Third District Court of Appeal Judge Bronwyn Miller
TALLAHASSEE – A state panel says a Florida appellate judge undermined her integrity and demeaned her office in text messages.
Special Counsel Henry M. Coxe III filed formal charges October 23 with the Judicial Qualifications Commission against Third District Court of Appeal Judge Bronwyn Miller.
The 22-page filing says Miller’s texts insulted the defense bar, pushed for the death penalty of a man she prosecuted in 2000 and influenced prosecutors in a case in which she testified. The texts were with Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and others.
“Most of the communications after your February 9, 2024, testimony in the Smith case were initiated by you and show, over time, that you attempted to influence the way the State Attorney’s Office was handling the post-conviction litigation,” Coxe wrote. “In these communications, you disparaged other judges, other attorneys and criminal defense lawyers generally.
“Your communications cast reasonable doubt on your capacity to act impartially as a judge, undermine your appearance of integrity and impartiality, demean the judicial office, interfere with your proper performance of judicial duties, may lead to your frequent disqualification and appear to be coercive.”
The charges say Miller violated judicial canons related to integrity, making statements that interfere with cases pending before her and preserving public confidence in courts.
Miller, whose court reviews criminal and civil appeals from Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, has 20 days to file a written answer to the charges.
If the JQC continues to press the case, the Florida Supreme Court ultimately would decide Miller’s fate. That includes if she would remain on the court.
Miller’s attorney Warren Lindsay told WTVJ NBC6 Miller “has served this community in an exemplary, respected and ethical manner for more than 28 years, including over 20 years as a judge. … We are hopeful that Judge Miller will be vindicated when given her day in court. …
“This case does not stem from her work on the bench, but rather her full, appropriate, and lawful cooperation with the state attorney’s office in postconviction proceedings in a case involving Corey Smith, a mass murderer who terrorized Liberty City for years, eliminated witnesses and competitors, threatened those involved in his prosecution, including Judge Miller. A public servant does not surrender her First Amendment right to speak with an official on an issue of grave importance both to her safety and the safety of her community.”
The formal charges stem from the prosecution of Corey Smith, the alleged leader of a Liberty City gang who was convicted in 2005 of multiple counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. The state Supreme Court ordered a resentencing in 2017. The defense claims the original prosecuting team, which included Miller as an assistant state attorney, “provided favors to witnesses as incentives to testify against Mr. Smith.”
In 2024, Smith’s legal team filed a motion to disqualify all prosecutors in Rundle’s office. Miller and Rundle then began the text exchanges in question.
“While you (Miller) and the State Attorney (Rundle) are permitted to have a personal relationship, and while you and she may subjectively believe that your communications did not affect her official acts due to your personal relationship, reasonable persons may believe that your communications were intended to be coercive towards her official acts and substantially interfered with a fair trial or hearing,” the formal charges state.
The charges against Miller says she “neither enforced nor personally observed the high standards of conduct which preserve the integrity and independence of the judiciary,” “failed to demonstrate respect and compliance with the law, and you did not act at all times in the manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary,” “made, while litigation was pending in a court, comments that might substantially interfere with a fair trial or hearing,” and her conduct.”
The filing said Miller’s conduct “cast reasonable doubt on your capacity to act impartially,” “undermined your independence, integrity or impartiality,” “demeaned your judicial office,” “Interfered with the proper performance of another’s judicial duties,” “potentially could have led to frequent disqualification of yourself and/or would appear to a reasonable person to be coercive.”
Among the texts, which are included in the formal charges, Miller was critical of Circuit Judge Andrea Wolfson, who had ordered the removal of two prosecutors from the case for “possible witness testimony manipulation by the assistant state attorneys on the case – not only in the past, but also in the present.”
Miller called a draft of the state’s motion asking Wolfson to reconsider “extremely weak” and said Wolfson “needs to be disqualified ... then all rulings can be reconsidered. … Her factual findings are wrong … This is insane .. It’s ridiculous.”
She also told Rundle to figure out how to handle it “or you will allow rumors to destroy us all. … My reputation is all I have and I am going to become a casualty of a failure to take a stance.”
By the end of last year, Miller had self-reported to the JQC. She provided sworn statements in June denying violating any rules and said she served as a witness “to ensure justice was served in the post-conviction litigation.” She said her comments about Wolfson “were not intended to be disparaging.”
Miller was the Miami-Dade prosecutor form 1997 until 2005 when she was appointed to the county court. She became a circuit court judge in 2010 and was appointed to the appeals bench in 2018.
