By: Sharon Aron Baron
On August 26, residents have a chance to elect judicial candidates to the bench. One of the candidates has an office here in Tamarac: Frantz “Jahra” McLawrence.
McLawrence was endorsed by both the Miami Herald and the Fraternal Order of Police. His law practice includes criminal defense, personal injury and immigration and is located at the Gardens Plaza at 7101 West Commercial Blvd, just east of University Drive.
The goal of my judicial campaign is to inject a fresh, new perspective on the bench, based on diversity of practice, thought, and lifetime experiences. My goal is to join those judges that conduct themselves with integrity and treat litigants with dignity and respect.” – Frantz “Jahra” McLawrence to Tamarac Talk.
He is running against Judge Lynn Rosenthal who was appointed to the bench by Gov. Scott in 2012. Judge Lynn Rosenthal was recently in the news after running into a police car with her black BMW SUV in the Broward County Courthouse parking lot back in May. She entered a no-contest plea to a reckless-driving charge and will serve three months of probation, 25 hours of community service and restitution, which was not set.
At the time of her arrest, Rosenthal had admitted to taking Ambien, a prescription sleeping pill, the night before her accident. According to a release from her attorney Brian Silber, “This was a case of an involuntary overdose of Ambien CR due to prescription error. It had nothing to do with any other substance or medication, whatsoever.”
Silber wrote that a few days prior to her arrest, Rosenthal’s physician prescribed her 12.5 mg of Ambien CR to treat insomnia. While Ambien CR was certainly an appropriate medication to treat insomnia, he said, her doctor erred in the amount of Ambien CR he prescribed. Instead of prescribing 12.5 mg of Ambien CR, the doctor should have only prescribed 6.25 mg.
The Miami Herald wrote “Rosenthal first fought to keep her mug shot from public view, later relenting. Few suspects get that privilege. In addition, defendants who appear before her under similar circumstances — refusing to give blood and urine samples — don’t get much sympathy from the bench. Voters should exercise similar judgment.”
McLawrence is a veteran of the United States Navy, who served in both Iraq and Bosnia-Herzegovina. He is a graduate of Florida A&M University and the University of Florida College of Law. He has taught as an adjunct law professor at Florida International University and Keiser University, and currently teaches Criminal Law at Broward College. He has lectured for the Florida Bar and currently serves on the Florida Bar’s grievance committee. Within the community, Mr. McLawrence has conducted numerous legal seminars at various churches and schools, and has volunteered with numerous charitable organizations.
McLawrence who additionally is fluent in Creole, has applied his diverse life experiences, military attention-to-detail approach, and scholarly legal knowledge, to obtain extraordinary results in the cases he has taken to jury trial. McLawrence intends on applying this same formula on the bench to ensure that everyone is provided practical, fair, and equal treatment under the law. McLawrence currently resides in Plantation.
