Broward County Judge Mardi Levey Cohen is set to receive a public reprimand from the Florida Supreme Court in early June as a result of a judicial misconduct investigation.

The reprimand, scheduled for June 3, follows findings that Cohen acted inappropriately during her 2022 reelection campaign. In addition to the public rebuke, she will also serve a 10-day suspension without pay.

This disciplinary action makes her the third Broward judge currently under scrutiny for conduct concerns.

The case centers on two incidents during Cohen’s reelection bid. The first involved an email dated July 15, 2022, which Cohen forwarded to a representative of the Wynmoor Condominium Democratic Club. The email, claiming to be from a relative of her opponent, Kaysia Earley, accused Earley of obtaining Paycheck Protection Program funds through fraudulent means. It further alleged, without proof, that Earley had made false claims of racism and harassment against a supervisor at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and had submitted inaccurate information in food stamp applications.

The Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC) noted that Cohen took no steps to verify the identity of the sender or the claims made. “This was not done,” JQC Vice Chair Michelle Morley wrote in the commission’s report.

In the second incident, Cohen filed an IRS complaint challenging the tax-exempt status of a church where her opponent had campaigned. She then mailed a copy of that complaint to the church using a false return address to make it appear as though the document came directly from the IRS.

Cohen later acknowledged that her actions “fell below the high standard required by the Code of Judicial Conduct,” as cited by Morley. Although she maintained that some of the email’s contents were corroborated and not entirely false, the JQC criticized her for distributing unverified and derogatory claims from an unconfirmed source.

Cohen also said she did not intend to deceive the church and only wanted to inform them that campaign activities could threaten their tax-exempt status. However, the JQC concluded that the “content, timing and totality of the circumstances” suggested motives that were not entirely honorable.

“While these facts may tend toward mitigation, they do not excuse Judge Levey Cohen’s decision to disseminate unverified derogatory information from a source whose identity she had not fully verified,” Morley wrote. “To engage in such behavior is to engage in the type of negative campaigning that is common in other types of campaigns but not permitted in judicial elections. As Judge Levey Cohen agreed at the hearing, such conduct does not maintain the dignity appropriate to judicial office.”

Cohen has been a member of the Florida Bar since 1987 and was elected to the Broward County Court bench in 2010. Her previous roles include serving as an Assistant Attorney General, Assistant State Attorney, and Specially Appointed Public Defender.

Her upcoming reprimand comes at a time of heightened attention to judicial behavior in Broward County. On May 15, the Florida Supreme Court suspended Circuit Judge Gary Farmer indefinitely and without pay due to inappropriate behavior from the bench, including repeated lewd comments. Additionally, charges were recently filed against Judge Lauren Peffer for allegedly promoting a fabricated audio recording involving Florida judges and a self-published book—described as one she had not read—that opens with a disclaimer and a list of more than 1,300 synonyms for the word “sex.”