EFTA00604322.pdf

1 IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE FIFTEENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN AND FOR PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA CIRCUIT CIVIL DIVISION AG CASE NO.:50-2009-CA-040800-XXXX-MB JEFFREY EPSTEIN, Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant, vs. SCOTT ROTHSTEIN, individually, BRADLEY J. EDWARDS, individually, and III., individually, Defendants/Counter-Plaintiffs. West Palm Beach, Florida July 6, 2017 8:45 - 8:53 a.m. The above-styled cause came on for hearing before the Honorable Donald W. Hafele, Presiding Judge, at the Palm Beach County Courthouse, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida, on the 6th day of July, 2017. Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604322 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 APPEARANCES: For The Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant: WILLIAM CHESTER BREWER, P.A. 250 Australian Ave West Palm Beach, FL 33401 By WILLIAM CHESTER BREWER, ESQUIRE ATTERBURY, GOLDBERGER & WEISS, P.A. 250 Australian Ave West Palm Beach, FL 33401 By WILLIAM CHESTER BREWER, ESQUIRE For The Defendants/Counter-Plaintiffs: SEARCY, DENNEY, SCAROLA, BARNHART & SHIPLEY, P.A. 2139 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd. West Palm Beach, FL 33401 By JACK SCAROLA, ESQUIRE ALSO PRESENT: Bradley Edwards EXHIBITS (No Exhibits Marked During This Hearing.) Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604323 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 (Whereupon, the following proceedings were had.) MR. SCAROLA: Good morning, Your Honor. MR. BREWER: Good morning, Your Honor. THE COURT: Good morning. I'm not contemplating anyone appearing by phone, so we'll proceed. The order indicated that at least one attorney from each side must appear in person, and I see that Mr. Goldberg is here as well. So, we have at least two attorneys here on Mr. Epstein's side. Mr. Scarola is here in person as well. MR. SCAROLA: Mr. Edwards is also here and is pro se in this matter. THE COURT: Okay, I didn't see him. Good morning. Appearance please. MR. SCAROLA: Jack Scarola and Bradley Edwards on behalf of Bradley Edwards, Your Honor. MR. BREWER: Chester Brewer and Jack Goldberg on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein. THE COURT: Thank you for being here this morning. We had a motion earlier relative to setting the case for trial and the Court's Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604324 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 concerns at that time regarding the need, or lack thereof, relative to discovery and a motion scheduling order. And I asked that you-all be here today to address those issues. So, since it's the counter-plaintiff's original motion to set the cause for trial, why don't we start with Mr. Scarola. Your thoughts on the subject, please. MR. SCAROLA: We would like the earliest possible trial, Your Honor, for this 2009 matter. THE COURT: All right. Do you see a need for a discovery schedule or a scheduling order relative to any motions that may be contemplating? MR. SCAROLA: In light of motions we simply filed on Mr. Epstein's behalf, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea. THE COURT: All right. Mr. Brewer? MR. BREWER: Yes, sir. There are three motions, I guess, that are pending that are important. One is our motion to strike portions of the witness in exhibit list. That same motion has been filed every time that Mr. Scarola has filed a witness exhibit list. Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604325 5 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 The problem in a nutshell is in his witness list, he doesn't list names and addresses for a lot of folks; he does for some. But at lot of them are groups of people, as in anybody whose name appears on discovery, or anybody whose name appears in an interrogatory. THE COURT: Well, typically I don't allow that. But I don't like to give advice or opinions. So, I'll wait until the motion is before me at that time. MR. BREWER: There's two different motions, Your Honor. One is Mr. Scarola's motion to expand interrogatories and our objections to that. The objections in a nutshell are that they invade work product and there's a financial discovery to those interrogatories, which has been heavily litigated way back when. I think it was back when it was with Judge Crow. And then finally we have filed recently, as Mr. Scarola mentioned, we filed a motion for summary judgment. So those are three pretty big motions. THE COURT: Okay. MR. SCAROLA: I would disagree that there Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604326 6 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 is anything of significance to be addressed with regard to any of those motions. But as Your Honor has stated, those are issues that will be dealt with when the matters are called up for hearing. Two of those motions are scheduled for hearing before Your Honor next week. THE COURT: Okay. Are they special set or are they 