Did A Star-Struck State Judge Show Favoritism Toward Donald Trump?

That's the argument being made in this fun motion for a new trial.

BECK & LEE TRIAL LAWYERS — STATEMENT OF JARED BECK

We did not raise a contemporaneous objection — Florida law recognizes the doctrine of fundamental error. I’ve attached the seminal Florida Supreme Court case on that (Murphy v. International Robotic Systems), but the basic idea is this: when the error at trial is fundamental enough, preservation for appeal requires only that we move for a new trial, which we have done.  Murphy was decided in the context of improper closing argument, and the doctrine has also been applied to improper judicial conduct.

Bear in mind the context of the interaction with Trump: the judge was directing negative comments at Elizabeth and me throughout the trial in front of the jury, including:

(1) gratuitously commenting on the state of our marriage; and

(2) warning that he might throw something at me while I was examining a witness.

These and other relevant episodes are set forth in the Motion for New Trial [see below]. Florida law provides a basic entitlement to litigants to “nothing less than the cold neutrality of an impartial judge,” Vaughn v. Progressive Casualty Insurance Co., 907 So. 2d 1248, 1252 (Fla. 5th DCA 2005), and we just don’t think that standard was met in this case.

After verdict, we found out that the Broward County police delegated to protect Trump actually prevented one of our clients from attending portions of his own trial.  Local TV coverage here:

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http://www.local10.com/news/judge-gets-heat-for-allegedly-giving-donald-trump-star-treatment/25041930

http://www.local10.com/news/donald-trump-not-guilty-in-civil-trial-but-another-lawsuit-looms/24943126

http://www.local10.com/news/donald-trump-testifies-in-fort-lauderdale-civil-trial/24906280

We also feel the evidentiary issue certainly will have traction in the appellate court (if it gets to that).  The judge permitted the Defendants to make the 2008-09 market crash the focus of their defense, and then at the end of the case, recognized that this evidence was irrelevant to our claims (which we had been saying even before trial began).  The jury asked a single question during deliberations indicating that they were inclined to find the advertising misleading but did not find for us on causation — and Defendants’ causation argument was premised entirely on the improper market crash evidence.

Still, in spite of all of this, we believe we were very close to getting a Plaintiffs’ verdict.  The jury deliberated over the course of two days.  The amount in controversy is in the low six-figures combined for both our clients.

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BECK & LEE TRIAL LAWYERS — MOTION FOR NEW TRIAL

3-18-14 Motion for New Trial Deer Valley by southfllawyers

Read the Donald Trump “Star Treatment” New Trial Motion! [South Florida Lawyers]
The Donald Has Landed [South Florida Lawyers]
Judge gets heat for allegedly giving Donald Trump star treatment [Local10.com]