August 12, 2024 • 25 mins
Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer Jeff Adelman welcomes his former supervisor at the Public Defender's Office, Johnny Weekes Esq. to the program. Mr. Weekes is running for Circuit Court Judge in Broward County, Group 38. Early voting is open NOW and the election date is Tuesday August 20, 2024. Jeff asks Johnny about his legal career and experience, and why he wants to service as Circuit Court Judge, Group 38. In addition to what his approach will be from the bench, he also talks about how he got into law and the importance of spending time with his family. For more information about Johnny Weekes's campaign, go to www.FriendsofWeekes.com . If you would like more information about this program, contact Jeff Adelman at jeff@lawbni.com. You can additionally watch this interview on YouTube https://shorturl.at/p0W0w
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello, and welcome to another edition of Questions for Lawyers
and Candidates. I'm your host Bord certified civil trial lawyer,
Jeff Adelman. This is a very special episode for me
personally because I'm going to get an opportunity to interview
my friend Johnny Weeks, who I've known for my entire
(00:23):
career and actually gave me my first trial when as
a certified legal intern at the Public Defender's Office. Johnny
has been a criminal defense attorney for over twenty years,
very well known in the community, and he is running
for judge in Broward County. Johnny, So glad to see
(00:47):
you and thanks for being with me.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Always great to see you again, Jeff. Those were the
good old days, weren't they.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
They Sure were? They sure were. We have some good times,
no doubt. Well, the election is August twentieth, and early
voting has opened I think as of this weekend, so
right now the election's going on. Johnny, can you tell
the audience what inspired you to run for judge?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Well, as you know, my ex wife, Maria Weeks was
a judge and I really really helped out in her
campaign six years ago. I used to be a public
defender twenty four years ago, and I did that for
approximately four years. I really like giving back to public service.
I think that that's really my calling. My dad was
(01:38):
a former retired Navy captain, my mom was a teacher,
so I think that that just falls in line with
our family. And now that I've been a criminal defense
attorney for twenty years after the public Defender's office, I
think it's about time that I give back. And there's
a couple of things that happened in the courthouse in
(01:59):
reference my particular opponent that really draw drew my attention
to that race. And I think that better judges need
to be on the bench. And I think that my experience,
along with my temperament and just my utter respect for
other individuals, really makes me the better candidate to be
(02:21):
in that spot.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
What are some of the things in particular that bothered
you that that decided that made you decide to jump
in the race.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, I think what really the initial The initial issue
that I had with my opponent was the fact that
I was asking for a defense continuance on a case
that which she had moved to a particular day that
I was unavailable. She moved into a Monday and as
she moved into Monday, she said it for trial, which
(02:55):
and as you remember Jeff back in the day, that
happens all the time. I mean, this is my job
and I have to be available. And I understood that,
but I think family comes first, and I think that
I was on vacation with my kids. My son is
a big lacrosse player, and the vacation was about thirty
days out, but it wasn't really a truly vacation. He
(03:15):
was playing lacrosse up in South Carolina, And so I
sent in a couple motions to continue saying, I'm going
to be with my ex wife, who happened to practice
next to this particular judge, Judge Moon in the courtroom,
doing the same type of law. In fact, my ex
wife used to cover for her all the time. And
(03:36):
I said, we're going to be as a family because
we are very close, we're almost best friends, and we
have kids, and I think that's really important to keep that.
And we're going to be as a family up in
South Carolina at this lacrosse tournament. But our fight for
Jet Blue doesn't come back until early Monday morning, so
I was asking it for a continuance Initially I asked
just for a normal continuance, which would be a month
(03:58):
or so. Wet I was denied, totally understand. So then
send in the paperwork again. I put my ticket in there,
my x Y used to ticket my kids tickets in
there from Jeff Blues showed how far back they went back.
And I said, can I have till one o'clock that
day because I think I'd land at like ten thirty,
I'd get there as fast as possible. Denied, And I've
(04:20):
sent in another motion and I asked to have it
at least at eleven. Can I come in at eleven?