8:45s? MR. SCAROLA: All I know is that they're on the calendar for next week and I can't tell you, III not sure. MR. GOLDBERG: They're not specially set, Your Honor. THE COURT: All right. So it looks like those motions can be done in a relatively due course. My inclination -- and if it's going to work for you-all, let me know. If it's not, I want to know why. Is to try to get the case tried before the end of the calendar year. Which means that the most likely docket that this would run would be beginning November 20th through January 26th of next year. So that's where III looking at it in terms of where I think it would be appropriately set. Where any Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604327 7 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 discovery that needs to be done can be completed. Where any motions that need to be heard can be dealt with accordingly. What III also willing to do is if there are any motions that need to be addressed that are not addressed prior, I can put those motions on a docket and have a hearing as it relates to whatever motions remain between -- or on the docket beginning September 25th, you go on right before that docket. MR. SCAROLA: The records will reflect that Plaintiff's counsel has a broad grin on his face, he's happy with that date. THE COURT: All right. Mr. Brewer, your thoughts? MR. BREWER: No problem, Your Honor. THE COURT: All right. So why don't we go ahead and do that then and we'll try our best. And I don't know what my docket looks like at this stage, I have several before that, so it's hard to know exactly what may be on one docket. But the inclination would be to probably go ahead and specially set the trial. Was there an estimate? It was given 10 days? Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604328 8 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MR. SCAROLA: I believe so, Your Honor, yes. THE COURT: All right. So that would accordingly be the time we're looking at. What I'm going to do is this. After this hearing, I'll get together with my judicial assistant and we'll look at the dates that are available. Obviously, I recognize that we have the December holidays, as well as Thanksgiving, during that period of time and the New Year. So, I will do my best to schedule it accordingly. And we're potentially looking at, if there's no significant conflict, early December as probably the date. Okay? MR. BREWER: Very good, sir. THE COURT: Again, it's with the expectation that if you don't have a discovery schedule that you're going to work together in order to get to the date that I'm speaking about, calendar call is November 3. But again, if everything works out and we have a special setting, it may not even need to be heard at calendar call, as long as we get anything that needs to be addressed done before that time. So that's where I think we should Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604329 9 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 be. Again, it is an old case and it should be tried, in my view, before the end of the calendar year if at all possible, but at least through January 18th. All right? MR. GOLDBERG: Your Honor, just very briefly. THE COURT: Sure. MR. GOLDBERG: When you do meet with your JA to kind of set a trial date, that window is fine with me except for November. I have a trial in November that I know is going. December is fine. So, if you're looking for a date, I would prefer December. THE COURT: Okay. Like I said, I think I'm looking for probably that week after Thanksgiving to start the trial is probably what I'm driving at. Because that way I'll know there won't be any loose ends as it relates to the Thanksgiving weekend. In other words, I'll have everything done that I need to get done, reasonably speaking, on that Wednesday. And then I know that I'll be able to start something fresh on that Tuesday, because I do special sets on Monday. So, we will do a four day trial week. Mondays will be Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604330 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 reserved, as they always are, for special set ones. MR. BREWER: Your Honor, if I may? What was the docket in September -- THE COURT: For any motions that may be pending would be September 15th. I'm sorry, September 20th docket call, September 15th. I'll revise it again. September 25th with a docket call of September 15th. The ladder one you can take as being correct. MR. GOLDBERG: Thank you, Your Honor. MR. SCAROLA: Thank you, your Honor. MR. BREWER: Thank you, your Honor. (The hearing concluded at 8:53 a.m.) Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604331 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 COURT CERTIFICATE STATE OF FLORIDA ) : SS COUNTY OF PALM BEACH ) I, , COURT REPORTER, certify that I was authorized to and did stenographically report the foregoing proceedings and that the transcript is a true record of my stenographic notes. Dated this 10th day of July, 2017. , COURT REPORTER Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604332