The state’s judicial watchdog is moving forward on an ethics charge against a Broward judge whose campaign for office last year relied in part on fabricated allegations of judicial misconduct in another county.
County Judge Lauren Peffer was elected to office last August after a campaign in which she focused on the need to restore public confidence in the judiciary. As evidence of the lack of public trust, Peffer promoted a book criticizing the judiciary in Orlando, a self-published diatribe by a disgruntled former employee who also posted fake recordings implicating the Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court and the Chief Judge of the 11th Circuit Court of Florida in inappropriate and unprofessional conduct.
The state’s Judicial Qualifications Commission, which polices cases of judicial misconduct, originally filed two counts against Peffer, but on Wednesday that commission announced it was proceeding with only one — a rule requiring judges and candidates to “maintain the dignity appropriate to judicial office and act in a manner consistent with the impartiality, integrity, and independence of the judiciary.”
A second charge originally filed against Peffer, accusing her of inappropriate “pledges, promises, or commitments of any kind,” was not included in Wednesday’s announcement.
During the campaign, Peffer acknowledged the problems with the book and stopped referring to it in her campaign after its veracity was questioned. She won the election with 52.5% of the vote.
The Judicial Qualifications Commission is faulting her for failing to verify the allegations raised in the Orlando book or to contact any of the judges involved before promoting the book as part of her campaign.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457.
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