cited a salacious tell-all about the judiciary<\/a> in the Ninth Circuit, which covers the Orlando area. The book was written by a disgruntled former employee who made shocking but unsubstantiated allegations about misconduct. The book was self-published, had not been reviewed by any independent news organization and did not result in a single disciplinary action against any of the judges named in it.<\/p>\nIn an endorsement interview with the Sun Sentinel, Peffer said she was running for office to restore public confidence in the bench. She cited the book as evidence the judiciary\u2019s reputation was in question. When asked for evidence the book was being taken seriously, Peffer later provided a link to a recording purporting to be a phone call of Florida\u2019s Chief Justice, Carlos Mu\u00f1iz, discussing the book\u2019s contents with fellow Florida Supreme Court Justice Renatha Francis and Lisa Munyon, chief administrative judge of the Ninth Circuit.<\/p>\n
That recording, in which all three judges appeared to validate the book\u2019s criticisms, was an AI-generated deepfake, and Mu\u00f1iz disavowed it while appearing at Peffer\u2019s hearing via Zoom Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole thing is kind of cartoonish and ridiculous,\u201d the Chief Justice said.<\/p>\n
![\"Florida](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/tfl-l-judge-peffer-ethics5.jpg\")
Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Carlos G. Mu\u00f1iz testifies via Zoom on Tuesday during Broward County Judge Lauren Peffer’s ethics hearing at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale. (Carline Jean\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n
The recording was hosted on the web site of the same company that published the book. The author was the company\u2019s sole registered agent, according to Florida business records.<\/p>\n
Peffer stopped citing the book as soon as she became aware its contents were in question and that the recording was a fake. But the Judicial Qualifications Commission filed ethics charges against her anyway, saying she should never have cited the book or the recording in the first place.<\/p>\n
Peffer, taking the stand in her defense, agreed. \u201cIt was a substantial lapse in judgement,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s mortifying to hear that recording now,\u201d she said, referring to the Sun Sentinel\u2019s endorsement interview where she discussed the book.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou recognize as a candidate for judge that you have the potential to embarrass justices of the Supreme Court, that people believe that information came from them, right?\u201d asked JQC attorney Hank Coxe.<\/p>\n
Peffer said yes and added she would be \u201cdisappointed\u201d in a candidate who spread misinformation about her. She also said that was not her intent. \u201cI did not wake up at any point during this campaign and decide to put somebody or their reputation in my crosshairs\u2026 That doesn\u2019t change the result.\u201d<\/p>\n
The JQC will decide later whether to recommend any disciplinary action, but the ultimate decision will lie with the Florida Supreme Court, which has the discretion to be less or more lenient. In prior cases, judges\u2019 acknowledgment and cooperation with the JQC have been taken into account in the outcomes.<\/p>\n
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com<\/a> or 954-356-4457.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now that she\u2019s a judge, Lauren Peffer said she realizes more acutely why she should not have cited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,112,28,29,249,251,250,114,266,115,109],"class_list":["post-85879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-florida","tag-florida-news","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85879","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=85879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85879\/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=85879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}