And that again was denied. Well, that's our job, and
so that happens. I wasn't happy about it, but you know,
I gotta walk in and do my job and fight
for my client because my client's number one. So I
showed up at nine o'clock in the morning with numerous
(04:41):
other lawyers that are there because all the trials are
set at a certain time, there's not a specific time
that each trial gets. And we waited and we waited
and we waited, and then the judges JA, which is
the secretary, walks out and says, so the judges coming
in late today, she's on a plane coming back from Pitts.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Oh mind, okay, And she.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Didn't take the bench until about eleven twenty, and I
was furious. I was absolutely furious that her time was
more important than my kid's time.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Well, I think I was gonna say all of us,
you know, we are trying to do what's best for
our clients. But I think that we all are allowed
to have lives. At least I would like to think
that we can. And there has to be some you know,
at least some understanding. I guess my question is, with
(05:39):
you being a twenty four year veteran of criminal defense,
what do you what understanding do you bring to the
bench if you're so lucky to be selected to serve
as a judge.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Well, let me just go back to Jeff, because I
think that me having that bad experience, I don't think
that Dick takes an individual. So I mean, just because
I had that one bad experience, I really looked in
to see if she's treating me like this, and I'm
well respected in the legal community in Brower County, what
is she doing to other lawyers, other people that are
(06:16):
unrepresented in court? Right? Is she following the law. And
I think that's the major issue, and that's why I
decided to go back to your first question, why did
I decide to put into this particular race, Because she's
not treating people with respect, and it doesn't make a
difference what color, what race you are, what gender you are,
(06:36):
whether or not you're represented by a lawyer or not
represented by a lawyer. That court room is fundamentally unfair,
and there's stats to prove it. The stats that are
there to prove it. She runs the Division of Domestic Violence,
which is the Restraining Order Court, and her colleague who's
(06:57):
directly next door to her, Judge Kaplan, they're on the
bench the same amount of time in reference to that
six year period time in the window. So I'm looking
at stats that are almost identical that you would say,
what have they done together? And she's been reversed by
the Fourth DCA five times as many times as Judge
(07:19):
Kaplan has and the fourth dCas in their opinions, have
continually told her you need to follow the law. We've
told this court numerous times to follow the law. So
when you see things like that, and then you get
the stories from other lawyers about what she's done in
court and how she's treated individuals, and they're just overwhelmed.
(07:41):
I mean, they're just stories after stories. I could go
on for hours and tell you individual stories. Then I
think that there comes a time that there needs to
be a change. So that's why I'm here to get
to your last question of what can I bring to
the table. Well, the first thing I'm going to bring
is respect into court. I'm going to put the family first, right,
(08:02):
and I'm going to put the people that are before
me first in that particular courtroom if I'm decided that,
if I'm assigned to that courtroom. What's interesting about that
is most of those people have never been to court before.
Its first time. They're scared. Fifty to sixty percent of
them don't have lawyers, right, And it's not my job
(08:25):
as a judge to educate them. But I don't need
to be disrespectful to them. I don't need to hold
their hand, but I need to make sure that they
understand the process and understand that they're citizens of Broward
County and I'm there to make sure that I have
polled the law and make sure that they have a
fair shake in it. And if there's any way that
(08:48):
I can do that, I'm going to get it done.
So I think that that's why I'm doing this. I
think that that's what I bring to the table. My experience,
I think is of a of all the better candidate.
I come from a background of military service at the
Virginia Military Institute, in which I graduated from VMI in
(09:08):
nineteen ninety seven. I then started off as an intern
of the Public Defender's Office, which what you did. I
stayed there for four years and then I opened up
my own criminal defense firm. But owning your own law
firm is extremely difficult. If I can do that, I
can do almost anything. You have to bring in clients
every day. You have to make sure that you're well known.
(09:31):
I have not advertised in twenty years, and I think
that says a lot. It says that people will repeat customers,
or I'm known in the community that I do the
right thing and I treat them right. One of the
best things I think I do in the community is
I make sure that my phone is always available, so
every single one of my clients, whether or not it's
a quick question for a legal issue, or whether or
(09:53):
not it's a brand new client on a new attempted
murder case, I pick up my phone calls, I make
sure that they know that they're important to me, and
that's the same thing that I would do in the
court that these individuals their issue before me is very
important and I take the most respect and importance for
(10:13):
their issue at that particular time.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Well, Johnny, the thing that stands out to me, and again,
I've known you a long time with me and other
certified legal interns, young attorneys, you were so patient. I
saw your patients with your clients, and I know that
you have to have that as a criminal defense attorney.
Can you explain why that's so important?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Well, a lot of my clients, I mean, yes, I
do some major major crime cases, all right, but a
lot of my clients are first time offender DUI cases
or first time offender domestic violence cases and either they're
wrongly accused or we try to work out the best
particular plea for them. And I think that if you
(11:00):
approach those individuals that have a bad attitude or not
give them the time, then you're just doing them a disservice.
And I think that they're calling you at their worst
time in their lives. I mean a criminal defense attorney.
If you need a criminal defense attorney, that phone call
or trying to find a criminal defense attorney, it's it's
(11:22):
not a good feeling. I make jokes about it, but
I relate it to really finding a good car mechanic,
because when your car goes down immediately, right then and there,
you need somebody immediately to come fix it. And sometimes
you get the run around. You don't get those good attorneys.
And I think that as when you call my office
as a criminal defense attorney, I'm there, I give you
the answers, I calm you down, I tell you it's
(11:44):
going to be okay, right, and then I make sure
that I systematically fix the issue.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
So you know, did you always want to be a lawyer, Johnny?
