FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ Broward Circuit Judge Merrliee Ehrlich is retiring, effective at 5 p.m. Monday, after a video surfaced of her berating a wheelchair-bound defendant at a recent hearing.
Ehrlich, 67, already had submitted paperwork to the governor's office announcing her intention to retire June 30. But on Friday, reaction to the video was swift.
"It has been a great honor, privilege and pleasure to serve in the Unified Family Division of the 17th Judicial Circuit, for the past ten years," she wrote in an email to Chief Administrative Judge Jack Tuter.
She did not mention the storm of publicity surrounding her service at first appearance court last weekend. The exchange was so severe that Ehrlich, 67, was told not to come back to her $160,688-a-year job. Tuter said over the weekend that he will move immediately to reassign judges to take her caseload.
There was a time when Ehrlich didn't mind the spotlight.
Once, she donned a hoodie and rapped about the dangers of delinquency. Another time she tried to show juvenile offenders how lucky they were by introducing them to wounded veterans.
She was elected in 2008. In her first weeks on the bench, she showed up for work in a robe accented with white lace on the collar to give justice the appearance of "a softer edge," she said.
That softer edge was nowhere in sight on April 15, when Ehrlich was recorded ripping into defendants and attorneys during her weekend rotation on Broward's first appearance court.
In the exchange, Ehrlich was seen shouting at a 59-year-old woman who was complaining about her symptoms of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Ehrlich chastised the woman for asking for her breathing treatment and ordered her to get someone to carry her to legal appointments after her release.
The woman, Sandra Twiggs, had been arrested on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge following an argument with her daughter at her Lauderhill home. Twiggs died three days after her appearance before the judge.
The Public Defender's Office criticized Ehrlich, calling her unfit for the bench.
It was not the first clash between the two. In 2012, assistant public defenders demanded Ehrlich be removed from juvenile burglary cases after she made a blanket statement about not accepting the terms of future plea deals.
Higher courts had already ruled that a judge cannot reach such decisions without first considering the evidence of a specific case.
"It wasn't fair to our clients," said attorney Allari Dominguez, who was an assistant public defender assigned to Ehrlich's division at the time.
Dominguez said Ehrlich's conduct with Twiggs didn't surprise her.
"I had seen her act the same and worse toward children in juvenile delinquency cases," Dominguez said. "She was more concerned with her courtroom being pin-drop quiet than the issues that came before her."
Juvenile court was Ehrlich's first assignment. In 2011, she invited media to her courtroom to cover a poetry reading in her courtroom _ defendants were given community service credit for expressing their situations in verse.
At the end of the session, she took off her robe to reveal a hooded sweatshirt underneath. She put the hood over her head and began rapping about the dangers of delinquency.
"Good-bye hope, good-bye future," she said. "Hello, prison. No mall, no friends, no cell phones, no pizza. No friends, no family no past or future. Choice, choice, choice."
Ehrlich's original retirement letter was dated April 10, five days before the controversial exchange and 10 days before it erupted publicly. It is unlikely she will face any formal disciplinary action. The Judicial Qualifications Commission, which polices misconduct allegations, does not pursue investigations once a judge has retired.
Her replacement will be appointed by the governor.
Ehrlich's most recent assignment has been on the family court bench.
Before she became a judge, Ehrlich was a chairwoman of the Florida Bar grievance committee, a former president of the B'nai B'rith justice unit and a former advisory board member, Broward Foster Grandparents Inc. She graduated from Nova University Law School in 1979.
She is divorced and did not have children.
Efforts to reach Ehrlich by phone, text message and email on Monday were unsuccessful.
During her 2008 campaign, she was asked in a Sun Sentinel questionnaire how she distinguished herself from her opponents.
"I treat everybody with respect, understanding and patience," she answered.
