Judge Hobbs suspended and fined

Second Circuit Judge Barbara Kaye Hobbs has been suspended for 60 days without pay and ordered to pay a fine of $30,000 for her involvement in her son’s arrest.

The Supreme Court, acting May 19 in Case No. SC-20605, also ordered Hobbs to appear for a public reprimand and attend an employee management program.

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The court stopped short of removing Judge Hobbs from the bench, as suggested by the Judicial Qualifications Commission, saying removal is the most severe form of discipline a judge may face, and it is typically reserved for when a judge intentionally commits “serious and grievous wrongs of a clearly unredeeming nature.”

Although the court said it was not unsympathetic to Judge Hobbs’s family situation, “her violations of the Code of Judicial Conduct demonstrate a failure of judgment and a lack of appropriate boundaries between her judicial office and her personal life that cannot be tolerated in members of our judiciary.”

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The court said Judge Hobbs’s misconduct goes to the heart of the public’s ability to trust Florida’s judges to separate their personal lives and relationships from their official duties and exceeded the hearing panel’s recommended discipline by imposing the $30,000 fine.

Hobbs, who has served as a circuit judge since 2012, has no history of prior judicial misconduct.

The charges against Judge Hobbs stemmed in part from events relating to her adult son. In 2018, Judge Hobbs’s son was charged with misdemeanor DUI. Judge Hobbs retained an attorney to represent her son. Shortly thereafter, Judge Hobbs assumed another judge’s docket, and on that docket were two cases where her son’s attorney was the attorney of record. When the cases and her son’s attorney appeared before her, Judge Hobbs did not recuse herself nor did she disclose her connection with the attorney.

Then in 2019, Judge Hobbs’s son was arrested after allegedly shooting a person in his home. After learning of the arrest, Judge Hobbs went to the police station where her son was being held. Upon arrival, she asked to see her son but was told that only her son’s lawyer could meet with him. Judge Hobbs responded by saying that she was her son’s lawyer and was then permitted to enter the interrogation room where her son was being held.

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Judge Hobbs and her son had a 19-minute conversation which was unrecorded due to its privileged nature. Judge Hobbs also stayed with her son while he was interviewed by police, and at several points interjected to ask clarifying questions or to advise her son.

Judge Hobbs contacted the attorney who represented her son in his DUI matter, and he agreed to represent him again.

“Although Judge Hobbs’s representation of her son ended at that point, Judge Hobbs’s legal assistant attended, and sat at counsel table during his first appearance,” according to the opinion.

After the chief judge of the Second Circuit learned that Judge Hobbs’s son had been arrested, he met with Hobbs who explained that she had acted as her son’s attorney on the night of his arrest, and the chief judge advised her to report herself to the JQC, which she did the same day.

Judge Hobbs conceded guilt with respect to three charges pertaining to her actions on the night of her son’s arrest, but she contested the remaining charges. The Hearing Panel found Judge Hobbs guilty of the three charges for which she had conceded guilt and another charge related to her failure to supervise her judicial assistant with respect to the judicial assistant’s presence at counsel table, and other violations.

Source: https://t-tees.com
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