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Judge Bronwyn Miller of the Third District Court of Appeal
Courtesy Third District Court of Appeal
A Miami judge is asking to dismiss the formal disciplinary charges a state oversight panel brought against her after reviewing her text messages with Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, arguing she did not attempt to “corrupt the process” but sought to “secure justice.”
Last month, the panel found probable cause to file formal charges against Judge Bronwyn Miller, a former prosecutor and current judge on Miami’s Third District Court of Appeal. The panel cited concerns over Miller’s texts with Fernandez Rundle, her former boss, and questioned Miller’s impartiality as a judge, saying the texts “appear to be coercive.”
In 69-page motion to dismiss filed on Wednesday, Miller’s attorney Warren Lindsey said Miller shouldn’t be disciplined because her texts with Fernandez Rundle were speech protected by the First Amendment. The texts, the attorney said, were also “unrelated to any matter that was pending before or ever likely to come before Judge Miller, bore no nexus to her official duties, and all involved an issue of great public concern.”
Lindsey argued in the filing that the issues raised in the texts were “of grave public importance,” and seeking to discipline Judge Miller for them is “inconsistent with fundamental constitutional considerations“ and “raises the spectre of the Orwellian state.”
The oversight panel’s investigation focused on Miller’s hundreds of text messages to Fernandez Rundle while Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson was presiding over hearings last year for the resentencing of Corey Smith. The reputed leader of Miami’s John Doe gang, Smith had been sentenced to death for murdering four people in Liberty City in the 1990s.
Prosecutors ultimately dropped the death penalty, and Smith was resentenced to 30 years in a plea deal in February after Wolfson removed two prosecutors from the case, citing misconduct. Smith’s defense attorneys accused prosecutors of coaching witnesses’ testimonies and speaking to a convicted murdered in a recorded jail call about a difficult witness.
Miller, who years earlier had been the prosecutor in Fernandez Rundle’s office that secured Smith’s convictions and death sentence, indicated in the text messages to Fernandez Rundle she was trying to protect her reputation, which she felt was tarnished during the proceedings.
The Miami Herald obtained Miller’s text messages with Fernandez Rundle and published them in an online article on Nov. 10, 2024. Three days later, on Nov. 13, Miller reported herself to the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission, which investigates allegations of judicial misconduct.
The commission found probable cause that Miller had misstepped. “Your communications cast reasonable doubt on your capacity to act impartially as a judge, undermine your appearance of integrity and impartiality, demean the judicial office, interfere with your proper performance of judicial duties, may lead to your frequent disqualification, and appear to be coercive,” the commission said in its filing.
The state Supreme Court will ultimately decide whether Miller will be sanctioned. If the charges are upheld, she could face penalties ranging from a reprimand to being removed from the bench.
“Judge Miller did not attempt to overturn or overthrow justice or pervert or corrupt the process by undermining morals, allegiance, or faith. The opposite is true,” her attorney wrote in her response. “Her actions were moral, and she sought to ensure justice was served by fully cooperating in the proceedings. She was committed to exposing the false testimony and fabricated events asserted by Smith in furtherance of his motion.”
Lindsey didn’t respond to the Herald’s request for comment as of Friday afternoon.
In the filing, Lindsey said Miller sent the messages from her personal cellphone, intended the texts to be private and believed they were legally protected from being made public.
“Judge Miller privately communicated with the State Attorney in her role as the former prosecutor, a current witness, a threat victim, and a concerned constituent,” the document says. “Her unique knowledge was essential to preserving the integrity of the convictions…”
Miller, according to the filing, was “constitutionally authorized” to communicate with Fernandez Rundle about the case. She was also concerned about the danger posed by Smith’s potential release.
“Her recollection was pivotal in dismantling the fabricated allegations of past prosecutorial misconduct, and, as the JQC is aware, her cooperation resurrected her historic safety fears,” the document says. “Smith was unrestrained and seated mere feet away from her in the courtroom when she testified. Smith had demonstrated on more than one occasion that he was capable of eliminating adverse witnesses.”
Addressed panel’s allegations
In her response to the allegations, Miller denied attempting to influence Fernandez Rundle — and initiating the exchanges with the State Attorney. She said the commission “fail[ed] to account” for communications Rundle Fernandez initiated on the phone and in person.
“…Judge Miller did not assert physical, moral, or economic force or threats,” the filing says. “Expressing a view and participating in a free flow of information is not coercive…” READ MORE: Miami judge’s venomous texts come back to bite her in crumbling death penalty case
In her motion to dismiss, Miller said she didn’t disparage Wolfson. Rather, she expressed concern that Wolfson “prematurely developed an opinion on the merits” of the Smith case.
Miller also said she didn’t denigrate defense attorneys but merely pointed out that prosecutors are held to a heightened ethical standard. In one of the texts, Miller took aim at Michael Von Zamft — one of the prosecutors Wolfson ousted from the Smith case. Miller pointed out that Von Zamft is a former defense attorney.
“They play by different rules,” Miller wrote. “No defense attorney should be training [assistant state attorneys]. It should be someone who knows that prosecutors are held to higher ethics.”
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Grethel Aguila
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