First District Court of Appeals Judge Paul Hawkes badgered employees and destroyed documents while pushing for a massive new headquarters for the court that has since been dubbed the Taj Mahal, according to a scathing report issued Tuesday by the Judicial Qualifications Commission.
The panel’s 11-page “notice of formal charges” surprised even some of Hawkes’ sharpest critics with broader accusations than the attention-grabbing headlines about the ornate courthouse on the outskirts of Tallahassee.
The report also says Hawkes ordered his clerk to help Hawkes’ son prepare a brief appealing a ruling by the 1st DCA and pressured a furniture manufacturer to pay for a trip to Indiana by Hawkes and his son.
“Your conduct relative to the construction of the First DCA courthouse has brought the entire judiciary of the State of Florida into disrepute, has inflicted substantial harm upon the entire state court system and has therefore demeaned the entire court system of the State of Florida,” said the report, authored by Wallace Pope, special counsel for the JQC, and Michael Schneider, general counsel for the commission.
The notice means Hawkes will likely appear before a hearing panel of the JQC before the case ultimately heads to the Florida Supreme Court. Hawkes has 20 days to respond to the filing.
The report seemed to further undermine Hawkes’ already-precarious position on the court. He resigned as chief judge of the 1st DCA last year. In April, Rep. Franklin Sands, D-Weston, wrote a letter to House Speaker Dean Cannon calling for a House committee to launch an impeachment investigation into Hawkes and Judge Brad Thomas related to the courthouse.
On Tuesday, Sen. Mike Fasano — who has hounded Hawkes and other members of the court over the costs of the court building — called for Hawkes to consider resigning over the allegations.
“If they’re true, he should either step down or be removed from his position,” said Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who chairs the Senate committee that oversees funding for the courts.
A spokeswoman for Cannon, R-Winter Park, said the House wouldn’t rush into action.
“When the JQC has concluded its work, we will evaluate their findings and determine what, if any, action is appropriate,” Katie Betta wrote in an e-mail.
The findings paint Hawkes as an overbearing taskmaster in pushing for the construction of the courthouse, often humiliating or browbeating those at the court or the Department of Management Services who questioned the cost or methods for the new building.
“In fact some DMS employees expressed that in their interactions with you, they felt as … if you were ‘beating up’ on them,” it says. “For example, when the project director raised legitimate financial concerns about the project and the appearance of the building, you went over his head to the Secretary of the Department and had him removed from the project.”
At another point, Hawkes reportedly ordered the court’s deputy marshal to buy him vinegar so he could clean his personal coffee pot. “The deputy marshal refused, but you demanded that you be shown in writing why she could not buy you a bottle of vinegar,” the report says.
Hawkes also allegedly used court money to buy expensive new furniture to match the color palette at the DCA building. The furniture company had offered members of the court building committee a trip to visit the manufacturer’s warehouse in Indiana. The report says Hawkes ordered the furniture, then asked for the company to pay for him and his son to go to Indiana anyway.
The chief judge at the time blocked the trip, an issue that was raised when Hawkes ran for chief judge himself. Hawkes later pressed the court’s marshal to change his story and cut off the court’s ties with Executive Office Furniture, the business through which Hawkes had ordered the furniture.
But the accusations in the report go far beyond the actual construction of the building. Investigators charged that Hawkes ordered the destruction of a filing cabinet filled with documents related to the construction of the building, including correspondence between the marshal and judges and documents related to the selection process for the architect and contractors for the court.
And, the report says, Hawkes directed his law clerk to help an unnamed son — presumably former House of Representatives counsel Jeremiah Hawkes — craft a brief appealing the court’s ruling in Olive v. Maas to the Florida Supreme Court.
“Your use of your law clerk in this fashion was a misuse of a state asset for the benefit of your son, and it was completely improper for you to assign your law clerk, who was on the court at the time your court certified the case to the Florida Supreme Court, to assist one of the parties in preparing a partisan brief in the Florida Supreme Court on a case that sought to overturn an opinion authored by your court,” the report says.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Hawkes had not responded to requests to comment through his attorney.
By Brandon Larrabee
