Update: Judges Whose Ethics Were Questioned Run Again
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Two Broward campaigns are shaping up as referendums on Judical ethics.
Broward Circuit Judge Dale Cohen and former Judge Matthew Destry have been enmeshed in ethics scandals in their careers.
Cohen will be battling for his job this year against former County Court Judge Ian Richards, who filed to run this week.
Destry, who quit the bench while under investigation and now wants his old job back, is running against incumbent Circuit Judge Frank Ladee.
Here is Destry’s story:
He sentenced a criminal to 60 years in prison. He then met with two activists, who asked the man’s sentence be suspended.
Destry suspended the sentence and at least one activist then worked for the judge’s 2016 campaign reelection.
After he lost the reelection, Destry quit office before the end of his term ending the probe into the allegations.
But the Judicial Qualifications Committee still had some words to say about Destry:
“Taken together, [Destry’s] actions create the appearance of a quid pro quo exchange of political support for favorable judicial action.”
And here is Cohen’s story:
Cohen was formally reprimanded by the Florida Supreme Court for violating the code of judicial conduct. He was accused of trying to embarrass and intimidate a lawyer who was involved in a lawsuit against his wife.
The lawyer had worked with former Judge Pedro Dijols’ campaign against Cohen’s wife Mardi Levey Cohen in 2008. The lawyer accused Levey Cohen of making a threatening phone call to him.
Due to allegations swirling around the election, there was considerable bad blood between the lawyer and the Cohens.
Amid all this, the lawyer had a case in Dale Cohen’s court. He asked the judge recuse himself.
Cohen required an evidentiary hearing on the recusal motion and called Mardi Levey Cohen to testify. The judge said he wanted his wife to refute some of the allegations made by the lawyer in his motion.
“Judge Cohen violated several judicial canons when he called his wife to the witness stand and questioned her regarding facts set forth in a recusal motion and allowed his conduct on the bench to be influenced by social and family relationships,” according to a report in the Florida Bar News. “…Judge Cohen called his wife as a witness to refute the allegations in the motion. Judge Cohen later held additional hearings in which he questioned the attorney’s clients and threatened to file a complaint against the attorney with The Florida Bar.”
The Supremes ruled when they reprimanded Cohen in August 2012:
“…Judge Cohen was seeking to use the power of his office to vindicate his wife against accusations by an attorney who had supported one of her opponents in a previous election…such a hearing undermines the integrity and independence of the judiciary.”
After this article was posted, Cohen wrote Browardbeat with his comments, which are below in bold face in the comments section. His comment, in part, states:
“I acknowledge that 12 years ago I made a mistake in a 5 minute hearing. I did not intend to intimidate the attorney. Additionally, I ruled in the lawyer’s favor at the hearing.
“Your characterization that the Florida Supreme Court “slapped” me down is misleading and inflammatory. The Court issued a reprimand, one of the lowest penalties they issue.
“You also failed to mention that in the opinion written by the Florida Supreme Court, the Court stated: Witnesses described Judge Cohen as a “SMART, FAIR, CONSCIENTIOUS JUDGE, WHO IS WELL RESPECTED IN BROWARD COUNTY”. They also wrote that the ethics violated were “fact specific, relate to one situation, and will not be repeated”. That hardly sounds like a ‘slap down’.
“Your blog entry fails to reveal that I have now been a judge for 14 years, and a member of the legal profession for 33 years. For the 12 years following that one hearing, I have served Broward County with great dignity. I have presided over tens of thousands of hearings and trials, and there have been no issues with my integrity and ethics on the bench. I have served in the criminal division, the dependency division and the family division without any ethical issues.”
So what voters are facing this year is the choice between former Judge Ian Richards and Cohen, who was slapped down by the Florida Supreme Court for his questionable ethics.
And incumbent Judge Frank Ladee against Destry, who was chastised for mixing politics and sentencing.
April 16th, 2020 at 9:04 pm
Ian Richards is an upstanding man. He even jumped off the bench to stop a man threatening a witness. Great judge.
April 16th, 2020 at 9:10 pm
Dale and Mardi Cohen are both are “questionable.”
April 18th, 2020 at 11:42 am
Buddy, I am disappointed that you characterize me as a person of questionable ethics. Nothing could be further from the truth. I acknowledge that 12 years ago I made a mistake in a 5 minute hearing. I did not intend to intimidate the attorney. Additionally, I ruled in the lawyer’s favor at the hearing.
Your characterization that the Florida Supreme Court “slapped” me down is misleading and inflammatory. The Court issued a reprimand, one of the lowest penalties they issue.
You also failed to mention that in the opinion written by the Florida Supreme Court, the Court stated: Witnesses described Judge Cohen as a “SMART, FAIR, CONSCIENTIOUS JUDGE, WHO IS WELL RESPECTED IN BROWARD COUNTY”. They also wrote that the ethics violated were “fact specific, relate to one situation, and will not be repeated”. That hardly sounds like a “slap down”.
Your blog entry fails to reveal that I have now been a judge for 14 years, and a member of the legal profession for 33 years. For the 12 years following that one hearing, I have served Broward County with great dignity. I have presided over tens of thousands of hearings and trials, and there have been no issues with my integrity and ethics on the bench. I have served in the criminal division, the dependency division and the family division without any ethical issues.
Please consult any family lawyer in Broward County about my reputation and ethics and please feel free to publish their opinion of me as quickly as you post an entry that tarnishes my reputation.
Thank you Buddy and be safe.
Dale Cohen
April 20th, 2020 at 10:16 am
Thank you for posting my response. I have always acknowledged that I made that one mistake 12 years ago. I did not give the lawyer a difficult time in the hearing, I have the transcript for your review, and I granted his request to recuse on a permanent basis. So this “horrible hearing” that I held, he won and I gave him everything he asked for. I have spoken with that lawyer a dozen times since that hearing. Yet, I should not have held the hearing. Since then, for over 12 years, I have conducted tens of thousands of hearings, without incident. I continue to have an excellent reputation in the legal community. None of us are perfect, we all make mistakes in our daily lives, are we to be dammed forever for one mistake. As a lawyer, I was board certified, a Florida Superlawyer and AV rated, the highest rating for a lawyer. That’s why when you question my ethics over one incident in a 34 year career it is flabbergasting to me.
Again, thank you for posting and be safe.
Dale Cohen
April 25th, 2020 at 5:03 am
Hello Mr. Dale Cohen are you the Broward judge that first recognized gay marriage as legal in Florida and struck down Florida’s Ban on gay marriages?
April 25th, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Judge Dale Cohen are you the Florida judge that “declared the state’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional and, for the first time, ordered officials to recognize legal unions (gay marriage) from other states”
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/04/florida-same-sex-marriage-unconstitutional/13589747/
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-gay-marriage-brassner-broward-20141208-story.html
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2014/12/broward-county-judge-again-rules-floridas-gay-marriage-ban-unconstitutional/
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2014/12/florida-broward-county-judge-grants-states-first-same-sex-divorce/
April 25th, 2020 at 2:45 pm
I have practiced before Judge Cohen during his long and distinguished tenure in the family division. He is the longest-serving judge currently on the family bench. His demeanor, ethics, professionalism and dedication as a judge has been beyond reproach. The single event in his otherwise spotless record, for which he was mildly chastised by the Florida Supreme Court, does not diminish his tireless service to our community. This is not a close call. Judge Cohen should be re-elected and retained. Every lawyer, including me, who practices in front of him respects him and supports him. He deserves your vote. He certainly has mine.