Miami-Dade County Courthouse at sunrise. Photo: J. Albert Diaz/ALM

Five South Florida judges face ethics charges for allegedly using their judicial privilege to favor a company during a competitive bidding process for the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Miami-Dade Judges Marcia Caballero, Rosa Figarola, Teresa Pooler, Mavel Ruiz and now-retired Judge Cindy Lederman are defendants in a new judicial ethics case before the Florida Supreme Court.

The Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission opened the investigation against the judges for allegedly prioritizing contractor Our Kids of Miami-Dade & Monroe Inc. in a competitive bidding process to procure vending services for the Florida Department of Children and Families between 2019 and 2024.

A letter included as an exhibit with the JQC’s formal charges shows the judges advocating for Our Kids in a communication with Rebecca Kapusta and Brownyn Stanford, DCF’s respective interim director and managing director of the southern region. The correspondence, signed by all five judges, speaks out against further privatizing Florida’s child welfare system and requests that DCF retain the services of Our Kids.

As noted by the JQC, Our Kids is a nonprofit that has served as the lead agency in DCF’s community-based care in South Florida for several years.

“The Our Kids board is answerable to the community,” the letter said, describing the group as “our community’s experts in child welfare policy and practice.”

The letter concluded with the judges asserting their complete faith “only in the Our Kids model of leadership.”

“When you select the agency please keep our voices in your mind,” the note said. The DCF vendor contract is worth about $500 million, according to court documents.

The letter was also signed by retired Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia and General Magistrate Steven Lieberman, who serves in Miami-Dade’s Unified Children’s Court. The JQC wrote Sampedro-Iglesia was not subject to the investigation, and could not address Lieberman’s participation in the letter, since magistrates are not within the commission’s enforcement authority.

According to the JQC’s findings and recommendation of discipline, the investigative panel determined in May that the judges had violated Florida’s Code of Judicial Conduct concerning the maintenance of an independent and impartial judiciary.

Chief Palm Beach Circuit Judge Krista Marx, who chairs the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission, recommended a public reprimand by publication, but the Florida Supreme Court has the final word of judicial discipline.

The investigative panel noted the judges “accepted full responsibility for their actions, admitted that the letter was inappropriate, and otherwise fully cooperated with the JQC’s inquiry.”

“Judges have valuable knowledge and insight into the court system, and they should be allowed and encouraged to share that knowledge,” the recommendation said. “In this case, the respondents’ letter crossed the line from informational, to advocacy in favor of one competitive bidder over another.”

Miami Dade Circuit Court spokeswoman Eunice Sigler declined to speak on the JQC’s findings.

Sigler said, “Since this matter is still pending before the Florida Supreme Court, it would not be appropriate to provide comment at this time.”

Read the formal charges and findings and recommendation of the JQC.

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