Letters to editor in Naples Daily News Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020

About Sens. Rubio and Scott

Now we know why the Republican senators vote not to see evidence. They know full well he's guilty as charged but try to hide the truth from the people who voted for him and them.

Shame on the two Florida cowards who sit in the U.S. Senate and are afraid of standing up for truth. Their obituaries will note their lack of character. Their supporters should be ashamed of electing people for whom an oath to defend the Constitution has no meaning. 

Fred Rump, Golden Gate Estates

Witnesses and evidence in trial

I worked in the court system for 22 years and have never witnessed a trial where there were no witnesses or evidence allowed. That would not constitute the elements necessary to have a fair trial. It would be a kangaroo court.

I am part of the American people and I demand a fair and impartial trial. Justice and fairness are supposed to be the basis of our judicial system. Do not change the constitutional laws to satisfy the president, any person or any one party.

Barbara Robertson, North Naples

Short-term home rentals

Regarding short-term rental control by local government, I believe that the Legislature should recognize that one of the competing elements of private property home ownership is the peaceable enjoyment by the owner of her property.

Short-term renters frequently ignore the "peaceable" aspect of their short-term neighbor by partying until the wee hours loudly. Arrests are unlikely and ineffective to curtail this abuse.

Local control divests the partier of her platform to party. It's a balance test that belongs in the hands of local regulators, as the state has many different neighborhoods that are subject to different needs.

Lou Loughren, Naples

Flu vaccine for detained migrants

This is turning out to be a bad year for the flu. According to a recent report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the infectious disease is now widespread in all but five states. Over 6 million flu illnesses have been reported, with almost 3,000 deaths.

Flu vaccines  prevent thousands of hospitalizations, and one can’t even estimate the amount of suffering and death avoided.

Shockingly, though, last month U.S. Customs and Border Protection refused to allow a group of licensed physicians to give the flu vaccine to detained migrants.  

The reason given? CBP provides temporary custody, and later more medical care could be provided. In fact, “temporary custody” could be extended for days. These human beings were being held in crowded conditions, an ideal setup for a contagious disease to spread quickly.

Giving the vaccine would prevent suffering and perhaps death among these vulnerable people.

“We see this as medical negligence on the part of the U.S. government,” said Dr Bonnie Arzuaga, who led one of the groups offering services. “People are being held in close confinement and usually are under a lot of physical and emotional stress … and may be malnourished and may not have access to hygiene supplies.”

Allen Malnak, M.D., Bonita Springs

Trump trial attorneys' conduct

As a trial attorney with 50 years of court experience, I found the Trump attorneys' conduct during the first day of the impeachment trial to be disgraceful and unethical. 

Attorney Cipollone lied when he said Republicans were not permitted to participate in the House proceedings and that Trump was not allowed to participate in the House Judiciary Committee's inquiry. Republicans were allowed the same amount of time to question witnesses as Democrats had. Trump was invited to testify or have his counsel participate in the Judiciary Committee's hearings, but he refused. 

A trial is supposed to be a “ search for the truth." An attorney is bound by a code of ethics to present only evidence he believes will serve that purpose. An attorney cannot lie in oral argument about the facts of the case. However, Cipollone and other Trump attorneys told false statement after false statement, attacked the integrity of the House prosecutors, (something not permitted in traditional trials), misstated the law and refused to even talk about the issues in the case. 

The attorneys representing Trump were merely making political speeches for the president. Their conduct will further alienate a divided country and was designed to avoid the truth. These attorneys should be sanctioned for their conduct.

Thomas A. Vitanza, Cape Coral

Republican witnesses in impeachment

Republican attack dog Jim Jordan of Ohio stated Tuesday during the Senate impeachment trial that the GOP was not allowed to call witnesses in the House process. Nothing could be further from the truth. They chose not to call their own witnesses because they knew it would destroy their case.

Democrats called for testimony by Trump advocates John Bolton,, Mick Mulvaney  and others to get to the truth. But Trump knew that would be a disaster for him, so he claimed executive privilege to keep them from testifying.

So now we have 70% of Americans saying there should be witnesses at the Senate trial to get to the truth. But Mitch McConnell seems to have the partisan votes to prevent that.

I can envision how the recent trial of Mark Sievers would have ended if defense attorneys had the power to deny the prosecutors the right to call witnesses Jimmy Rodgers and Curtis Wayne Wright. Sievers would have been declared not guilty in the murder of his wife, Teresa Sievers, simply because there were no witnesses to offer any evidence of his guilt.

Is that how American justice is supposed to work and how the Senate impeachment trial will end? 

Gerald Curcuru, Fort Myers