Inquiry Concerning a Judge JQC Nos. 2022-429, 2022-461 & 2022-502 Re: Hon. Mardi Levey Cohen

• Court: Supreme Court of Florida
• Decided: May 8, 2025
• Docket: SC2024-0992
• Status: Published

Opinion

Supreme Court of Florida ____________

No. SC2024-0992 ____________

INQUIRY CONCERNING A JUDGE JQC NOS. 2022-429, 2022-461 & 2022-502 RE: HON. MARDI LEVEY COHEN.

May 8, 2025

PER CURIAM.

In response to charges by the Judicial Qualifications

Commission, Broward County Judge Mardi Levey Cohen has

admitted that she engaged in conduct that violated the Code of

Judicial Conduct during her 2022 reelection campaign. The

Commission and Judge Levey Cohen agree that, as discipline, she

should be suspended for 10 days without pay and publicly

reprimanded. To that end, the parties have filed with our Court an

Amended Stipulation and Amended Findings and Recommendations

of Discipline. We accept the amended stipulation and findings and

will impose the recommended discipline. See art. V, § 12(c)(1), Fla.

Const. (authorizing the Court to accept, reject, or modify the

Commission’s findings and recommendations). The charges involve two distinct acts of misconduct. First,

after receiving an email from a person claiming to be a relative of

Judge Levey Cohen’s opponent in the 2022 campaign, the judge

disseminated unverified information that accused the opponent of

fraud. Second, to retaliate against a church where her opponent

had campaigned, Judge Levey Cohen filed an Internal Revenue

Service complaint challenging the church’s tax-exempt status. She

then sent the church a copy of the complaint with a false return

address of “IRS EO Classification,” suggesting that the

correspondence was from the IRS itself.

The Commission and Judge Levey Cohen agree that these

actions violated Canons 1, 2A, 7A(3)(b), and 7A(3)(e)(ii) of the Code

of Judicial Conduct. Those canons require judges always to

conduct themselves in a manner that upholds the integrity of the

judiciary, including when acting as a candidate for judicial office.

Canon 7A(3)(e)(ii) in particular prohibits judicial candidates from

knowingly misrepresenting facts about themselves or an opponent.

We agree that the record supports the Commission’s factual

findings and legal conclusions.

-2- That leaves the issue of discipline. Without minimizing the

seriousness of Judge Levey Cohen’s misconduct, the Commission

found as mitigating circumstances that the judge admitted her

misconduct, accepted responsibility, and cooperated with the

Commission in all respects. We accept the Commission’s

evaluation of Judge Levey Cohen’s responsiveness and contrition.

For all these reasons, we approve the Amended Stipulation

and Amended Findings and Recommendations of Discipline in this

matter. Judge Levey Cohen is hereby suspended from her judicial

duties for 10 days, without pay, effective on a date within 30 days of

the issuance of this opinion and as determined by the Chief Judge

of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit. We further order Judge Levey

Cohen to appear before this Court for the administration of a public

reprimand at a time to be established by the Clerk of this Court.

It is so ordered.

MUÑIZ, C.J., and CANADY, LABARGA, COURIEL, GROSSHANS, FRANCIS, and SASSO, JJ., concur.

NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING MOTION AND, IF FILED, DETERMINED.

Original Proceeding – Judicial Qualifications Commission

-3- Gregory W. Coleman, Chair, Hon. Gary Flower, Vice-Chair, Michelle Morley, Past Vice-Chair, Alexander J. Williams, General Counsel, and Hugh Brown, Assistant General Counsel, Judicial Qualifications Commission, Tallahassee, Florida,

for Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission, Petitioner

Michael A. Catalano, Miami, Florida,

for Judge Mardi Levey Cohen, Respondent

-4-