And we've never really talked about that.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Well now, I played really really serious soccer growing up,
and I always wanted to play professional soccer. I went
to VMI on a soccer scholarship, and I broke my
tid fip much like Joe thisman did back in the
late nineties. After I got my leg fixed, that kind
of ended my soccer career and it kind of opened
(12:17):
me up to other things. And a couple judges from
Virginia had some good judge friends down here in Fort Lauderdale,
which is the honorable Frank Orlando who's passed away and
now his son's a judge, Mike Orlando, on the bench.
And they kind of guided me and kind of pushed
me in the right direction of what I should do
going to the Public Defender's office. He got me a
job at Al Schreiber, who then turned out to be
(12:40):
Howard Finkelstein after Al left. But those individuals were really
great guiding lights to where I should be and what
road I should go down. So, and you know I'm
believer or not. I think I'm very good with the people,
and I like to talk to them. I take the
time with it, and I should think that shows by
picking a jury. And I love as you say, Jeff,
(13:02):
I love to educate and I like to show. I
have a lot of interns still, even though I'm not
in the Public Defender's Office anymore. They come in this summer,
I had about six or seven. I love for them
to see what I do, whether or not laws or
right path. But understand that, like most people think, the
defense attorneys are just there to deal with certain types
(13:22):
of individuals, and it's really a little bit more than that.
It's sometimes in the juvenile court system, it's giving those juveniles,
you know, a father figure that they don't have, sometimes
giving them the right path to go down, trying to
get them out of not becoming one of my clients
in the adult system. So you know, those those those
(13:44):
are the good cases. Those are the cases that really
make me smile. The cases in which I had a
client called me yesterday and I saved him on a
very very very serious first degree fella in the cases
and he was like, mister Weeks, you saved me six
years ago. I would love to work the polls for you.
And I said that would be great. This is where
I need you and I appreciate that. So I have
(14:05):
a very strong base out there. And as my dad
told me, if you have ten clients, excuse me, if
you have one client that you do a really good
job for, that's ten clients that you're going to have
over their lifetime. If you just keep multiplying that, that
will make you a very very good lawyer. And I
think I can bring that same thing as a judge.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Very good advice. What type of community involvement. Do you have, Johnny,
I know you've been a longtime member of the Broward community.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah. Well, as you know, Jeff, we have twins, Marie
and I. We they are thirteen, so like and you
have kids, and they kind of thirteen years ago. That
started a whole different life. Before that, I gave back
to the program that Judge Orlando started in Broward County,
which is called Focie or A that was a youth
(15:01):
program in which brought kids that were doing bad in
school and kind of gave them a different outlook and
different school environment. And I was on the board for
there for about three or four years, and then my
kids came around, and then I started coaching lacrosse. And
because I played high school and college lacrosse as well
at VM I I thought I could give back there.
(15:23):
So I've been coaching lacrosse for the last since my
son was five, so probably the last eight or nine years.
You know. Obviously I help out with my daughter, who
plays big time soccer as well. But I like giving
back to the community that way. I like giving back
giving my time up every other day or every day,
(15:45):
doing the weekends on the sporting activities. I think that
that really if the kids are in sports, then they're
not down at certain areas, they're not the mall, They're
not gonna get in trouble. And that's that was my
That's the way I think I've helped out the community
the best.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
It's got to be very rewarding, especially with your athletic
background too, to be able to, you know, give some
of your knowledge from your years playing soccer and other
sports as well. What other things do you like to
do for fun these days?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Well, I mean I love the paddle board. I really
like that, and I mean candidly, even if I'm not coaching.
This summer, I was able to follow my son and
my daughter, my daughters in a couple of different camps
and a couple different tournaments. My sons, we were at
ten different hotels this summer. We joke about it now,
from Long Island to Pennsylvania, Philly to Hershey, Pennsylvania, which
(16:43):
obviously had some chocolate there, you know, Maryland, Virginia. And
I just love watching them play sports. That's my fun.
I mean, my kids are everything to me right now.
I'm gonna be sad in five years when they turn
eighteen and whether or not they play sports. They don't
play sports, but I just love watching them. I love
being around them. We also love to go to roller
(17:04):
coaster parks around the country and across the world. Last
summer we went to four different roller coaster parks in Europe.
That stuff, for me is fun. They love it. You know.
My son is very excited a bit about Halloween hornites
coming up. That's his that's one of his favorite things
to do. I think there's a countdown on his phone.
(17:25):
I love it too. It scares me, but I love
it too. And that's that. Just hanging out with his
family really brings out the fun in me. That's my fun.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah, well, it's funny the things that you end up
doing that maybe you wouldn't do otherwise, some of your
favorite things, just because you're getting to experience it with
your with your kid. So absolutely I feel you might
my uh, my son just turned eighteen, So that was
that hit me a little bit there. Let me ask
(17:53):
you this, just a little bit, a little bit of law,
your views on voir deer and you know, time for reselection.
