sweetwater Citizens Want Mayor Maroño Back

  In Sweetwater, Florida this week, supporters of deposed mayor Manny Maroño met at City Hall to ask for his return to office.  Maroño's mother Isolina, a Sweetwater City Commissioner and fellow Commissioner Manuel Duasso.  The two city officials said publically that they were only there as private citizens and were not representing the city government.

  Sweetwater is a small town outside of Miami and came into the news recently when Mayor Maroño was arrested on charges of corruption.  Maroño who is represented by Kendall Coffey's firm Coffey Burlington, is accused of partaking in an an undercover FBI scheme to solicit bribes from municipal officials.  The scheme involved signing deals with fake companies to receive federal subsidies.

  Jose Diaz was signed in as the new mayor earlier last month.  Maroño maintains his innocence.

 “We want our mayor back!” they chanted before City Hall.  “We want our mayor back!”

Things heated up when a man taking photos and interviewing demonstrators compared Maroño with former Cuban president Fidel Castro.

“How dare you compare him to a dictator?” some shouted. “Get out of here right now!”

The man left immediately and drove away.

“He is being set up, maybe because of envy or jealousy,” she said, “but for every person criticizing him there are 99 who have good things to say about him.”

“I’m here to support my mayor because he is good to elderly people.  Besides, he has mended the corruption and expelled the gangs. I feel safer now.” One person in the crowd said.

Jorge Guerra questioned Scott’s decision to suspend Maroño, who was one of the governor’s strong men in South Florida.

“Where is the governor now and why doesn’t he support Maroño just like he and the people of Sweetwater helped him in his campaign?” Guerra said. “Maroño should have continued as mayor until proven innocent or guilty.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/27/3589334/sweetwater-residents-gather-to.html#storylink=cpy

5 Legal Cases That Caused Protests

The protestors seeking justice for Trevon Martin over the last several weeks are not alone in causing extreme public reaction.  As a legal analyst and lawyer, Kendall Coffey has analyzed many high profile cases that have led to wide spread public outcry.  Here's a sampling of cases that have gone wild with protest.

In 2000, thousands of Cuban Americans held a shut in protest in reaction to the deportation of Elian Gonzalez.  Hundreds of members of the Cuban American community took to the streets several days beforehand when INS agents came in to remove the boy from the home of his relatives.  Many people followed the case and symbolized it as the problem with the immigration system in the United States.

After the death of Michael Jackson, swarms of mourning fans came to support Jackson or defend his doctor, who was on trial for negligent homicide.  The protests got so out of control that other interest groups showed up as well trying to get in front of the camera.  People carried outrageous signs and wore some pretty ridiculous outfits.  Both the Jackson trial and the Elian Gonzalez case are discussed in Kendall Coffey's Spinning the Law: Trying Cases in the Court of Public Opinion.

When the world searched for missing two year old girl Caylee Anthony, news audiences obsessed over the strange behavior and trial of her mother Casey after remains were found.  When Casey Anthony was acquitted, many angry protestors took to the streets with duct tape over their mouths, referencing the tape found in the child's remains.

One of the most recent protests to stem change happened in Ireland, where the death of a woman who could have been saved by an abortion spurned angry women's right to choose protests.  Ireland recently passed a law that would legalize abortion for the first time.