<\/p>\n
Destiny Alvarez and Judge Mavel Ruiz are running for judge in 11th Circuit Court Group 67.<\/p>\n
A Miami-Dade judge is accusing her challenger of conspiring with politically connected individuals to send out text messages that attack her partiality as a judge \u2014 and falsely state she was a communist who hates the United States, according to a recently filed lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Mavel Ruiz alleges in the Saturday filing that the internet attacks and text messages included defamatory statements \u2014 and were part of a \u201ccivil conspiracy\u201d \u2014 to defame Ruiz to \u201cimproperly and unlawfully influence the outcome\u201d of the Aug. 18 election.<\/p>\n
Ruiz, 65, says her opponent Destiny Alvarez, a Coral Gables attorney who was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2020, collaborated with others on the coordinated attack campaign in \u201corder to damage [Ruiz\u2019s] reputation, candidacy and her judicial career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz is suing Alvarez, 30. When reached for comment, Alvarez denied that she was affiliated with any political committee in connection to the attack campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am proud to be running a campaign focused on serving every resident of Miami with character, integrity, and fairness,\u201d Alvarez said in a statement. \u201cI have not been served with the lawsuit and remain focused on what matters most: making my case directly to the voters. From day one, this has been a positive campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several political committees and organizations were involved in the conspiracy, according to the suit. Also named as defendants are Fighting for a Better Miami-Dade, Miami-Dade Residents United, Miranda Advocacy LLC, New Vision For Our Courts, Order 66 LLC, and We Can Do Better Miami.<\/p>\n
Ruiz, the suit indicates, is also suing Nicholas Alvarez, Alvarez\u2019s husband, who is a political lobbyist; Alejandro Miranda, a political operative and manager of Miranda Advocacy and Order 66; and Damian Tapia, the registered agent of New Vision, Fighting For A Better Miami-Dade and Residents United.<\/p>\n
Five unidentified defendants are also listed. The filing says they are believed to be lobbyists, donors, consultants or officials.<\/p>\n
The suit points to several text messages accusing Ruiz of being biased against conservatives as well as an attack website under the judge\u2019s name as evidence that the defendants acted with a reckless disregard for the truth \u2014 and with malice \u2014 when they made those statements.<\/p>\n
Neither Ruiz nor her attorney, Henry Marines, responded to the Herald\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n
Is campaign linked to Trump library case?<\/p>\n
Ruiz was the target of mass text blasts that labeled the incumbent judge of more than a decade a \u201ccommunist\u201d who hates the United States and uses the \u201cjudiciary as a weapon to attack conservative patriots in our courts,\u201d according to the complaint. One of the messages, sent in Spanish, also said Ruiz \u201cprevented\u2019 President Donald J. Trump from building his Presidential Library in Miami.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2025, ruling in a lawsuit brought by historian Marvin Dunn, Ruiz blocked the transfer of land by Miami Dade College in downtown Miami for the Trump presidential library. Ruiz found that the historian would likely be able to prove that the college\u2019s Board of Trustees denied the public access to weigh in on the plans before they voted.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Trump library foundation officially owns downtown Miami land, after legal battle<\/a><\/p>\n Ruiz reversed her block on the land transfer after trustees took a do-over vote, and dismissed the case. Afterward, the college Board of Trustees successfully sought to disqualify her from presiding over future cases related to the college and the library, saying she was personally biased in favor of Dunn. Ruiz hugged him after one hearing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe accusation that a sitting judge is a \u2018communist\u2019 who hates her country is a false assertion of fact, not rhetorical hyperbole,\u201d the lawsuit said. \u201cIt imputes to [Ruiz] allegiance to an ideology and to organizations devoted to the overthrow of the government of the United States, disloyalty to her country, and characteristics and a condition incompatible with the impartial exercise of judicial office.\u201d<\/p>\n In the filing, Ruiz alleges that after her ruling in the Trump library case, a \u201cnetwork of politically affiliated persons\u201d recruited and financed Alvarez to run against her. They then organized the \u201ccoordinated campaign of disinformation\u201d directly tied to her ruling.<\/p>\n Ruiz\u2019s attorney highlighted that the PACs connected to the plot share an office suite, phone number and officers. The suit also claims that Alvarez\u2019s husband served \u201cas the conduit\u201d through which Alvarez communicated with those who funded and disseminated the attack ads. That was intended to conceal Alvarez\u2019s affiliation with the attacks, according to the filing.<\/p>\n Several of the PACs, the complaint states, contributed to Alvarez\u2019s campaign. One of the organizations, New Vision, paid another, Order 66, more than $25,000 for advertising, website development, translation services and text messages.<\/p>\n The listed defendants are also accused of coordinating an internet attack website using the judge\u2019s name, mavelruiz.com<\/a>. As of Wednesday morning, the website remains public.<\/p>\n Upon accessing the website, browsers are met with the statement \u201cJudge Mavel Ruiz, Unethical. Unfit. Untrustworthy.\u201d The website, which lists a disciplinary matter and cases in which Ruiz\u2019s ruling were reversed, says her judicial record reflects a \u201cpattern of abusing one\u2019s power.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRead as a whole, the Defamatory Website falsely states and implies to the ordinary reader that [Ruiz] has intentionally and corruptly abused, and continues to abuse, the power of her judicial office,\u201d the filing states.<\/p>\n Alvarez\u2019s bid for the judicial seat has been a topic of conversation in legal and political circles, namely due to the contentious nature of the race. Judicial races are supposed to be non-partisan.<\/p>\n In June, the Florida Bulldog published an article detailing how Alvarez\u2019s campaign was being bankrolled by Trump allies<\/a> who were irate by Ruiz\u2019s ruling in the presidential library case.<\/p>\n Alvarez, who graduated from law school at the University of Florida, is a member of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization. She also served as a gubernatorial fellow during Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 first term.<\/p>\n Alvarez, whose maiden name is Goede, is a managing partner at her father\u2019s law firm Goede DeBoest & Cross, according to the Florida Bulldog.<\/p>\n While she has handled civil litigation, insurance disputes and HOA and condominium law, she hasn\u2019t tried a case in front of a jury or a judge in the five years she has been practicing law.<\/p>\n A screengrab of the homepage of mavelruiz.com. mavelruiz.com <\/p>\n
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