Coral Gables criminal defense attorney Joel Hirschhorn in his 43 years of practice saw an acute case of judicial dementia only once — but it was a doozy.

Trying a federal case out of state, Hirschhorn said he found a judge appointed by President Eisenhower so erratic that if he got an undesirable ruling on a motion or an objection, he would just wait, raise it again later and often get a different result.