ORLANDO, Fla. _ An Osceola County judge who used a 20-year-old Orlando Sentinel endorsement in her 2014 campaign flier _ even though the Sentinel endorsed her opponent that year _ was publicly reprimanded Wednesday.
Circuit Judge Kim Shepard, who now presides over a domestic courtroom in Orange County, appeared before the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee Wednesday morning. She did not speak as Chief Justice Jorge Labarga read out a statement reprimanding her.
"At the most fundamental level, you have damaged the public's trust and confidence in our state courts," Labarga said. "This is a very serious matter, very serious. The effectiveness of our judiciary ultimately rests on the trust and confidence that the people confer upon judges."
Shepard printed campaign fliers in 2014 quoting an Orlando Sentinel endorsement saying she "has done well. She has kept her promises. She has worked hard. She has maintained her integrity."
What the mailer did not mention is that the endorsement was from 1994, when Shepard sought re-election to the Florida House of Representatives. She lost that election. In 2014, the Sentinel endorsed her opponent, Norberto Katz. Shepard won that election with 60 percent of the vote.
Labarga said the Supreme Court was especially troubled by Shepard's claim that the misquotation was not meant to be deceitful.
"You argued that a highly selected quotation from a 20-year-old newspaper endorsement was somehow not meant to be misleading or deceptive. We can see no reasonable interpretation of the facts that lend even minimal support to this view," Labarga said.
Shepard had been suspended without pay for 90 days. The public reprimand was the final part of her punishment.