You know a lot of my colleagues are always concerned
about being cut off for what deer and not getting
enough time. What are your feelings on that.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
He candid with you. I feel your pain there because
I think when I'm picking some serious, serious murder cases,
first degree hid not being cases and things like that,
I think each lawyer, the State Attorney's office, which is
obviously the state of Florida, and a defense attorney should
be given as much time as they possibly need. Now,
(18:33):
a judge is supposed to be, as they say, calling
balls and strikes the referee in the courtroom. Okay, if
they're asking the same question over and over again, then
obviously we need to move on. But I think that
there there's a when you're picking certain individuals that lawyers
know nothing about in the void air process, and you're
(18:56):
doing that without the ability to look into them back
in the day and maybe look up where they're from
and their social media and things like that, and you
get those jurors, sixty jurors within five minutes before the
jury panel starts. I think you should have the opportunity
to ask them as many questions as possible, as long
as it takes to make sure that you are protecting
(19:18):
your client sister interests, just as well as the State
Attorney's Office is protecting the state of Florida, and just
as well as the plaintiffs or the defense is representing
them in civil cases. So I think that it's a
disservice if you don't give them the time appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Can you tell me some of the endorsements you received
for your campaign.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Believe it or not, I've been endorsed by a lot
of people. I did not think that because I'm running
against the sitting judge that I would get so many endorsements.
I've been endorsed by the FOP, the PBA, AYUPA, and
the firefighters. I mean, those are four massive endorsements coming
from a defense attorney's point of view in which I
(19:58):
every day argue with some police officers on the stand.
That says a lot. That says that they respect me
and that like I don't pull any tricks and I
go by the book and I follow the law, and
I think that that's a real tentiment to my service
as a lawyer that I can the other side that
(20:19):
I fight every day in court is saying support this candidate.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
That's high praise right there. I mean, when you that's
quite a compliment to say the least. And how many
cases have you tried?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Johnny. See. It's interesting because a lot of lawyers at
these forums say I've tried over one hundred cases. Well,
I'm well passed that. I probably tried over one hundred
cases when I was at the PDS office just in
those four years. So and obviously I've been doing this
twenty four years. I don't even want to put a
number to it, but I mean it would be well
over probably three or four hundred. I mean, if you
(20:55):
add in all my juvenile cases in front of judges alone,
without juries, if you add in all my misting innercases
without juries, it's a lot. It's a lot. But it's
been every single one of them. I can look back
and it's just it's been a wonderful experience. I mean,
there's some heartbreaks to a lot of them. I always
look back on the cases that I lost. I remember
(21:18):
those individuals' names, probably a lot better than the ones
I won. But that being said, you know, I never
stopped fighting for them, and I make sure that even
if it goes all the way to the fourth DCAA,
that I make sure that if I really really believe
that some injustice was done, that I'm going to make
sure that I try to fix it.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Johnny, I've really enjoyed talking with you. We could probably
do this for a little bit longer, but so like
so much, the audience will listen to me, so not you.
Is there anything else that you would like to tell
voters as they go to the polls and why they
should consider you to be the next judge for thirty eight?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Well, I am running for Group thirty eight. I would
indicate to the voters that as of right now, the
voter count is very very low. As on Friday, excuse me,
Saturday and Sunday this past weekend, when I was helping
run Maria's campaign, it was twenty five thousand people each
day so far. On Saturday there was two thousand, seven
(22:20):
hundred voters and on Sunday two one hundred voters. That's
a grand total of less than five thousand for two days. Today,
Because obviously school starts today and probably until Friday or Saturday,
those numbers are going to be lower. So it's for
Brower County that has close to over a million people
(22:41):
that live here, for having only two thousand people vote
to day, that doesn't say a lot. And your race
is your local races, your judges, your state house representatives,
your clerk ac court. Those are more important sometimes than
the big races, and a lot of people just don't
(23:01):
remember that. I mean, these races affect if you ever
go to court. These races affect whether or not you
like the clerk. These races affect whether or not you're
paying your taxes, and those affect the individuals in Brower County.
And I know we have a big race coming in November,
but let's try to see if we can try to
make change now for our own county. And I think
(23:22):
that that's important absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
I tell people that all the time. You know, there's
always the national races, but the stuff that affects you
on an everyday basis, local races, judges, and don't skip
those races. They're really really important. Well, if anybody would
like to get more information about Johnny Weeks and his campaign,
(23:47):
where can they go?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Well, they can get to Weeks of Friendsofweeks dot com.
They can look on my Instagram page, which is all
in a week's work, all al underscore in underscore a
underscore weeks w E E K E S And you
can always call me. My cell phone is available for
(24:11):
anyone nine five, four, six, five two nine seven one
one give me a call. I pick up all my calls,
just like I indicated earlier on my clients call me
every day. You can have my number as well. Call
me if you have any questions at all.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I appreciate that. For those who are listening and don't
have a visual, the website is Friends of Weeks w
E E K E S dot com. Want to make
sure we get it right so people aren't searching under
the wrong spelling. Johnny, it was absolutely a pleasure speaking
with you, as it always is. Early voting is open
(24:45):
right now. Election day is August twenty twentieth.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Encourage you to.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Get out there and vote and support my friend Johnny
Weeks for Judge of the thirty eighth Division.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Good singeing you, Johnny, always a pleasure. Thank you very much, Jef.
