The Florida Supreme Court on Friday approved a recommendation from the Judicial Qualifications Commission to fine and suspend Broward Judge Lauren Peffer.<\/p>\n
Peffer must pay a $10,000 fine, serve a 30-day suspension, and receive a public reprimand for violating judicial ethics rules, as Florida\u2019s court watchdog agency had recommended. Peffer cited a scandalous book<\/a> and a fabricated recording of a phone call between judges as examples of mistrust in the judicial system during her 2024 campaign for judge, but did not read the book or verify the phone call\u2019s validity.<\/p>\n In its order<\/a> Friday, the state Supreme Court left it to the chief judge of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, where Peffer presides, to decide when her suspension will take effect. The court also required Peffer to pay court costs.\n<\/p>\n While campaigning for the county court judge seat she now holds, Peffer spoke with the South Florida Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and cited \u00a0a book<\/a> 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 that she had never read it, the Sun Sentinel previously reported.<\/p>\n After the interview, Peffer shared a recording with the Sun Sentinel of what she said was 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 Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission said the call, however, was fabricated and likely made with generative AI. Peffer had cited the book and recording as examples of mistrust in the judicial system.<\/p>\n The JQC filed charges against Peffer last summer, alleging she violated judicial ethics rules and failed to exercise due diligence when citing the book without reading it and not verifying whether the recording she shared with the media organization was legitimate.<\/p>\n