The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday approved a 10-day suspension without pay and a public reprimand for a Broward County judge after a probe into allegations that she acted improperly during a 2022 re-election campaign.
Judge Mardi Levey Cohen was required to appear before the Supreme Court for the reprimand, though a date was not set in Thursday’s unanimous order.
The Supreme Court approved an agreement, known as a stipulation, reached by Levey Cohen and the state Judicial Qualifications Commission, which investigates judicial conduct.
A filing at the Supreme Court said Levey Cohen was accused, in part, of forwarding an email about her election opponent to a representative of the Wynmoor Condominium Democratic Club “without verifying the accuracy of the claims.”
The information, for example, included an accusation that Levey Cohen’s opponent obtained money from the federal Paycheck Protection Program during the COVID-19 pandemic when she did not qualify.
Also, the Supreme Court order said Levey Cohen filed an Internal Revenue Service complaint challenging the tax-exempt status of a church where her opponent campaigned. The order said Levey Cohen sent a copy of the complaint to the church with a false return address, “suggesting that the correspondence was from the IRS itself.”
READ MORE: Broward County Judge Gary Farmer defends himself against misconduct allegations
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