Voters' lawsuits finally get judge

By JEAN HELLER

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 15, 2000

WEST PALM BEACH -- The legendary baseball infield trio, Tinker to Evers to Chance, has found worthy successors.

Trying to find a judge Tuesday to hear a growing pile of lawsuits filed here in connection with last week's presidential election closely resembled the work of the legendary double-play combination assembled nearly a century ago by the Chicago Cubs.

No sooner had the caseload hit the mitt of one judge than it was fired off to another, then another, resembling not so much a baseball as a political hot potato.

When it finally landed in the hands of Circuit Judge Jorge LaBarga, he told Chief Judge Walter Colbath, "These aren't my cases."

Colbath, frustrated at a string of judges who had recused themselves because they thought they had conflicts of interest, said he replied, "They are now."

LaBarga took little time deciding the most pressing of the election-related cases on his docket, questions concerning the certification of the Palm Beach County vote. He ruled that the Canvassing Board could certify by 5 p.m. Tuesday whatever vote it deemed appropriate and could, at any time thereafter, begin a countywide manual recount.

Shortly before that deadline, the board certified its second machine count, and scheduled a hand count to resume at 7 a.m. today. It had been suspended Tuesday out of concerns for its legality.

LaBarga's decision came in the wake of a court ruling that Secretary of State Katherine Harris need not extend a 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline for counties to certify their votes, but could consider amended votes filed later.

LaBarga was thrust into the spotlight after five of his colleagues recused themselves. The parade of opt-outs began Monday when the first judge assigned to the case was accused of making insulting remarks about local voters and Democrats on Election Day.

Next out was a judge who said one of the dozens of attorneys involved in the election cases had once represented her husband.

Then came a judge who said he had been engaged by one of the attorneys in a conversation about one of the election cases, and then a judge who said his father is doing work for the state attorney general involving these cases. After a fifth candidate also disappeared, LaBarga came to bat.

It got so comical that at one point, Colbath, the chief judge, took to the bench to announce that he had determined who would hear the cases, but he couldn't find that judge.

"I have people camped out in his office," Colbath said. "I will have him here."

At the time, LaBarga was in the press room, watching the proceeding on a live feed, unaware that he was the man Colbath was looking for.

When he finally took the bench before a packed house, he set the tone for his term in the spotlight, asking the 70 or more attorneys before him, "You have something for me today?"

And later, when LaBarga asked a lawyer a question, he phrased it this way:

"How do you respond to this -- and I don't know if you feel prepared, but now you know how I feel."

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