News Releases

SUPREME COURT DISCIPLINES 11 ATTORNEYS

Summaries of orders issued from September 18, 2025, to October 29, 2025

The Florida Bar, the state’s guardian for the integrity of the legal profession, announces that the Florida Supreme Court in recent court orders disciplined 11 attorneys, revoking the license of three, suspending seven, and reprimanding one.

The Florida Supreme Court, The Florida Bar, and its Division of Lawyer Regulation are charged with administering a statewide disciplinary system to enforce Supreme Court rules of professional conduct for the more than 114,000 members of The Florida Bar. Key discipline case files that are public record are posted to attorneys’ individual online Florida Bar profiles. To view discipline documents, follow these steps. Information on the discipline system and how to file a complaint are available at www.floridabar.org/attorneydiscipline.

Court orders are not final until time expires to file a rehearing motion and, if filed, determined. The filing of such a motion does not alter the effective date of the discipline. Disbarred lawyers may not re-apply for admission for five years. They are required to go through an extensive process that includes a rigorous background check and retaking the Bar exam. Attorneys suspended for periods of 91 days and longer must undergo a rigorous process to regain their law licenses including proving rehabilitation. Disciplinary revocation is tantamount to disbarment.

Scott Alan Brody, 535 8th Ave., Fl. 15, New York, NY, public reprimand effective October 20, 2025. (Admitted to Practice: 2018) Brody resides and practices in New York. He sent a demand letter to a Florida business on behalf of a Florida resident, even though he was on inactive status and ineligible to practice law in Florida. He also failed to denote his inactive status on his firm website and letterhead. (Case No. SC2025-1464)

Rugh J. Cline, P.O. Box 261354, Tampa, disciplinary revocation without leave to seek readmission effective 30 days following an October 16 court order. (Admitted to Practice: 2010) Cline was adjudicated guilty of engaging in illegal sexual conduct in a foreign place in violation of 18 USC 2423(c). (Case No. SC2025-1235)

E. Cheryl Culberson, 161 Leoni Dr., Islamorada, suspended for 90 days effective 30 days following an October 16 court order. (Admitted to Practice: 2001) In probate proceedings, Culberson petitioned the court to sell property of the estate to the complainant. Two years later, Culberson petitioned the court to determine the homestead status of the sold property in favor of the heirs of the probate estate. Culberson did not disclose that the property in question had already been sold, which created a cloud on the title of the property. (Case No. SC2024-1693)

Kathryn Wilburn Drey, 155 Oakway Dr., Mobile, AL, interim felony suspension effective 30 days following an October 20 court order. (Admitted to Practice: 1998) Drey was charged by Information with one count of Acts Affecting a Personal Financial Interest, a violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 208(a) and 216(a)(2), a Class D Felony. Drey pled guilty to Count I of the Information, was adjudicated guilty and sentenced to six months of probation. (Case No. SC2025-1644)

Michelle Lee Farkas, P.O. Box 358522, Gainesville, disciplinary revocation effective one month following an October 9 court order. (Admitted to Practice: 2006) Farkas was hired in December 2020, for a trust matter, and the client paid a retainer of $5,580. Farkas made several misrepresentations to the client for three-and-a-half years during the representation regarding the status of the case. However, Farkas never filed a case on behalf of the client. Farkas subsequently refunded the client the retainer. The court approved Farkas’s Petition for Disciplinary Revocation by Order dated October 9, 2025. (Case No. SC2025-1207)

Richard Gonzalez, 957 Greenswald Ln., Delray Beach, disciplinary revocation with leave to seek readmission after five years, effective 30 days following an October 1 court order. (Admitted to Practice: 1987) The court granted Gonzalez’s petition for disciplinary revocation after he was found to have misappropriated a client’s trust funds and failed to reimburse client. (Case No. SC2025-1280)

Michael Alexander Hurckes, 1200 Brickell Ave. Suite 1950, Miami, emergency suspended until further order of the court effective 30 days following an October 6 court order. (Admitted to Practice: 2022) Hurckes was emergency suspended based on allegations that he has caused, or is likely to cause, immediate and serious harm to clients or the public based on a pattern of misconduct that is ongoing and widespread. (Case No. SC2025-1375)

Manisha Maraj, 2799 NW 2nd Ave., Suite 113, Boca Raton, suspended for six months and referred to FLA, Inc., effective 30 days following an October 9 court order. (Admitted to Practice: 2015) This is a reciprocal discipline case where Maraj was disciplined by the Southern District of Florida. Maraj was investigated by the Ad Hoc committee after failing to file a motion for continuance and failing to appear for a sentencing hearing. She had been previously told by the court to file the motion for continuance, and despite assurances that the motion would be filed, she failed to file and failed to appear. During the investigation, the committee found that Maraj provided conflicting, inconsistent statements and testimony in several instances. (Case No. SC2024-1674)

Heather Renae Marx, 5246 Akron St., Denver, CO, suspended for 90 days, and one year probation, effective immediately following an October 16 court order. (Admitted to Practice: 2004) Following a remedial contempt hearing held in February 2021 in a domestic relations case, Marx did not timely file a proposed order or affidavit for attorney’s fees with the court. Marx also did not send a copy of the order to her client until December 1, 2021. Marx eventually filed an affidavit for attorney fees in the amount of $51,566 on December 10, 2021. In January 2022, the court issued an order noting that Marx filed the affidavit eleven weeks late without any requests for extensions. In May 2022, the client learned through communications with the opposing party that the orders from January 2022 and February 2022 amounted to denials of her request for attorney’s fees. When the client confronted Marx with this information, Marx misrepresented that she had requested an extension to file the affidavit with the court. (Case No. SC2025-1075)

Christopher Rodriguez, P.O. Box 95, Panama City, felony suspension effective October 20, 2025. (Admitted to Practice: 2018) Rodriguez was arrested on November 4, 2023, for damaging property occupied by a foreign government; explosive materials in the commission of a federal felony, explosive materials for malicious use, and receipt or possession of an unregistered firearm, all charges classified as felonies. On August 2, 2024, Rodriguez pleaded guilty to one count of damaging property occupied by a foreign government; one count of explosive materials for malicious damage to federal property, a felony; and one count of receipt or possession of an unregistered firearm (destructive device), a felony. On March 14, 2025, the court accepted Rodriguez’s plea, adjudicated him guilty and sentenced him to 8.5 years in a federal prison. (Case No. SC2025-1452)

Jason Alan Wiles, 2016 Delta Blvd., Suite 201, Tallahassee, suspended for one year and ordered to complete an FLA, Inc., evaluation effective nunc pro tunc to June 22, 2025. (Admitted to Practice: 2006) Wiles plead no contest to one count of Felony Battery, a third-degree felony, and one count of Criminal Mischief, a second-degree misdemeanor on May 28, 2024, and received 36 months of probation. Wiles was subsequently suspended nunc pro tunc in an October 16 court order. (Case No. SC2025-0728)

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