Broward County Judge Lauren Peffer is seeking to dismiss some of the ethics charges filed against her last month stemming from her use of a recording during her 2024 campaign that was made with generative artificial intelligence and her promotion of a scandalous book.
During Peffer’s first judicial campaign last year, she referenced a book written and published by a former courthouse employee in the Orlando area called, “The Ninth Circus Court of Florida, My 30-Year Job from Hell!” in an endorsement interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel editorial board.
Peffer pointed to the book, written by a disgruntled employee who had been fired, as an example of “recent revelations” that had “highlighted an image crisis within Florida’s judiciary,” according to the Judicial Qualifications Commission’s notice of formal charges filed in May.
Asked by the Sun Sentinel about evidence of the book creating public mistrust, Peffer sent the newspaper a link to an 18-minute recording of what purported to be a phone call about the book between Chief Judge Lisa Munyon, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz and Justice Renatha Francis, according to the notice of charges. It was a fake recording, which Peffer’s attorney said in a recent court filing was forwarded to her “by another lawyer.”
The formal charges allege that Peffer’s actions violated two rules of the Florida Code of Judicial Conduct that govern “inappropriate political activity.”
The motion to dismiss filed Tuesday is seeking to dismiss charges related to one of the two rules. Peffer’s attorney argued that the language of that specific rule does not apply to the allegations against Peffer.
The Judicial Qualifications Commission did not provide any facts in the charging document that Peffer “made pledges, promises, or commitments of any kind,” her attorney wrote, nor did Peffer misrepresent herself or her opponent, make public comments about a pending or impending court proceeding or commend or criticize jurors for a verdict, all actions that are prohibited under the specific cited rule.
Peffer in a filing with Florida’s Supreme Court on Friday formally denied the charges, though she admitted she had not “carefully listened” to the deepfake AI recording and did not try to determine its veracity before providing it to the newspaper. She also admitted that she did not read the disgruntled employee’s book before referencing it to the Sun Sentinel and did not research the claims made in it.
Broward judge denies violating judicial conduct code over deepfake AI call