Opinion ID: 1681700
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: motion to recuse the trial court

Text: Finally, Riechmann argues that Judge Bagley engaged in improper and prejudicial ex parte communications with the State during the postconviction proceedings and should have been disqualified. Specifically, Riechmann claims that on February 27, 2003, one of the prosecutors handling Riechmann's postconviction proceedings sent a letter to Judge Bagley and copied Riechmann's counsel. The letter stated that Judge Bagley's judicial assistant had contacted the prosecutor's secretary to obtain copies of depositions of certain evidentiary hearing witnesses. The prosecutor responded to the request by letter to Judge Bagley, declining to provide the requested material. Riechmann claims his counsel did not receive the letter until the day after Judge Bagley denied postconviction relief; thereafter, Riechmann's counsel immediately filed a motion to get the facts and a motion to disqualify Judge Bagley because the judge sought nonrecord evidence ex parte. In considering a motion to disqualify, the trial court is limited to determining the legal sufficiency of the motion itself and may not pass on the truth of the facts alleged. Rodriguez v. State, 919 So.2d 1252, 1274 (Fla.2005); Fla. R. Jud. Admin. 2.330(f). In determining legal sufficiency, the question is whether the alleged facts would create in a reasonably prudent person a well-founded fear of not receiving a fair and impartial trial. Rodriguez, 919 So.2d at 1274. The Code of Judicial Conduct prevents judges from initiating or considering ex parte communications concerning a pending proceeding. Fla.Code Jud. Conduct, Canon 3(B)(7). In addition to this prohibition, this Court has also denounced improper ex parte communication: [A] judge should not engage in any conversation about a pending case with only one of the parties participating in that conversation. Obviously, . . . this would not include strictly administrative matters not dealing in any way with the merits of the case. Rose v. State, 601 So.2d 1181, 1183 (Fla. 1992). Without setting forth a bright-line rule, this Court has provided insight into what may (and may not) be permissible, administrative ex parte communication. See Rodriguez, 919 So.2d at 1275 (concluding that the ex parte communication was purely administrative when the state attorney, on the public records request, informed the judge that the hearing was not a status hearing, but an evidentiary hearing); Arbelaez v. State, 775 So.2d 909, 916 (Fla.2000) (determining that the ex parte communication was purely administrative when the communications related to the time period for the State to file its 3.850 response and set dates for an evidentiary hearing and the defendant's public records hearing). Riechmann contends that the prosecutor-judge communication demonstrates that Judge Bagley was conducting an independent investigation into the case by seeking access to depositions that had not been introduced into evidence. However, Riechmann's only support of this theory is his speculation that because Judge Bagley communicated about obtaining depositions, he may also have communicated about other topics. Further, it is undisputed that the State rebuffed Judge Bagley's request for the depositions, and Riechmann has not pointed to any indication in the record that Judge Bagley made any other requests for information or considered any improper information in resolving the pending claims. We reject Riechmann's assertion that the contact here was similar to that we disapproved in Smith v. State, 708 So.2d 253, 255 (Fla.1998) (concluding that the trial court's ex parte communication was improper when the judge telephoned the state attorney to prepare the order denying 3.850 relief, called the state attorney again requesting him to make a deletion in the order, and discussed a motion to disqualify with the state attorney). We find no error in the trial court's denial of the motion to recuse. There simply is no indication in this record that the trial court had any substantive ex parte contact with the State, and the inquiry concerning the depositions, communicated by the court's judicial assistant, did not result in any improper or nonrecord material being considered by the court. Nevertheless, we again caution that trial judges should be careful to avoid ex parte contacts of any kind, even through the use of judicial assistants, that could be perceived to have been made without the knowledge of all parties.