On Monday, May 19, 2025, Florida Politics reported that the Florida Supreme Court will publicly reprimand Broward County Judge Mardi Levey Cohen on June 3, following a judicial misconduct investigation. Cohen will also face a 10-day suspension without pay due to actions during the 2022 election cycle that violated judicial conduct standards.

The Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC) investigation revealed two incidents involving Cohen. In the first, on July 15, 2022, Cohen forwarded an unauthenticated email to a representative of the Wynmoor Condominium Democratic Club. The email, purportedly from a relative of Cohen’s opponent, Kaysia Earley, alleged that Earley committed a crime by obtaining funds from the Paycheck Protection Program. It further claimed, without evidence, that Earley falsely accused her supervisor at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office of racism and harassment to secure a settlement and submitted false information on food stamp applications. The JQC noted that the email’s sender, claiming to be Earley’s sister, suggested hiring a private investigator to verify the claims, which Cohen did not do.

In a second incident, Cohen sent a church where Earley campaigned a copy of an IRS complaint she filed, challenging the church’s tax-exempt status. Cohen used a false return address to imply the complaint came directly from the IRS. She later acknowledged that her actions did not meet the high standards of the Code of Judicial Conduct but maintained she only intended to inform the church about the potential risks of campaign activities to its tax-exempt status. The JQC, led by Vice Chair Michelle Morley, concluded that the timing and circumstances suggested less honorable intentions, describing Cohen’s actions as inappropriate negative campaigning unfit for judicial elections.

Cohen, admitted to the Florida Bar in 1987, has served as a Broward County Court judge since November 2010. Her prior roles include Assistant Attorney General, Assistant State Attorney, and Specially Appointed Public Defender.

This disciplinary action follows heightened scrutiny of Broward County’s judiciary. On May 15, 2025, the Florida Supreme Court indefinitely suspended Broward Circuit Judge Gary Farmer without pay for making lewd jokes from the bench and engaging in conduct that undermined public trust in the judiciary.

Additionally, the JQC filed charges against Broward Judge Lauren Peffer for promoting a fabricated recording involving several Florida judges and endorsing a self-published book she had not read, which criticized numerous judges and included a disclaimer with over 1,300 synonyms for the word “sex.”

 

 

Source: Florida Politics