Even the lawyers themselves admitted that there was a problem:

"Patronage . . . there's no question that may be a weakness in the system, " said Ed Shohat, then president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, in 1987. "It's got to be looked into. It's a lot less of a problem than it was 10 or 15 years ago. Back then, if you weren't on the 'good list' of a judge or hadn't contributed to the campaign, you wouldn't get appointments."

HUMAN NATURE
Many judges reward political supporters

Dade Circuit Judge Thomas Carney said many judges feel an obligation to give court appointments to those who helped them keep their seats on the bench.

"It is human nature to reciprocate, " Carney said.

Lawyers say they also feel an obligation to give checks to campaigning judges.

"If you don't give, you wonder if, 'Well, gee, is my client going to be treated differently?' " said lawyer Randy Maultasch, a regular campaign contributor who ranked second in court- appointment fees in the last three years. " 'Am I at least going to be called out of calendar, or am I going to have to sit there?' "

Former judge Arthur Huttoe was the biggest-earning court- appointed lawyer with $343,035.50 in fees during fiscal year 1987-88.

Huttoe was one of the biggest campaign contributors to many judges, routinely writing checks of $500 and $1,000, according to campaign records.

He received the bulk of his appointments from four veteran Dade judges, who, like him, had worked as prosecutors in the 1970s under then State Attorney Richard Gerstein: Alfonso Sepe, Howard Gross, Theodore Mastos and Ellen Morphonios.

Sepe is under indictment for extortion and bribery as part of the state and federal corruption investigation, Operation Court Broom. He faces a federal trial in August.

Gross was charged with bribery charge in 1987 and later acquitted by a state jury. But he lost his seat on the bench in the process.

Mastos was voted off the bench in 1988, partly because he was stained by bad publicity from the scandal involving his close friend, Howard Gross. Mastos is now, like Huttoe, one of the leading earners from court-appointment fees.

Former Dade Circuit Judge Ellen Morphonios showered Huttoe with more court appointments than anyone else -- even though she and everyone else knew that he farmed out the work to other lawyers.

QUID PRO QUO
Convicted judge says gifts, appointments tied

A glimpse at the exclusive world of court appointments was provided by former Dade Circuit Judge Roy T. Gelber, who was sentenced last week to 12 years and seven months for bribery and extortion.

Lawyers and judges knew of the clear quid pro quo between court appointment work and judicial campaign contributions, Gelber said on an FBI tape.

Gelber was an astute student of the system. Before joining the county court bench in 1986, he made a handsome income as a court-appointed lawyer. In 1983-84, he made $99,690 in court-appointment fees alone.

That year, court administrators noticed that Gelber was charging county taxpayers for more than 24 hours in a day.

As was the custom, the court administrators asked Gelber for an explanation.

Gelber blamed it on poor record keeping.

Court officials told the chief judge about Gelber's excessive billing.

Nothing was done.

No one audited his bills. No one told the Florida Bar Association. No one told the state attorney's office.