Sugar companies want judge off Glades case

Two sugar companies say the federal judge overseeing the cleanup of the Everglades has been talking too much, both in court and to reporters, and should be booted off the case.

In separate motions filed in two federal courts Wednesday, U.S. Sugar and a subsidiary of Flo-Sun Sugar criticized tough-talking U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler, 80, for giving interviews to several newspapers, including the St. Petersburg Times, that show he no longer is impartial.

"The judge has become an advocate," U.S. Sugar vice president Robert Coker said.

The sugar companies also want overturned a pair of blunt orders Hoeveler sent out criticizing a sugar-backed bill that flew through the Legislature and delays the deadline for cleaning up Everglades pollution by a decade.

One order called an emergency hearing because the judge said he'd been reading news accounts about the legislation "with considerable apprehension."

Then, after that hearing, Hoeveler issued an order in which he called the bill "clearly defective" and said Gov. Jeb Bush was being "misled" by people who did not care about the Everglades.

Bush signed the bill anyway.

Hoeveler announced he would appoint a special master to make sure state officials clean up the pollution flowing into the River of Grass, because he no longer trusted them to keep promises.

Hoeveler, who has overseen the Everglades case since its inception in 1988, is scheduled to appoint the special master at a hearing next week. Among the candidates being proposed for the job is former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth.

But the motions calling for Hoeveler's removal may throw a wrench into that schedule.

"This is a very difficult decision for us," said Coker. "... We've been shocked at the change in Judge Hoeveler's behavior."

Hoeveler told the Associated Press he wasn't bothered by the sugar companies' motions.

"They no doubt don't want to hear what I have to say," the judge said. "I won't hold it against (them). Anyway, it doesn't faze me one way or the other."

A written statement from the governor's press secretary, Alia Faraj, called Hoeveler "a highly respected jurist, who cares deeply about the future of the Everglades." Asked whether Bush would support or oppose the move by the sugar companies, Faraj replied, "It's not our motion."

A U.S. Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

Environmental groups were not so reticent.

"It's a desperation maneuver," said David Guest of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.

Thom Rumberger of the Everglades Trust said it was a "shallow and shady tactic" to avoid paying the cost of cleaning up pollution. Charles Lee of Audubon of Florida called it "classic, vintage, bully-boy sugar tactics."

Several newspapers, including the Times, wrote profile stories that featured interviews with the judge. In them, Hoeveler made comments about the Everglades legislation that mirrored comments in his orders and in court.

In their motion, U.S. Sugar's attorney compared Hoeveler's granting interviews to the Times, the Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel to the secret interviews that the federal judge overseeing the Microsoft antitrust case gave to reporters.

That judge was removed from the case after making comments in which he compared Microsoft executives to drug gang killers and Bill Gates to Napoleon.

But Dexter Lehtinen, a former federal prosecutor who represents the Miccosukee Indians who live in the Everglades, said Hoeveler's comments are different because there is no trial going on. The case was settled years ago, and Hoeveler is presiding over the settlement.

Lehtinen accused the sugar companies of being desperate to avoid having a special master watching them.

"They don't want the oversight," Lehtinen said.

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