Have a great day you too,
Hello, and welcome to another edition of Questions for Lawyers
and Candidates. I'm your host Bord certified civil trial lawyer,
Jeff Adelman. This is a very special episode for me
personally because I'm going to get an opportunity to interview
my friend Johnny Weeks, who I've known for my entire
(00:23):
career and actually gave me my first trial when as
a certified legal intern at the Public Defender's Office. Johnny
has been a criminal defense attorney for over twenty years,
very well known in the community, and he is running
for judge in Broward County. Johnny, So glad to see
(00:47):
you and thanks for being with me.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Always great to see you again, Jeff. Those were the
good old days, weren't they.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
They Sure were? They sure were. We have some good times,
no doubt. Well, the election is August twentieth, and early
voting has opened I think as of this weekend, so
right now the election's going on. Johnny, can you tell
the audience what inspired you to run for judge?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Well, as you know, my ex wife, Maria Weeks was
a judge and I really really helped out in her
campaign six years ago. I used to be a public
defender twenty four years ago, and I did that for
approximately four years. I really like giving back to public service.
I think that that's really my calling. My dad was
(01:38):
a former retired Navy captain, my mom was a teacher,
so I think that that just falls in line with
our family. And now that I've been a criminal defense
attorney for twenty years after the public Defender's office, I
think it's about time that I give back. And there's
a couple of things that happened in the courthouse in
(01:59):
reference my particular opponent that really draw drew my attention
to that race. And I think that better judges need
to be on the bench. And I think that my experience,
along with my temperament and just my utter respect for
other individuals, really makes me the better candidate to be
(02:21):
in that spot.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
What are some of the things in particular that bothered
you that that decided that made you decide to jump
in the race.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, I think what really the initial The initial issue
that I had with my opponent was the fact that
I was asking for a defense continuance on a case
that which she had moved to a particular day that
I was unavailable. She moved into a Monday and as
she moved into Monday, she said it for trial, which
(02:55):
and as you remember Jeff back in the day, that
happens all the time. I mean, this is my job
and I have to be available. And I understood that,
but I think family comes first, and I think that
I was on vacation with my kids. My son is
a big lacrosse player, and the vacation was about thirty
days out, but it wasn't really a truly vacation. He
(03:15):
was playing lacrosse up in South Carolina, And so I
sent in a couple motions to continue saying, I'm going
to be with my ex wife, who happened to practice
next to this particular judge, Judge Moon in the courtroom,
doing the same type of law. In fact, my ex
wife used to cover for her all the time. And
(03:36):
I said, we're going to be as a family because
we are very close, we're almost best friends, and we
have kids, and I think that's really important to keep that.
And we're going to be as a family up in
South Carolina at this lacrosse tournament. But our fight for
Jet Blue doesn't come back until early Monday morning, so
I was asking it for a continuance Initially I asked
just for a normal continuance, which would be a month
(03:58):
or so. Wet I was denied, totally understand. So then
send in the paperwork again. I put my ticket in there,
my x Y used to ticket my kids tickets in
there from Jeff Blues showed how far back they went back.
And I said, can I have till one o'clock that
day because I think I'd land at like ten thirty,
I'd get there as fast as possible. Denied, And I've
(04:20):
sent in another motion and I asked to have it
at least at eleven. Can I come in at eleven?
And that again was denied. Well, that's our job, and
so that happens. I wasn't happy about it, but you know,
I gotta walk in and do my job and fight
for my client because my client's number one. So I
showed up at nine o'clock in the morning with numerous
(04:41):
other lawyers that are there because all the trials are
set at a certain time, there's not a specific time
that each trial gets. And we waited and we waited
and we waited, and then the judges JA, which is
the secretary, walks out and says, so the judges coming
in late today, she's on a plane coming back from Pitts.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Oh mind, okay, And she.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Didn't take the bench until about eleven twenty, and I
was furious. I was absolutely furious that her time was
more important than my kid's time.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Well, I think I was gonna say all of us,
you know, we are trying to do what's best for
our clients. But I think that we all are allowed
to have lives. At least I would like to think
that we can. And there has to be some you know,
at least some understanding. I guess my question is, with
(05:39):
you being a twenty four year veteran of criminal defense,
what do you what understanding do you bring to the
bench if you're so lucky to be selected to serve
as a judge.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Well, let me just go back to Jeff, because I
think that me having that bad experience, I don't think
that Dick takes an individual. So I mean, just because
I had that one bad experience, I really looked in
to see if she's treating me like this, and I'm
well respected in the legal community in Brower County, what
is she doing to other lawyers, other people that are
(06:16):
unrepresented in court? Right? Is she following the law. And
I think that's the major issue, and that's why I
decided to go back to your first question, why did
I decide to put into this particular race, Because she's
not treating people with respect, and it doesn't make a
difference what color, what race you are, what gender you are,
(06:36):
whether or not you're represented by a lawyer or not
represented by a lawyer. That court room is fundamentally unfair,
and there's stats to prove it. The stats that are
there to prove it. She runs the Division of Domestic Violence,
which is the Restraining Order Court, and her colleague who's
(06:57):
directly next door to her, Judge Kaplan, they're on the
bench the same amount of time in reference to that
six year period time in the window. So I'm looking
at stats that are almost identical that you would say,
what have they done together? And she's been reversed by
the Fourth DCA five times as many times as Judge
(07:19):
Kaplan has and the fourth dCas in their opinions, have
continually told her you need to follow the law. We've
told this court numerous times to follow the law. So
when you see things like that, and then you get
the stories from other lawyers about what she's done in
court and how she's treated individuals, and they're just overwhelmed.
