FLORIDA SUPREME COURT FINES, SUSPENDS BROWARD JUDGE OVER ETHICS VIOLATIONS
The Florida Supreme Court on Friday approved a recommendation from the Judicial Qualifications Commission to fine and suspend Broward Judge Lauren Peffer.
Peffer must pay a $10,000 fine, serve a 30-day suspension, and receive a public reprimand for violating judicial ethics rules, as Florida’s court watchdog agency had recommended. Peffer cited a scandalous book and a fabricated recording of a phone call between judges as examples of mistrust in the judicial system during her 2024 campaign for judge, but did not read the book or verify the phone call’s validity.
In its order Friday, the state Supreme Court left it to the chief judge of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, where Peffer presides, to decide when her suspension will take effect. The court also required Peffer to pay court costs.
While campaigning for the county court judge seat she now holds, Peffer spoke with the South Florida Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and cited a book by a disgruntled former employee of the Orlando-area judicial system that contained salacious statements and vulgar references to current and past judges. She used the book as an example of “recent revelations” that “highlighted an image crisis within Florida’s judiciary,” though she later admitted in court proceedings that she had never read it, the Sun Sentinel previously reported.
After the interview, Peffer shared a recording with the Sun Sentinel of what she said was a phone call discussing the book between Chief Judge Lisa Munyon, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz and Justice Renatha Francis, according to court records in the case. The Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission said the call, however, was fabricated and likely made with generative AI. Peffer had cited the book and recording as examples of mistrust in the judicial system.
The JQC filed charges against Peffer last summer, alleging she violated judicial ethics rules and failed to exercise due diligence when citing the book without reading it and not verifying whether the recording she shared with the media organization was legitimate.
Peffer testified at a final hearing of the JQC in Fort Lauderdale in December that she never would have cited the book to the Sun Sentinel had she read the first few pages.
“I mean both the book and the recording are — they are racist and sexist and frankly it’s thuggish. And it really had no place anywhere within my judicial campaign … it was a very shortsighted, ridiculous mistake,” Peffer said at the hearing.
Peffer also expressed remorse for sharing the fabricated call, according to a transcript of the hearing.
In filings with the Florida Supreme Court, Peffer denied having a “win at all costs” attitude. She called herself a career animal rights advocate and founder of a nonprofit animal rescue organization, and said she had a courteous, positive, and professional relationship with her opponent, a candidate known for child advocacy and criminal defense.
She also said she did not intend to promote the book’s validity and had pointed to it as an example of criticism of the judiciary.
In her Supreme Court filing, she also said she does not contest the hearing panel’s findings of fact, conclusion of law, and recommendations of discipline. She admitted that while unintentional, she violated Florida’s Judicial Code of Conduct.
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