By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER and CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD
Published February 5, 2004
Remember Robert Bonanno?
Bonanno, once a powerful Hillsborough circuit judge with close ties to former chief judge F. Dennis Alvarez, became a by-word for courthouse scandal in July 2000 after a bailiff caught him in the darkened office of fellow judge Greg Holder, who was out of town.
Bonanno claimed he was there to discuss courthouse politics, but a grand jury criticized his "incredible and conflicting" explanations and called for his resignation.
Bonanno stepped down in Dec. 2001 just before a Florida House committee was to consider his impeachment.
Today, Bonanno has re-emerged as an attorney, and is representing a litigant named Emmett Abdoney in a mortgage enforcement case against Janetta York.
Just before a scheduled Jan. 28 hearing before Judge Sam Pendino, York's attorney Anita Brannon spotted Bonanno emerging from the judge's private chambers.
Brannon promptly filed a motion seeking to disqualify Pendino, citing "the appearance of impropriety."
"If there is a friendship which causes Judge Pendino to invite opposing counsel to private meetings prior to scheduled hearings, he should disqualify himself," the motion read. "If there is no such friendship, there is no need for private meetings with opposing counsel before scheduled hearings, as such meetings send a clear message of the lack of impartiality as well as the appearance of impropriety."
In a telephone interview, Bonanno said judicial rules did not forbid conversations between judges and lawyers provided they did not talk about pending cases. "If that were true, it means a judge would never speak to an attorney or litigant about anything," Bonanno said, adding that his conversation with Pendino "had nothing to do with the case."
So what were they talking about?
"That's between him and I," Bonanno said.
The judge will consider the motion for disqualification Tuesday.
REVIEWING JUDGE'S ACTIONS: The National Bar Association has appointed Tampa attorney Warren H. Dawson to a five-lawyer panel that will review a January incident in which an Osceola County judge had a 27-year-old assistant public defender handcuffed.
Circuit Judge Margaret Waller had attorney Kemie King held in contempt and made her sit beside inmate clients in the jury box after a verbal exchange.
Dawson said the judge's move was "very unusual," and said the panel "may be looking to see if it has ever happened before in Florida."
"If I were a young lawyer, I'd want to know about this," Dawson added. "It could scare you out of the profession."
HARD TO BELIEVE: Political consultant Wayne Garcia is the first to admit he is "as cynical and jaded as they come." Years helping with high-profile campaigns in Tampa Bay will do that to you.
A prior career as a reporter doesn't help, either.
But even he couldn't believe "Mama Sue," the woman who cared for his son, Nicholas, the first two years of his life, would kill her husband.
Yet there it was on television and in the newspapers, reports that Tampa day care operator Kenean Bailey - "Sue" and "Mama Sue" to the parents who trusted her with their young children - is in jail on charges that she shot her husband in the head Monday as he lay in their bed at 4325 S Hubert Ave.
"She was tremendous with the children," Garcia recalled. "Nobody could have cared for them better than she did."
Granted, it's been seven years since Garcia's son, now 9, stayed with Mrs. Bailey. But Garcia wonders what could prompt a gentle, churchgoing woman to shoot her husband of 30-plus years.
"He was always around when we left Nicholas there," Garcia recalled. "Just as loving and gentle as she was."
Police can't figure out what motivated Mrs. Bailey, who they say shot her husband and then woke up her daughter with the admission: "I shot your father."
- Got a tip? Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at svansickler@sptimes.com or 226-3373. Christopher Goffard can be reached at goffard@sptimes.com or 226-3337.
