Altamonte Springs lawyer reprimanded by high court

The Florida Supreme Court has voted to reprimand Altamonte Springs attorney Mitchel Krause, in part, because of a series of improper campaign contributions to his wife, who was elected Seminole County judge in 2012.

Mitchel Krause, 51, then ran for judge in 2014 and was defeated. Now both he and his wife have been disciplined for the way they behaved in both campaigns. Mitchel Krause’s reprimand was announced this week by the Florida Bar. The Florida Supreme Court faulted him for contributing as much as $82,000 to the 2012 campaign of his wife, Seminole County Judge Debra Krause, who works in Sanford.

The Krauses argued that because they were married, the $82,000 belonged to them both, but the Florida Bar and Judicial Qualifications Commission, the agency that polices judges, pointed out that much of the money came from accounts that Mitchel Krause, alone, con- trolled. The high court also faulted Mitchel Krause, whose law office is in Longwood, for making disparaging campaign statements in 2014 about the attorney who defeated him, now-Circuit Judge Susan Stacy.

Krause accused her of mishandling a case, resulting in its dismissal. He also accused her of asking a judge for a delay, citing a medical issue but failing to disclose that it was another family member’s medical condition — not her own.

The high court also faulted him for a third grievance: failing to communicate enough with a client, Lake Mary City Commissioner Jo Ann Lucarelli, who complained that she paid him $2,800 and got little to show for it.

Krause said Friday that some of his comments about Stacy were too harsh and that he should have been more attentive to Lucarelli, who was going through a contentious divorce. He pleaded guilty, he said, to put the issues behind him.