Here Comes the Judge, in Cuffs
In Broward County, Fla., Spate of
Judges in D.U.I. Arrests
By FRANCES ROBLES JUNE 27, 2014
MIAMI — Lawyers gawked from office windows last month
when a BMW S.U.V. swiped a parked police cruiser in the parking lot of a
courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, then slammed into a gate over and over again.
A judge was at
the wheel.
As lawyers used
smartphones to snap pictures of the morning spectacle, Judge Lynn D. Rosenthal
became the third Broward County judge in six months to be arrested on charges
of driving under the influence. A colleague, Judge Gisele Pollack, had been
suspended five days earlier after getting arrested on a D.U.I. charge while
already on leave for taking the bench intoxicated — twice.
Even for South
Florida, where absurd news events are routine and the sheriff went to prison
for corruption, the spate of judicial scandals has raised serious questions
about whether the arrests in Broward are a bizarre coincidence or underscore a
larger systemic problem. In a county where the judiciary is known for
old-school nepotism and cronyism, and judges have been caught smoking marijuana
in a park and found drunk and partly naked in a hotel hallway, some lawyers
find themselves wondering: At what point do isolated instances of misconduct
point to something bigger?
On Wednesday,
WPLG, an ABC affiliate, citing anonymous sources, reported that a Broward
family court judge was under federal investigation on suspicion of allowing a
now-convicted Ponzi schemer to influence a case.
And this month, a
former judge in Broward was disbarred for exchanging 949 phone calls and 471
text messages with the prosecutor during a death penalty case. Yet another
judge was ordered removed in April after being accused of cheating clients and
a co-counsel in the settlement of a civil suit she handled as a private lawyer
a decade ago.
As it turns out,
bad behavior by judges has become distressingly common across Florida in recent
months. Judge John C. Murphy in Brevard County is on leave after he was caught
on video this month threatening a public defender, who later accused the judge
of punching him in the head. In the Keys, a judge who was replaced on the bench
after dozing off told a local news reporter that Ambien made him hallucinate
about “ ‘Fantasia’ and the dancing brooms.” Another stepped down because a
blogger exposed a sexually explicit profile the judge had posted on a gay
dating site.
But Broward — a
heavily Democratic county of 1.8 million people with many judges who are the
children, spouses, siblings and fraternity brothers of other judges and some of
the region’s most powerful people — seems to be ground zero for allegations of
judicial misconduct. The system’s critics say that is because Broward has a highly
politicized and clannish culture that is known for protecting its own, which
has led some in the judiciary to feel invincible, even as they preside over a
county court system that produces the state’s highest exoneration rate.
“I do think it
belies an underlying systemic problem in Broward County,” said Howard
Finkelstein, Broward’s elected public defender. “I don’t think this stunningly
embarrassing fact of having all these charges pending at the same time is
indicative of a judiciary with substance abuse problems, but I do think it is a
manifestation of the greater problem of a circle-the-wagons mentality.”
Records posted
online by the Judicial Qualifications Commission, the independent agency that
investigates misconduct by state judges in Florida’s 67 counties, show that 17
percent of the 62 formal disciplinary cases filed against sitting judges since
2001 have been in Broward.
Those figures do
not include two judges who were recently arrested or those who resigned before
a case was made public, such as Judge Lawrence L. Korda, who, in 2007, after
presiding over parts of the Anna Nicole Smith case, was caught smoking
marijuana in a park. (Not to be confused with Larry S. Seidlin, the Broward
judge who sobbed on the bench during a nationally televised ruling on where the
reality TV star should be buried.)
Many judges
accused of wrongdoing remain on the bench, such as the family court judge who
took in a foster child who had appeared in his court, only for the teenager to
accuse the judge years later of molesting him.
“Tell me one
other courthouse that at any time ever had three judges pending criminal
charges, a fourth judge disbarred by the Supreme Court and another judge
awaiting removal,” Mr. Finkelstein said. “And that doesn’t include the naked
judge!”
In 2001, a
Broward County judge was arrested on charges of public intoxication after being
found drunk and naked from the waist down at a resort that was hosting a state
judicial conference. Mr. Finkelstein has been there: A recovering addict, he,
too, was once arrested, after using cocaine and crashing into a police car.
William J. Gelin,
a defense lawyer in Broward who runs a blog, Jaablaw.com, that chronicles
courthouse antics and posted a photo of Judge Rosenthal’s arrest, noted that the
Judicial Qualifications Commission only reveals cases that result in misconduct
charges. Most complaints against judges remain secret, which he said adds to
the perception that judges feel omnipotent.
“It’s time to
shine a light on these individuals and their performance, as the founding
fathers intended,” Mr. Gelin said.
Michael L.
Schneider, executive director and general counsel of the commission,
acknowledged that the recent run of Broward judges being arrested is unusual,
but that the agency dealt with cases “one at a time” and not systemically.
