Judge’s caustic tone brings early exit

Jurist had set retirement before bullying incident, now is barred from courthouse

A Broward judge is under fire after she repeatedly snapped at a frail inmate who later died at her Lauderhill home.

Broward Chief Administrative Judge Jack Tuter said Saturday that he is telling Circuit Court Judge Merrilee Ehrlich not to return to the courthouse because of how she treated Sandra Twiggs, 59, who appeared before Ehrlich last week on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge.

“In light of recent events we have decided Judge Ehrlich will be told not to return to the courthouse as her retirement is effective June 30,” Tuter said. “I will be working this weekend to find a substitute to cover Judge Ehrlich’s [family court] division.”

Ehrlich, who was first elected in 2008, had planned to retire on June 30 and was serving a rotation over first appearance court last weekend, setting preliminary bail amounts for the most recently arrested inmates at the Broward jail.

Tuter told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Saturday that Ehrlich filed her formal retirement paperwork two weeks ago, before this incident.

First appearance hearings are streamed on the internet and recorded.

“We never knew anything about this video until yesterday,” said Carolyn Porter, Twiggs’ goddaughter. “She tried to tell us how they treated her, but she had anxiety, and every time she tried to talk about it, she couldn’t breathe.”

Twiggs died Wednesday in sleep.

Chief Assistant Public Defender Gordon Weekes lamented the fact that the video did not surface until after Twiggs’ death.

“It was bad enough that it happened,” he said, “but it’s compounded by the fact that she never even had the opportunity to get an apology or to have her dignity restored before she passed.” her