(07:41):
I mean, they're just stories after stories. I could go
on for hours and tell you individual stories. Then I
think that there comes a time that there needs to
be a change. So that's why I'm here to get
to your last question of what can I bring to
the table. Well, the first thing I'm going to bring
is respect into court. I'm going to put the family first, right,
(08:02):
and I'm going to put the people that are before
me first in that particular courtroom if I'm decided that,
if I'm assigned to that courtroom. What's interesting about that
is most of those people have never been to court before.
Its first time. They're scared. Fifty to sixty percent of
them don't have lawyers, right, And it's not my job
(08:25):
as a judge to educate them. But I don't need
to be disrespectful to them. I don't need to hold
their hand, but I need to make sure that they
understand the process and understand that they're citizens of Broward
County and I'm there to make sure that I have
polled the law and make sure that they have a
fair shake in it. And if there's any way that
(08:48):
I can do that, I'm going to get it done.
So I think that that's why I'm doing this. I
think that that's what I bring to the table. My experience,
I think is of a of all the better candidate.
I come from a background of military service at the
Virginia Military Institute, in which I graduated from VMI in
(09:08):
nineteen ninety seven. I then started off as an intern
of the Public Defender's Office, which what you did. I
stayed there for four years and then I opened up
my own criminal defense firm. But owning your own law
firm is extremely difficult. If I can do that, I
can do almost anything. You have to bring in clients
every day. You have to make sure that you're well known.
(09:31):
I have not advertised in twenty years, and I think
that says a lot. It says that people will repeat customers,
or I'm known in the community that I do the
right thing and I treat them right. One of the
best things I think I do in the community is
I make sure that my phone is always available, so
every single one of my clients, whether or not it's
a quick question for a legal issue, or whether or
(09:53):
not it's a brand new client on a new attempted
murder case, I pick up my phone calls, I make
sure that they know that they're important to me, and
that's the same thing that I would do in the
court that these individuals their issue before me is very
important and I take the most respect and importance for
(10:13):
their issue at that particular time.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Well, Johnny, the thing that stands out to me, and again,
I've known you a long time with me and other
certified legal interns, young attorneys, you were so patient. I
saw your patients with your clients, and I know that
you have to have that as a criminal defense attorney.
Can you explain why that's so important?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Well, a lot of my clients, I mean, yes, I
do some major major crime cases, all right, but a
lot of my clients are first time offender DUI cases
or first time offender domestic violence cases and either they're
wrongly accused or we try to work out the best
particular plea for them. And I think that if you
(11:00):
approach those individuals that have a bad attitude or not
give them the time, then you're just doing them a disservice.
And I think that they're calling you at their worst
time in their lives. I mean a criminal defense attorney.
If you need a criminal defense attorney, that phone call
or trying to find a criminal defense attorney, it's it's
(11:22):
not a good feeling. I make jokes about it, but
I relate it to really finding a good car mechanic,
because when your car goes down immediately, right then and there,
you need somebody immediately to come fix it. And sometimes
you get the run around. You don't get those good attorneys.
And I think that as when you call my office
as a criminal defense attorney, I'm there, I give you
the answers, I calm you down, I tell you it's
(11:44):
going to be okay, right, and then I make sure
that I systematically fix the issue.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
So you know, did you always want to be a lawyer, Johnny?
And we've never really talked about that.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Well now, I played really really serious soccer growing up,
and I always wanted to play professional soccer. I went
to VMI on a soccer scholarship, and I broke my
tid fip much like Joe thisman did back in the
late nineties. After I got my leg fixed, that kind
of ended my soccer career and it kind of opened
(12:17):
me up to other things. And a couple judges from
Virginia had some good judge friends down here in Fort Lauderdale,
which is the honorable Frank Orlando who's passed away and
now his son's a judge, Mike Orlando, on the bench.
