The Honorable Roberto Pineiro Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge

"Judgment and Justice in America"

Wertheim Performing Arts Center ~ University Park
Florida International University
Tuesday, October 22, 2002, 6:00 PM

    At 43, the Cuban born Duke University graduate has spent most of his career - except for a four-year stint as a civil litigator - in the public sector.  He worked for former state attorneys Richard Gerstein and Janet Reno, moving up to special prosecutions, organized crime, and public corruption. His parents brought him to the United States when he was 5, fleeing the Castro regime after the government seized the family's coffee roasting plant and sugar refinery. 

Pineiro attended Belen Jesuit Preparatory School, Miami-Dade Community College, and the University of Miami before going to law school at Duke. He was appointed to the county court in 1989, won a contested reelection race in 1994, and was appointed to the circuit bench in 1996.  He won another six-year term later that year without opposition.

Florida Judge Denies Request for Castration
BY MADELINE BARO DIAZ KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE,  June 2002

Accused child molester Ricardo Jose Garcia cannot undergo surgical castration in exchange for a lighter sentence, a Miami-Dade judge ruled Wednesday. "I will not order you to be castrated," Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Roberto Pineiro told Garcia. "I will not order you to be mutilated." Garcia, a former high school teacher accused of molesting an 11-year-old boy he was babysitting, faces a mandatory life sentence if convicted. His attorneys admit the prosecution has a strong case, with DNA evidence and a confession Garcia gave police. Garcia, 37, thought surgical castration was the only way to avoid life in prison without parole. But Pineiro said that allowing Garcia to choose between life in prison and "life as a castrati" is cruel and unusual. "Allowing a defendant such a choice is barbarous and cannot be condoned in a civilized society," Pineiro said. 

Garcia will now go on trial. His attorneys say the judge's order could be grounds for an appeal depending on the outcome of the trial. Garcia was trying to use a Florida law that lets judges order sex offenders to undergo chemical castration, allowing the sex offenders to choose surgical castration as an alternative. Defense attorneys argued that the law allows someone to choose surgical castra- tion as an alternative punishment. Pineiro sided with the prosecution, however, finding that the law provides for voluntary surgical castration as an alternative to court-ordered chemical castration, not as an alternative punishment. "I think it was the right decision and I think the judge really agonized over it," prosecutor David Shapiro said. 

Florida is one of several states that have passed laws in the last decade allowing sexual offenders to undergo chemical or surgical castration in an attempt to lower their sexual urges. Craig Trocino, who represents Garcia, said Pineiro's ruling was well thought out, but he disagrees with it. Trocino pointed out that the victim's mother and police have both said they would be satisfied with a two-year sentence for Garcia, but prosecutors have said they will not offer Garcia a deal. The American Civil Liberties Union, which wrote a brief opposing Garcia's offer, was pleased with Pineiro's decision.