Judicial watchdog files charges against Broward judge who promoted salacious rumors, AI recording in campaign
Lauren Peffer, whose term on the bench began in January after she won the August 2024 primary, campaigned on a platform of restoring public confidence in the judiciary. As evidence that of that loss in confidence, Peffer made public references to a self-published book called 'The Ninth Circus Court of Florida,' a tell-all written by a former employee of the Orlando-area court system.
Those references to the book were made in an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel's Editorial Board when seeking the media company's endorsement. The Sun Sentinel did not endorse her.
The book painted the Ninth Circuit as a hotbed of corruption, but as Peffer's 2024 campaign was taking shape, there was no indication that the book Peffer promoted had any impact in that judicial circuit. It had no published reviews and no news organizations wrote or broadcast any stories about it.
Asked by the South Florida Sun Sentinel in June about the apparent silence surrounding the book, Peffer provided a link to a recording that purported to be a conversation about the book between Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz and Lisa Munyon, chief administrative judge of the Ninth Circuit. On the recording, those two judges are supposedly joined by Florida Supreme Court Justice Renatha Francis.
The recording was a fake, according to all three judges and the Judicial Qualifications Commission notice of charges, which accuse Peffer of failing to maintain the 'dignity appropriate to judicial office and act in a manner consistent with the impartiality, integrity, and independence of the judiciary,' as outlined in the state judicial canons.
'Artificially created deepfakes are a tool for misinformation and digital impersonation used to influence elections and spread disinformation,' the Judicial Qualifications Commission wrote in its announcement of formal charges. 'Your campaign theme was to restore the public's trust, but your behavior did the opposite and brought harm to the dignity and integrity of the judiciary.'
Peffer acknowledged the problems with the book in an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel in July and promised to stop referring to it in her campaign. She won the election with 52.5% of the vote.
But according to the JQC, she should never have cited the book in the first place. She admitted she never spoke to the author of the tell-all, never spoke to any of the judges involved in the accusations, and never tried to authenticate the recording before sharing it.
'Rather than promote public confidence in the judiciary, your actions eroded public confidence by perpetuating a false perception of illegal, unethical, or immoral conduct by Justices of the Florida Supreme Court, a Chief Judge, and others working within the judicial branch,' the JQC wrote.
Peffer has 20 days to file a written response to the charges.
She released a statement Friday afternoon pointing out that she had no ties to the author of the Ninth Circuit book, whose website also posted the deepfake recording.
'My sole intent was to provide an example of the scrutiny a judge faces and why the judiciary must hold itself to the highest moral standard,' she said. 'While unintentional, I take responsibility for my actions and apologize for the unfortunate effects my reference may have caused my fellow judiciary members.'
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457. Follow him on Threads.net/@rafael.olmeda.
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