The Florida Supreme Court reprimanded Broward Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra on Wednesday for telling a crowd that he had received a Democratic group's endorsement and telling the Sun Sentinel editorial board he was a registered Republican—all in a nonpartisan race.

Justice Charles Canady told Kollra his conduct damaged the public's trust and confidence in him and the state court system.

"Judge Kollra, the fact that your misconduct went to both sides of the political aisle does not make it any less a violation of Canon 7," Canady said, later adding, "As you yourself now have acknowledged, your conduct at issue here was a serious ethical breach that deserves to be publicly rejected,"

The Florida Code of Judicial Conduct prohibits judges from wading into politics in an effort to protect the integrity of nonpartisan elections.

Kollra has admitted his misconduct and signed a stipulation with the Judicial Qualifications Commission, which said the judge "has expressed remorse and regrets that his use of the partisan political endorsements called into question the impartiality and integrity of the nonpartisan judicial elections."

Kollra met with the Sun Sentinel in May 2018 and a month later went to a judicial candidate forum, which was an endorsement event for the Dolphin Democrats political organization. The group later endorsed Kollra, who shared this fact in a speech at another forum led by the Hills Democratic Club.

Canady acknowledged that the JQC had found Kollra to be a "relatively new and inexperienced judge" when he made the remarks. He was appointed to the bench in 2016 by then-Gov. Rick Scott.

After the reprimand, Kollra thanked the judges and left the courtroom.

Kollra and his attorney, Kevin Tynan of Richardson & Tynan in Tamarac, declined to comment.

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