And they kind of guided me and kind of pushed
me in the right direction of what I should do
going to the Public Defender's office. He got me a
job at Al Schreiber, who then turned out to be
(12:40):
Howard Finkelstein after Al left. But those individuals were really
great guiding lights to where I should be and what
road I should go down. So, and you know I'm
believer or not. I think I'm very good with the people,
and I like to talk to them. I take the
time with it, and I should think that shows by
picking a jury. And I love as you say, Jeff,
(13:02):
I love to educate and I like to show. I
have a lot of interns still, even though I'm not
in the Public Defender's Office anymore. They come in this summer,
I had about six or seven. I love for them
to see what I do, whether or not laws or
right path. But understand that, like most people think, the
defense attorneys are just there to deal with certain types
(13:22):
of individuals, and it's really a little bit more than that.
It's sometimes in the juvenile court system, it's giving those juveniles,
you know, a father figure that they don't have, sometimes
giving them the right path to go down, trying to
get them out of not becoming one of my clients
in the adult system. So you know, those those those
(13:44):
are the good cases. Those are the cases that really
make me smile. The cases in which I had a
client called me yesterday and I saved him on a
very very very serious first degree fella in the cases
and he was like, mister Weeks, you saved me six
years ago. I would love to work the polls for you.
And I said that would be great. This is where
I need you and I appreciate that. So I have
(14:05):
a very strong base out there. And as my dad
told me, if you have ten clients, excuse me, if
you have one client that you do a really good
job for, that's ten clients that you're going to have
over their lifetime. If you just keep multiplying that, that
will make you a very very good lawyer. And I
think I can bring that same thing as a judge.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Very good advice. What type of community involvement. Do you have, Johnny,
I know you've been a longtime member of the Broward community.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah. Well, as you know, Jeff, we have twins, Marie
and I. We they are thirteen, so like and you
have kids, and they kind of thirteen years ago. That
started a whole different life. Before that, I gave back
to the program that Judge Orlando started in Broward County,
which is called Focie or A that was a youth
(15:01):
program in which brought kids that were doing bad in
school and kind of gave them a different outlook and
different school environment. And I was on the board for
there for about three or four years, and then my
kids came around, and then I started coaching lacrosse. And
because I played high school and college lacrosse as well
at VM I I thought I could give back there.
(15:23):
So I've been coaching lacrosse for the last since my
son was five, so probably the last eight or nine years.
You know. Obviously I help out with my daughter, who
plays big time soccer as well. But I like giving
back to the community that way. I like giving back
giving my time up every other day or every day,
(15:45):
doing the weekends on the sporting activities. I think that
that really if the kids are in sports, then they're
not down at certain areas, they're not the mall, They're
not gonna get in trouble. And that's that was my
That's the way I think I've helped out the community
the best.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
It's got to be very rewarding, especially with your athletic
background too, to be able to, you know, give some
of your knowledge from your years playing soccer and other
sports as well. What other things do you like to
do for fun these days?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Well, I mean I love the paddle board. I really
like that, and I mean candidly, even if I'm not coaching.
This summer, I was able to follow my son and
my daughter, my daughters in a couple of different camps
and a couple different tournaments. My sons, we were at
ten different hotels this summer. We joke about it now,
from Long Island to Pennsylvania, Philly to Hershey, Pennsylvania, which
(16:43):
obviously had some chocolate there, you know, Maryland, Virginia. And
I just love watching them play sports. That's my fun.
I mean, my kids are everything to me right now.
I'm gonna be sad in five years when they turn
eighteen and whether or not they play sports. They don't
play sports, but I just love watching them. I love
being around them. We also love to go to roller
(17:04):
coaster parks around the country and across the world. Last
summer we went to four different roller coaster parks in Europe.
That stuff, for me is fun. They love it. You know.
My son is very excited a bit about Halloween hornites
coming up. That's his that's one of his favorite things
to do. I think there's a countdown on his phone.
(17:25):
I love it too. It scares me, but I love
it too. And that's that. Just hanging out with his
family really brings out the fun in me. That's my fun.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah, well, it's funny the things that you end up
doing that maybe you wouldn't do otherwise, some of your
favorite things, just because you're getting to experience it with
your with your kid. So absolutely I feel you might
my uh, my son just turned eighteen, So that was
that hit me a little bit there. Let me ask
(17:53):
you this, just a little bit, a little bit of law,
your views on voir deer and you know, time for reselection.
