Ben Kruidbos

"Ben Kruidbos, the IT director for the Florida State Attorney's Office who'd spoken up when important cellphone evidence he'd extracted from Trayvon Martin's cellphone was withheld by the state from the defense, was fired by messenger at 7:30 PM Friday, after closing arguments in the Zimmerman case. He was told that he could not be 'trusted to set foot in this office,' and that he was being fired for incompetence. Kruidbos had received a merit pay raise earlier this year. The firing letter also blames him for consulting a lawyer, an obvious sign of evil."

Proposed ABA Code of Ethics

Members of the IEEE (Engineers) are ethically required to correct errors.  The IEEE Code of Ethics is available at http://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/governance/p7-8.html  .  The major change in adapting it for lawyers was removing the decision making responsibility which was mentioned as the first part of #1.

We, the members of the ABA, in recognition of the importance of our laws and regulations in affecting the quality of life throughout the world, and in accepting a personal obligation to our profession, its members and the communities we serve, do hereby commit ourselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree:

 

1.    to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the public or the environment;

2.    to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest whenever possible, and to disclose them to affected parties when they do exist;

3.    to be honest and realistic in stating claims or estimates based on available data;  

4.    to reject bribery in all its forms;  

5.    to improve the understanding of law; its appropriate application, and potential consequences;  

6.    to maintain and improve our legal competence and to undertake legal tasks for others only if qualified by training or experience, or after full disclosure of pertinent limitations;  

7.    to seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge and correct errors, and to credit properly the contributions of others;  

8.    to treat fairly all persons and to not engage in acts of discrimination based on race, religion, gender, disability, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression;

9.    to avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by false or malicious action;  

10.  to assist colleagues and co-workers in their professional development and to support them in following this code of ethics.

 

Engineers are not particularly appreciative of having (not so technical) errors pointed out to them but learn to tolerate it gracefully.

Fair and Equitable Distribution of Assets

Should a 75-year-old Man Be Able to Keep What He Has Earned?

I was much more interested in Gloria Steinem than Bella Abzug but I did support equal opportunity for everyone.

I attended the Republican Convention that nominated George Allen for Governor.  I got involved through the efforts of Ann  of the Republicans for Choice movement.  I was more anti-Government involvement in family matters than I was FOR a woman’s right to choose.

I am now involved in a dispute with my ex-spouse over alimony and a fair and equitable distribution of assets.  I share the 5^th District Court of Appeals with Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman.

That Court has remanded my case to the lower court.

Florida is a “no fault” state and I have been told by practicing lawyers that “the law is gender blind.”

Florida’s Dissolution of Marriage process is so bad that the Florida House and the Florida Senate passed a major alimony reform bill.  Under pressure from who knows where, Governor Scott vetoed it.

Everybody now knows much more about the veracity of lawyers than I did 5 years ago.  Obama lied.  Debbie Wasserman Schultz lied.  Diane Baccus-Horsley lied.  I thought the Judge could tell that $28,800 a year and $4,000 per month were not the same.

There were so many errors in BaccusHorsley’s closing that I could not easily figure out what to object to or complain about.  Other than the stereotypical no good male narrative (with which I disagreed of course), there was little in her closing.

I identified 45 false assertions in her closing.  She acknowledged one as a scrivener’s error.  These out and out lies were not adepuate justification for the Florida BAR to discipline Ms. Baccus-Horsley.

Judge Charles J. Roberts of the 18^th Circuit Court in Brevard County Florida found concerning income:

“8  INCOME:  The Court has determined the income of the parties as follows

A)     Respondent/Husband’s monthly income

a.       Social Security

b.      Zzz

c.       …

B)      Petitioner/Wife’s monthly income

a.       Social Security

b.      Zzzz

c.       …

C)      There is great disparity in the income and assets of parties.  The Respondent/Husband has 82% of the family income and the Petition/Wife has 18%”

My reading of the Florida statutes says that the Judge is supposed to come up with a fair and equitable distribution of assets before he addresses any possible need for alimony.

Judge Roberts was so misled by Ms. Baccus-Horsley that he did not do that.

From the beginning, I have stressed to my lawyer that I was only interested in a Fair and Equitable distribution of assets.  She thought that she and I might have a difference of opinion about that.  I was willing to acknowledge that “Fair and Equitable” is a little open to interpretation.

With equal rights and equality for women taken into account, a reasonable interpretation of “Fair and Equitable Distribution of Assets” would be in the same proportion as they were earned with the premarital and nonmarital stuff set aside.

Beyond Reasonable Doubt

Natural Law has the highest Standard

 The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the highest standard of proof is grounded on "a fundamental value determination of our society that it is far worse to convict an innocent man than to let a guilty man go free."

In hypothesis testing, Type I error is to reject the test hypothesis when it is indeed true.  Type II error is to accept the test hypothesis when some other (including unknown) hypothesis is the true one.

Area/Domain	Criterion
Natural Law	Greater than 5 sigma (>.999999)
Technology	.9999
Social science	Elegant experimental design and hypothesis testing
Operational Test and Evaluation	Greater than 95%
Political science/polling	+/-3%  (95% Confidence Level)
Florida Law
Nation	<100*[1 – (1000)/(#Decisions)]

 

Most surveys have a ninety five percent confidence level.  There’s  a one in twenty possibility that the overall public opinion doesn’t fall within the estimated margin of error.