{"id":172792,"date":"2026-02-28T12:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T12:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/172792\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T12:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T12:20:07","slug":"suspension-fine-recommended-for-broward-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/172792\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspension, fine recommended for Broward judge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida\u2019s courts watchdog agency has recommended a 30-day suspension, a public reprimand and a $10,000 fine against Broward County Judge Lauren Peffer after she cited a scandalous book and a fabricated recording<\/a> of a phone call as an example of mistrust in the judiciary system during her 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n

While campaigning for the county court judge seat she now holds, Peffer cited in an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel Editorial Board a book<\/a> written by a disgruntled former employee of the Orlando-area judicial system that contained salacious statements and vulgar references to current and past judges. She used the book as an example<\/a> of \u201crecent revelations\u201d that \u201chighlighted an image crisis within Florida\u2019s judiciary,\u201d though she later admitted in court proceedings she had never read the book.<\/p>\n

After the interview, Peffer shared a recording with the Sun Sentinel that was purported to be a phone call discussing the book between Chief Judge Lisa Munyon, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Carlos Mu\u00f1iz and Justice Renatha Francis, according to court records in the case. The call, however, was fabricated and likely made with generative AI, the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission said.<\/p>\n

The FJQC filed charges against Peffer last summer, alleging she violated judicial ethics rules and failed to exercise due diligence by, in part, never reading the book she cited and not verifying whether the recording she shared with the newspaper was legitimate.<\/p>\n

Broward judge admits lapse in judgment over 2024 campaign<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cJudge Peffer perpetuated a false and undignified perception of the judiciary that ensnared not only those justices and judges who were specifically named in the Book and the Recording, but also the entire state judiciary,\u201d the FJQC Hearing Panel wrote in a court filing recommending discipline Friday.<\/p>\n

Peffer testified at a final hearing<\/a> in Fort Lauderdale in December that she never would have cited the book to the Sun Sentinel had she read the first few pages.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean both the book and the recording are \u2014 they are racist and sexist and frankly it\u2019s thuggish. And it really had no place anywhere within my judicial campaign \u2026 it was a very shortsighted, ridiculous mistake,\u201d Peffer said at the hearing.<\/p>\n

The judge also in her testimony expressed remorse for sharing the fabricated call, according to a transcript of the hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 I cannot justify or explain why now listening to it I thought it was a valid piece of content at the time, but I did,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The watchdog agency\u2019s panel recommended Friday that the costs of the proceedings be taxed against Peffer, in addition to the 30-day suspension, public reprimand and fine.<\/p>\n

The Florida Supreme Court will ultimately determine the discipline.<\/p>\n

Peffer\u2019s attorney did not respond to a voicemail or email Friday evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s courts watchdog agency has recommended a 30-day suspension, a public reprimand and a $10,000 fine against Broward…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,112,28,29,249,251,250,114,115,109],"class_list":{"0":"post-172792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-broward-county","9":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-news","12":"tag-fort-lauderdale","13":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","14":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news","15":"tag-latest-headlines","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-social"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}