“The commission
isn’t a punishment group,” he said. “It’s designed to evaluate fitness of
somebody to be a judge.”
Broward’s chief
judge, Peter M. Weinstein, said the rash of arrests was an “anomaly” that did
not reflect the hard work judges do every day at the courthouse.
“It’s a big court
system — we have 103 people making decisions every single day,” Judge Weinstein
said. “Over all, we have excellent judges, and nobody ever reads or hears
anything about them.”
A lawyer for
Judge Rosenthal, Brian Y. Silber, declined to comment.
Two of the
arrested judges refused a Breathalyzer test, but the test conducted on Judge
Rosenthal showed that she had not been drinking. She told the police that she
had taken Ambien the night before, but after failing a field sobriety test, she
refused to take urine or blood tests, according to the police report. The
police, suspecting that she was impaired by drugs, charged her with D.U.I.
Judge Pollack was
suspended without pay, despite a request from her lawyer, J. David Bogenschutz,
that her alcoholism be considered a disability. She has sought treatment and
hopes to return to the bench, Mr. Bogenschutz said.
“Where a judge
has the same problem 5,000 other people have, it makes news,” he said. “They
are not supposed to have human feelings and human failings.”
Mr. Bogenschutz,
who has represented dozens of Florida judges, recently married one of his
clients. His wife, Ana Gardiner, is the former Broward judge who was disbarred
by the Florida Supreme Court this month for lying about an “emotional
relationship” with a prosecutor during a 2007 case. (The defendant was granted
a new trial and is now serving a life sentence instead of being on death row,
as Ms. Gardiner had ruled.)
“You shouldn’t
get special treatment because you’re a judge, and you shouldn’t be treated more
harshly if you are a judge,” said Marc Shiner, who represents Judge Cynthia G.
Imperato, who was arrested in November for driving under the influence. “They
are trying to make an example out of her.”
*******
Supreme Court Justice Bridge arrested for drunken driving
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
STAFF
March 1, 2003
SEATTLE -- Supreme Court Justice Bobbe Bridge was
arrested on charges of drunken driving and hit-and-run Friday after leaving the
scene of an accident about a mile from her home in the Magnolia neighborhood,
according to the Seattle Police Department.
Bridge, a
prominent jurist and children's advocate who has served on the Supreme Court
for four years, issued a public apology for the incident on Sunday and said she
would seek help.
“I know my
behavior was inexcusable,” Bridge said in a written statement. “I apologize to
the people of the State of Washington, to my fellow members of the State
Supreme Court and to my family and friends. There are not words to describe how
deeply remorseful I am. I thank God no one was hurt.”
At 10:30, about
an hour after the crash, the jurist's blood alcohol level was tested at .219
and .227 at a precinct office of the Seattle Police. Moss said officers did a
background check on Bridge and confirmed it was her first drinking and driving
offense before letting her go.
Bridge said in
her statement that the incident has caused her to “take a serious look at my
use of alcohol.”
“I am going to
seek a professional alcohol evaluation and will diligently pursue any
recommended treatment,” she said. “The people of this State have a right to
expect that their public officials will admit their errors and deal with the
consequences with integrity and honesty. The events of Friday evening were my
fault, and I accept full responsibility. No one is more disappointed in me than
I am. "
Bridge is accused
of attempting to leave the scene of an accident next to Magnolia Presbyterian
Church in the 2800 block of Dravus in the Magnolia area at 9:17 p.m. Friday. A
citizen who witnessed the accident blocked in Bridge's Mercedes, then called police,
who arrested Bridge, said Seattle police spokesman Scott Moss. Police would not
identify the witness Sunday.
Bridge’s Mercedes
apparently grazed the side of an unoccupied pick-up, which was parked on the
side of Magnolia Presbyterian Church. No one was injured. Bridge’s attorney,
Jeffrey Robinson, said Bridge had not been aware at the time that she had
struck the pick-up.
A member and the
pastor of the Magnolia Presbyterian Church told the P-I that they were shaken
up by the incident. The church’s “Kids Club,” a group of about a dozen 6- to
12-year-olds had left the building about 15 minutes before the accident.
“That is kind of
chilling,” said Pastor Ron Davis, who said it was the first accident that had
occurred near the church during his 11 years there.
Bridge was
arraigned Saturday in Seattle Municipal Court, where she entered a plea of not
guilty. But Robinson said that he and she had not yet discussed what her plea
would be at her next hearing date, set for March 26 in Seattle Municipal Court.
“There’s not
going to be any legal manuevering or anything else,” Robinson said. “She is
simply going to deal with this in a direct and forthright way.”
Gov. Gary Locke
appointed Bridge to the Washington State Supreme Court in 1999 to fill a vacancy.
Previously, she had served as a Superior Court Judge in King County and has
been active in many other organizations as a volunteer.
Bridge did not
indicate in her statement that she intended to resign her position. Instead,
she expressed her hope that she would “hope to continue to serve the people of
our State on the Supreme Court for many years to come.”