You know a lot of my colleagues are always concerned
about being cut off for what deer and not getting
enough time. What are your feelings on that.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
He candid with you. I feel your pain there because
I think when I'm picking some serious, serious murder cases,
first degree hid not being cases and things like that,
I think each lawyer, the State Attorney's office, which is
obviously the state of Florida, and a defense attorney should
be given as much time as they possibly need. Now,
(18:33):
a judge is supposed to be, as they say, calling
balls and strikes the referee in the courtroom. Okay, if
they're asking the same question over and over again, then
obviously we need to move on. But I think that
there there's a when you're picking certain individuals that lawyers
know nothing about in the void air process, and you're
(18:56):
doing that without the ability to look into them back
in the day and maybe look up where they're from
and their social media and things like that, and you
get those jurors, sixty jurors within five minutes before the
jury panel starts. I think you should have the opportunity
to ask them as many questions as possible, as long
as it takes to make sure that you are protecting
(19:18):
your client sister interests, just as well as the State
Attorney's Office is protecting the state of Florida, and just
as well as the plaintiffs or the defense is representing
them in civil cases. So I think that it's a
disservice if you don't give them the time appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Can you tell me some of the endorsements you received
for your campaign.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Believe it or not, I've been endorsed by a lot
of people. I did not think that because I'm running
against the sitting judge that I would get so many endorsements.
I've been endorsed by the FOP, the PBA, AYUPA, and
the firefighters. I mean, those are four massive endorsements coming
from a defense attorney's point of view in which I
(19:58):
every day argue with some police officers on the stand.
That says a lot. That says that they respect me
and that like I don't pull any tricks and I
go by the book and I follow the law, and
I think that that's a real tentiment to my service
as a lawyer that I can the other side that
(20:19):
I fight every day in court is saying support this candidate.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
That's high praise right there. I mean, when you that's
quite a compliment to say the least. And how many
cases have you tried?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Johnny. See. It's interesting because a lot of lawyers at
these forums say I've tried over one hundred cases. Well,
I'm well passed that. I probably tried over one hundred
cases when I was at the PDS office just in
those four years. So and obviously I've been doing this
twenty four years. I don't even want to put a
number to it, but I mean it would be well
over probably three or four hundred. I mean, if you
(20:55):
add in all my juvenile cases in front of judges alone,
without juries, if you add in all my misting innercases
without juries, it's a lot. It's a lot. But it's
been every single one of them. I can look back
and it's just it's been a wonderful experience. I mean,
there's some heartbreaks to a lot of them. I always
look back on the cases that I lost. I remember
(21:18):
those individuals' names, probably a lot better than the ones
I won. But that being said, you know, I never
stopped fighting for them, and I make sure that even
if it goes all the way to the fourth DCAA,
that I make sure that if I really really believe
that some injustice was done, that I'm going to make
sure that I try to fix it.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Johnny, I've really enjoyed talking with you. We could probably
do this for a little bit longer, but so like
so much, the audience will listen to me, so not you.
Is there anything else that you would like to tell
voters as they go to the polls and why they
should consider you to be the next judge for thirty eight?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Well, I am running for Group thirty eight. I would
indicate to the voters that as of right now, the
voter count is very very low. As on Friday, excuse me,
Saturday and Sunday this past weekend, when I was helping
run Maria's campaign, it was twenty five thousand people each
day so far. On Saturday there was two thousand, seven
(22:20):
hundred voters and on Sunday two one hundred voters. That's
a grand total of less than five thousand for two days. Today,
Because obviously school starts today and probably until Friday or Saturday,
those numbers are going to be lower. So it's for
Brower County that has close to over a million people
(22:41):
that live here, for having only two thousand people vote
to day, that doesn't say a lot. And your race
is your local races, your judges, your state house representatives,
your clerk ac court. Those are more important sometimes than
the big races, and a lot of people just don't
(23:01):
remember that. I mean, these races affect if you ever
go to court. These races affect whether or not you
like the clerk. These races affect whether or not you're
paying your taxes, and those affect the individuals in Brower County.
And I know we have a big race coming in November,
but let's try to see if we can try to
make change now for our own county. And I think
(23:22):
that that's important absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
I tell people that all the time. You know, there's
always the national races, but the stuff that affects you
on an everyday basis, local races, judges, and don't skip
those races. They're really really important. Well, if anybody would
like to get more information about Johnny Weeks and his campaign,
(23:47):
where can they go?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Well, they can get to Weeks of Friendsofweeks dot com.
They can look on my Instagram page, which is all
in a week's work, all al underscore in underscore a
underscore weeks w E E K E S And you
can always call me. My cell phone is available for
(24:11):
anyone nine five, four, six, five two nine seven one
one give me a call. I pick up all my calls,
just like I indicated earlier on my clients call me
every day. You can have my number as well. Call
me if you have any questions at all.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I appreciate that. For those who are listening and don't
have a visual, the website is Friends of Weeks w
E E K E S dot com. Want to make
sure we get it right so people aren't searching under
the wrong spelling. Johnny, it was absolutely a pleasure speaking
with you, as it always is. Early voting is open
(24:45):
right now. Election day is August twenty twentieth.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Encourage you to.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Get out there and vote and support my friend Johnny
Weeks for Judge of the thirty eighth Division.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Good singeing you, Johnny, always a pleasure. Thank you very much, Jef.
Have a great day you too,
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