Awkward!

Julie Kay reports that powerhouse litigator Ervin Gonzalez has been brought in, informally, to investigate concerns that mold at the old federal courthouse may have caused or contributed to Magistrate Judge Ted Klein's death last year of a mysterious respiratory ailment.

That should be interesting when Gonzalez has to next appear in front of Chief Judge Moreno, who has been the public face of the Court's response to allegations that the old courthouse may be a "sick building."

Anyone who was at last month's Dade County Bar Association luncheon, where Judge Moreno spoke and addressed the issue in the wake of the first Julie Kay article asserting the possibility of such a link, can see that the Judge's heart is in the right place and he is committed to addressing the issue fairly and carefully. But Judge Moreno basically said that Julie Kay had presented only one side of the issue, and that Magistrate Judge Klein was already sick and his death had nothing to do with mold issues in the building.

Meanwhile, Klein's longtime former partner, the vivacious and tenacious Rebekah J. Poston, brought Gonzalez in to investigation because, in her words, "the jury is out."

In addition to a wrongful death suit, possibilities exist for other personal injury actions as well as a class action suit on behalf of all employees who had to work in that building.

Anyone with further information can report it here, to southfloridalawyers@gmail.com.