New legislation looks to stem threats against judges and court employees
The convicted drug trafficker had six years behind bars to nurse a grudge.
When he was released in 2017, the former inmate targeted nearly a dozen 17th Judicial Circuit judges with a relentless stream of harassing calls.
“He would sit there and call for hours,” said Broward Sheriff’s Detective Joseph Kessling. “He had a big list of judges, and he went one right after another, and he’d start at two, three in the morning.”
The messages were laced with racial, antisemitic, and misogynistic slurs. And they included a taunt, Kessling said.
“He said, ‘Your worst nightmare is back! And there’s nothing you can do to stop me.’”
Kessling stopped the suspect, but not on the first try.
“I think when I arrested [him], I charged him with 22 counts of harassing phone calls, and they threw them out,” Kessling said.
The suspect was successfully prosecuted, but for other charges, Kessling said.
The incident convinced Kessling the law needs to change.
When Kessling met with Assistant State Attorney Joel Silvershein, the prosecutor agreed. Sivershein told Kessling that his office receives harassing calls, too.
“I think there were a lot of people who were surprised that there’s nothing we can do, unless they threaten a life, then that’s different,” Kessling said.
Silvershein suggested they work with Rep. Mike Gottlieb.
A Plantation Democrat, Gottlieb is a respected local defense attorney, Kessling said.
The result is HB 67. The House approved it 114-0 on April 27. A few days later, the Senate voted 34-0 to send it to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Sen. Tina Polsky, another South Florida lawyer/lawmaker, sponsored the companion, SB 174. Both bills sailed through the legislative process without a negative vote.
HB 67 would make two significant changes.
It would add justices, judicial assistants, court clerks and court clerk personnel, and their respective family members, to an existing statute that makes it a first-degree misdemeanor to threaten judges and other public officials with “death or great bodily harm.”
A second or subsequent violation would be punishable by a third-degree felony.
HB 67 would also create a new first-degree misdemeanor in F.S. §836.12(3) that would prohibit anyone from “knowingly and willfully harassing a law enforcement officer, a state attorney, an assistant state attorney, a firefighter, a judge, a justice, a judicial assistant, a clerk of court, clerk personnel, or an elected official, with the intent to intimidate or coerce such a person to perform or refrain from performing their lawful duty.”
A staff analysis notes that the proposed legislation “implicates the First Amendment.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a bedrock First Amendment principle that even hate speech cannot be banned on the ground that “it expresses ideas that offend,” according to the analysis.
However, the analysis also notes that the First Amendment does not protect “true threats.”
Kessling isn’t worried about challenges.
“If someone says, ‘Hey judge, you’re an idiot, I hope you rot in hell because you ruled against me,’ that’s not harassing,” Kessling said. “That’s not calling them 20, 30 times, leaving two-minute messages, following them around.”
In addition to Gottlieb, Polsky, and Silvershein, the command staff of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office also deserves credit for promoting the legislation, Kessling said.
A 40-year law enforcement veteran who oversees four Broward County court facilities, Kessling said he’s eager for DeSantis to sign the bill so it can take effect October 1.
“I’ll probably be able to use it quite a bit,” he said. “Hopefully, it will send a message.”
