Opinion ID: 1943296
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Weight Given JQC Recommendation

Text: When we assess the effect of misconduct on a judge's present fitness to remain in office, we normally place great weight on the Hearing Panel's disciplinary recommendation. See In re Renke, 933 So.2d 482, 493 (Fla.2006). However, our recent decision in Renke demonstrates that the Court exercises its independent judgment in fulfilling its responsibility to protect the public from judges who are unfit to hold office. There we overrode a JQC recommendation and removed a judge who attained office through an election in which he committed campaign finance violations that amounted to a fraud on the electorate and were fundamentally inconsistent with the responsibilities of office. Id. at 495. As we stated in In re Davey, 645 So.2d 398, 404 (Fla.1994) (quoting In re LaMotte, 341 So.2d at 516), although the findings and recommendations of the Judicial Qualifications Commission are of persuasive force and should be given great weight . . ., the ultimate power and responsibility in making a determination rests with this Court. In Davey, we rejected a JQC recommendation of removal from office because we found inadequate proof that Judge Davey committed one of the alleged acts of misconduct or that he deliberately made false statements before the JQC. Id. at 409. Here, all three instances of misconduct found by the Hearing Panel are supported by clear and convincing evidence. In this case, we reject the Hearing Panel's recommendation that Judge Sloop remain in office. Although the Hearing Panel concluded that there was not clear and convincing evidence of present unfitness, its recommendation is weakened by concerns suggesting that the Panel considers Judge Sloop only conditionally and temporarily fit to continue. First, the Hearing Panel recommended that the Court require Judge Sloop to continue his treatment and medication and file a biennial report confirming his treatment status. More importantly, the Hearing Panel recommended that Judge Sloop be required to retire from the bench at the end of his current term, in January 2011, and not seek service as a senior judge. A determination that Judge Sloop is fit to remain in office for four years but unfit after that point would convey greater concern for the welfare of the judge than the welfare of the public. In striving to ensure a fair and impartial judiciary, we owe our allegiance to the people of Florida, not to individual judges. If Judge Sloop is fit to remain in office now, his misconduct to date would not render him unfit four years from now. Conversely, if that misconduct warrants mandatory early retirement in four years, it demonstrates unfitness to hold judicial office now. We distinguish In re Downey, 937 So.2d 643 (Fla.2006), in which we accepted a stipulated disciplinary recommendation that permitted a judge to remain in office until the end of his term, less than six months from the date of our decision. We concluded that under the facts and circumstances of that case, the stipulation present[ed] a reasonable, expeditious, and assured way of securing Judge Downey's permanent removal from office. Id. at 649. In contrast, Judge Sloop's case does not come to us as a stipulation, and the recommendation of an enforced early retirement in four years does not present an expeditious method of removing an unfit judge from office.