Judge Overseeing Padilla Case Draws Praise In How She Deals With Difficult Issues

Monday, May 28th 2007, 3:11 pm

By: News On 6

MIAMI (AP) _ The trial of suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla is by far the biggest ever for U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, and she is drawing praise for how she has handled the pressure and the complexity of the case.

Appointed by President Bush in 2004, Cooke has the least experience on the bench of any federal judge in Florida's southern district. But those in legal circles say that has not been an issue.

``Judge Cooke seems to be handling a very difficult, extremely high-profile case very well,'' said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who has closely followed the case. ``The judge in this type of case is under enormous pressure because every action is so closely scrutinized by the attorneys, the press and the public.''

Padilla and two co-defendants are accused of being part of a support cell for Islamic extremist groups involved in violence around the world, with Padilla allegedly attending an al-Qaida terror training camp.

Testimony in the trial of Padilla and co-defendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi is scheduled to resume Tuesday, with the jury likely this week to begin hearing FBI wiretap intercepts.

Before she became the district's first black woman federal judge, Cooke, 52, acquired broad legal experience. She was an assistant U.S. attorney and county attorney in Miami, was Florida's chief inspector general under former Gov. Jeb Bush and served as a federal magistrate judge in Detroit.

Cooke also worked in legal aid services and the public defender's office in Detroit after getting her law degree from Wayne State University in 1977.

Born in Sumter, S.C., Cooke grew up in Detroit where her father was a funeral director and her mother a public schools administrator. She graduated from Georgetown University 's School of Foreign Service in 1975.

The diplomatic skills she learned there may have helped her in this case. Padilla's entry in 2005 brought a whole host of complications, including defense claims that he was tortured while he was held at a Navy brig as an enemy combatant and that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder because of it.

Siding with federal prosecutors, Cooke would not permit the torture allegations to become part of the case and found Padilla mentally fit to stand trial. She also refused to dismiss the charges on claims that his lengthy detention violated constitutional speedy trial rights, ruling that what happened to Padilla before he arrived in Miami was irrelevant.

Padilla, a 36-year-old U.S. citizen, was initially accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive ``dirty bomb'' inside the United States, but those allegations are not part of the Miami indictment.

Cooke has also frequently ruled for the defense, including an order early on that Padilla not be brought to her courtroom in chains and shackles. She dismissed the most serious charge in the indictment _ conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas _ as duplicative of other charges in the same case, but the charge was reinstated by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after the government appealed.

Defense lawyers say Cooke has shown she would not just follow the government line.

``It showed true courage to rule for the defense in a case like this,'' said David O. Markus, president of the Miami chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. ``There is an awful lot of pressure to rule for the government and that would have been the safer course.''

Cooke declined to be interviewed, citing the ongoing trial. Federal prosecutors also declined comment.

Miami defense attorney Neal Sonnett, who like Cooke has taught legal courses at the University of Miami, said he has known Cooke for more than 14 years.

``She is extremely bright, has a thorough understanding of criminal law and is fair to both sides,'' Sonnett said. ``I have enormous respect for her.''