Broward circuit decide Stefanie Moon faces self-discipline from the Florida Supreme Court docket after she admitted to violating, amongst different issues, judicial canons that bar a decide from marketing campaign actions whereas on the bench – conduct first uncovered in a report by NBC6 Investigates final Could.
A state fee that investigates judicial misconduct this week made public its advice to the Florida Supreme Court docket that Moon face a public reprimand – a punishment Moon has consented to, although the ultimate self-discipline will probably be as much as the state’s highest courtroom.
The Judicial {Qualifications} Fee was “fairly disturbed” by Moon asking an legal professional in courtroom why he didn’t return her in any other case correct, after-hours cellphone name final January asking him to serve on the marketing campaign committee that was finally profitable in serving to her get re-elected final 12 months.
It described “the inherently coercive nature of the interplay between a robed decide in courtroom questioning an legal professional who seems with a shopper concerning the legal professional’s assist or non-support of their marketing campaign,” the JQC wrote, including her conduct “might fairly elevate questions concerning the decide’s integrity or impartiality.”
The lawyer in query, Michael Jones, instructed NBC6 Investigates in Could the interplay made him “extraordinarily uncomfortable,” as he was supporting Moon’s opponent, legal professional Johnny Weekes.
Judges looking for reelection and their opponents fall underneath very strict guidelines about when and the way they’ll marketing campaign, and courthouse amenities are often off limits.
Whereas judges and candidates can’t instantly solicit contributions to their campaigns, they’re allowed to recruit a “committee of accountable individuals” whose members might search contributions and handle their expenditures, in addition to collect public statements of assist for the decide, in response to the Florida canons that govern judicial conduct.
So Moon did nothing flawed when she known as Jones from her private cellphone on Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, after courthouse hours and left a voicemail saying: “That is Decide Stefanie Moon. I hope you’re properly. I’m reaching out as a result of I’m placing collectively my reelection committee and I used to be questioning should you would conform to serve. Should you would kindly return my name, I’d enormously recognize it.”
However Jones didn’t return her name, a difficulty she raised in her courtroom after a Feb. 23 continuing with considered one of Jones’ purchasers.
A courtroom reporter’s audio recording reveals typical exchanges among the many decide, legal professionals and events. The authorized dialogue ends after Decide Moon says, “The matter is hereby dismissed. I want you well being and security. Have an excellent day.”
Then her consideration turned to Jones.
“Mr. Jones.”
“Sure, your honor,” Jones replied.
“I left you a message,” the decide states, simply earlier than the JQC discovered Moon “deactivated the courtroom audio recording.”
Jones recounted to NBC6 what he mentioned occurred subsequent.
“I mentioned, ‘Sure, decide. You probably did.’ And she or he requested me why I did not return the courtroom’s name. I hesitated and I mentioned, I would be joyful to clarify why I did not return the courtroom’s name if we are able to go sidebar,” the place within the courtroom the place the decide can converse with legal professionals with out others within the courtroom listening to them. “And she or he paused as I began to method. She mentioned, ‘No. Not right now. That will not be needed.’”
Moon admitted asking concerning the name was “inappropriate and will have been perceived as coercive,” the JQC mentioned, however she denied asking Jones why he didn’t return the decision, saying she didn’t have to ask “as a result of the rationale was self-evident.”
However the JQC mentioned if it “accepts Decide Moon’s clarification that she didn’t have to have a follow-up dialog as a result of the rationale for the unreturned name was self-evident, that essentially raises the query of why the decide introduced up the decision within the first place.”
Moon has declined or not responded to a number of requests for remark from NBC6.
Along with discovering Moon violated judicial canons in her dealings with Jones, the JQC additionally discovered – and Moon admitted – she dedicated misconduct by contacting a witness in considered one of her circumstances exterior the presence of events to the case. She known as and questioned a psychological well being counselor for a person accused of stalking earlier than that counselor might testify in her courtroom, in response to courtroom filings.
In recommending a public reprimand, quite than a extra severe punishment, the JQC famous Moon admitted to her misconduct, “expressed deep remorse” and accepted the really useful sanction.
Moon, a lawyer for 30 years, has been assigned to household courtroom since she was first elected to a six-year time period in 2018 after dealing with each civil and legal circumstances as an assistant US legal professional and in personal observe.
Weekes, her opponent within the August 2024 major, mentioned throughout the marketing campaign he ran as a result of “the candor, the respect that is in that courtroom simply just isn’t there. And I assumed Broward County wanted one thing completely different,” he mentioned.
However voters disagreed and in August re-elected Moon to the bench with practically 65 % of the vote.
