JQC Looks at Judge Who Did Not Disclose Relationships

By: John Pacenti
Daily Business Review
May 14, 2008

The state Judicial Qualifications Commission is looking into Palm Beach Circuit Judge Martin Colin’s practice of allowing attorneys who represent his girlfriend to appear in cases before him in family court.

A complaint against Colin came from the girlfriend’s ex-husband, Jay Gordon, last August.

Judge Martin Colin         He wrote Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis asking for help, and Lewis forwarded the letter to the JQC.

The commission wrote Gordon last September to say his information "would be added to a file in this matter for consideration by the commission."

The 4th District Court of Appeal already has weighed in on the issue forcing Colin to recuse himself from a child-support case after the father learned the opposing counsel succeeded Colin in his girlfriend’s 2001 divorce case. Colin and Boca Raton attorney Jonathan Root did not disclose the connection in court.

A circuit judge who heard the girlfriend’s divorce case when Colin was her attorney accused him of bullying tactics, and a public defender handling a criminal contempt case against the ex-husband after Colin became judge called him the "ghost prosecutor." Root was appointed special prosecutor in a criminal contempt proceeding against Gordon stemming from the divorce case.

Raymond Baez, the father in the child-support case, and Gordon took their shared beef to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which found no grounds for criminal charges. FDLE said in its November report that it would forward its findings to the FBI.

Colin serves as judge at the South County Courthouse in Delray Beach.

A call to Colin’s office resulted in a call from the judge’s attorney, Scott Richardson of West Palm Beach, who would not confirm a JQC complaint.

Richardson said it would be inappropriate for the judge to comment but found no merit in Baez’s accusation that Colin did anything improper. Richardson, who did not say why he was representing Colin, is a criminal defense attorney who has represented judges in JQC actions.

In response to follow-up questions, Richardson wrote: "I regret that I am unable to respond any further to your inquiries with regard to matters related directly or indirectly to Mr. Gordon."

Since Colin was elected to the bench, his girlfriend, Elizabeth Savitt, has been represented by at least three attorneys: Root, John Schutz of Schutz & White in Boca Raton and Henry Handler of Weiss & Handler in Boca Raton.

Root and Christopher Jette of Goldstein & Jette in West Palm Beach also served as special prosecutors in Gordon’s contempt case.

Root, Schutz and Handler still practice in front of Colin and have disclosed their relationship since the 4th DCA decision was issued last Aug. 8. Jette said he doesn’t feel the need to disclose anything since he never directly represented Savitt.

In the tight-knit world of Palm Beach’s eight-judge family court, Root insists he gets no special treatment by Colin and sees no conflict in appearing before Colin.

"Since representing his girlfriend, he’s decimated some of my clients," he said. "I can tell you he has shown no favoritism towards me."

Schutz said, "I haven’t had any favorable or disfavorable treatment by Judge Colin." Despite being listed as Savitt’s attorney on recent court documents, he said he no longer represents her.

Handler said, "We don’t believe we have any advantage in front of him except that we have his respect and he listens to our arguments."

Jette, a former assistant state attorney, said his relationship with Colin hasn’t changed since he was special prosecutor. "I don’t think there’s been appreciable change in the way we treat each other, and I will define that as a businesslike relationship," he said.

Gordon said he met with a JQC investigator in January and sent a follow-up letter, saying Root, Schutz, Jette and Handler had or have cases pending before Colin.

In August, the 4th DCA panel had found a conflict in Root’s appearance before Colin in Baez’s case. The unsigned opinion from the three-judge panel noted Savitt wasn’t a relative, but "disqualification is appropriate where a reasonable litigant would have a well-grounded fear of not receiving a fair trial."

The court concluded the difference between a wife and girlfriend "to be a distinction without a difference."

Despite the appellate loss, Colin did not rescind a writ ordering Baez to pay Root $31,000 for attorney fees and forensic accounting. When Baez refused to pay, he was arrested on the 6-month-old writ last November by a deputy posing as a Papa John’s pizza delivery man and took out a loan to cover the court order.

"I’m a single dad of three kids," Baez said. "What am I going to do? Stay in jail and pay a babysitter from jail? My only recourse was to use my line of credit."

Sheriff’s Sgt. James Stevenson of the court services bureau said his unit is bullish about executing warrants in domestic cases, and Baez’s case was no different.

The FDLE took a one-day look at Baez and Gordon’s complaint linking Root’s $31,000 fee in Baez’s case in early 2007 to Root’s rejected request for $11,000 for his work as Gordon’s special prosecutor in December 2004. Gordon, in a follow-up letter to the JQC last November, called the Baez money a payoff to Root.

"Mr. Baez and Mr. Gordon contended that the $31,000 court-ordered fee was extremely excessive and an obvious effort by Judge Colin in concert with attorney Root to recoup the $11,000 he was never paid" as Gordon’s special prosecutor, according to an FDLE report obtained by the Daily Business Review.

FDLE agent Richard Caplano in West Palm Beach concluded the allegations could not be substantiated. He did not return phone calls for comment. His report said he passed the information to the FBI.

Judy Orihuela, the FBI spokeswoman in Miami, said the men’s complaints seem more suited for the JQC. "There’s no federal violation we would investigate," she said after reading the FDLE report.

Baez said he was talking this month with the FBI about the issue.

"I’m not going away," Baez vowed. "How many other cases are out there like this?"

By JQC policy, executive director Brooke Kennerly said she could not discuss whether the complaint against Colin has been dismissed. Gordon said he has received no correspondence saying the case has been closed.

The commission disciplined a judge on a similar issue in 2000. Second District Court of Appeal Judge Richard Frank in Lakeland received a reprimand in part for failing to disclose an attorney who appeared before him represented his daughter in her divorce case.

Colin and Gordon have tangled before.

In a 2004 order, Palm Beach Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath wrote that Colin, while representing Savitt, sought "to invoke the court system to intimidate and bully Mr. Gordon. As a result of his relationship with Ms. Savitt, Mr. Colin may have lost objectivity and is not problem solving, but is exacerbating the post-judgment conflicts between these parties."

Palm Beach County Assistant Public Defender Margaret Good-Earnest, who represented Gordon on his contempt appeal, claims in a footnote to a Supreme Court brief that Colin was pulling the strings in the divorce drama between Savitt and Gordon long after he was elected to the bench.

She pushed the issue when she asked for Florida Supreme Court review of the 4th DCA case, hoping for a ruling on adversarial attorneys appointed as special prosecutors. The Supreme Court declined to review the case.

Mike Edmondson, spokesman for State Attorney Barry Krischer’s office in West Palm Beach, said a longstanding agreement allows judges to appoint Bar members as special prosecutors for criminal contempt cases arising in civil court.

"Generally, we don’t do them because of the volume generated in civil court," Edmondson said. "We’re not involved."

Root and Jette served as Gordon’s special prosecutors. He was convicted, but the 4th DCA overturned the conviction and reiterated Colbath’s remarks about bullying by Colin.

"Allegations that Colin was the unfair ghost prosecutor of appellant are just now emerging," Good-Earnest wrote in her brief last November, citing "Colin’s improper participation" in the contempt case.

Colin has appeared as a spectator in the courtroom gallery for divorce and custody proceedings in his girlfriend’s case, Gordon said. The judge consulted with Schutz at a hearing last Nov. 5 on his son’s home school education and attorney fees, drawing an objection from Gordon’s attorney.

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