Broward judge under fire for grabbing employee by the neck
Broward Circuit Judge Gina Hawkins grabbed a courthouse employee by the neck and shook him while complaining about his work — then misrepresented the encounter when she reported it to the Judicial Qualifications Commission, according to documents released Thursday.
Hawkins, who was appointed to the bench last November, must be suspended without pay immediately, even before hearings are held and final action is taken, JQC counsel Alex Williams said in a recommendation submitted to the Florida Supreme Court. It’s not clear whether or when the court will approve the recommendation.
A suspension at this stage of a judicial misconduct complaint would be unusual but not unprecedented. The judicial ethics watchdog recommended a sixmonth suspension and a $50,000 fine after Brevard County Judge John C. Murphy picked a fight from the bench with an assistant public defender, then followed through on the threat outside the courtroom. The Supreme Court rejected that recommendation and stripped Murphy of his job.
That led to more strict recommendations from the JQC. In 2016, before any hearings were held, the JQC asked for the supension of Miami-Dade County Judge Jacqueline Schwartz after she appeared to be drunk on the bench in 2016. The court agreed to the suspension, and Schwartz later resigned.
For Hawkins, the recommended suspension appears to be a response to the physical nature of the allegations and her characterization of the encounter, which appeared at odds with surveillance video, according to Williams.
According to the JQC recommendation, the incident between Hawkins and a male court employee took place at 10:30 a.m. on June 11 on the 11th floor of the courthouse. Hawkins, upset that she had yet to receive her afternoon docket, asked the employee to step into a hallway, grabbed him by the neck and shook him.
“She then released him, and proceeded to have what appears to be a brief, but intense, discussion with the employee,”
Williams wrote in the recommendation.
The encounter was recorded by a surveillance camera, which Hawkins reviewed with Broward Chief Judge Jack Tuter days later.
Tuter advised Hawkins to report the incident to the JQC, which she did. But her description of the incident contradicted the video, Williams said.
Hawkins denied physically touching the employee, admitting only to invading his “personal space” and suggesting that her
actions were in “jest.”
The employee, whose name was not disclosed, didn’t see it that way.
“The employee involved did not describe the judge’s demeanor that morning as friendly or joking, but described her as ‘extremely upset,’” Williams wrote.
Tuter transferred Hawkins out of the family division to foreclosures late last month while the investigation progressed. Last Friday she met with a JQC investigative panel in Tampa, and another judge covered her division.
“Judge Hawkins is deeply apologetic over the incident,” Tuter said in an email Thursday. “There exists no situation in
which a judge can inappropriately touch any person.”
Hawkins’ lawyer, David Bogenschutz, said Thursday that she will fight to keep her job.
In a written response to the JQC recommendation, he said Hawkins genuinely did not recall laying a hand on the employee and was in tears the first time she saw the video of the incident. She acknowledges now that it contradicts her memory of the event, Bogenschutz said.
Williams said Hawkins acknowledged that her contact with the employee met the legal definition of battery, but so far there is no indication that a criminal investigation is underway.