A legal fight about whether St. Augustine attorney Scott DuPont is eligible to appear on this year’s ballot could come down to the definition of “member.”
Rose Marie Preddy, a judge in the 7th Judicial Circuit–which includes Flagler, Putnam, Volusia and St. Johns counties–filed a lawsuit last month challenging DuPont’s candidacy, a former circuit judge in Flagler and Putnam counties who was removed from the bench by the Florida Supreme Court on June 25, 2018, and suspended from the Florida Bar effective Oct. 21, 2019.
DuPont’s Florida Bar page includes the documents relevant to his suspension. He petitioned the Supreme Court “for Bar reinstatement,” as the Bar headlined it in January 2020. He was reinstated in on June 30, 2020. He practices law in St. Augustine under the moniker of “My DUI Guy.”
The lawsuit contends that DuPont does not meet a constitutional qualification that says a lawyer is not “eligible for the office of circuit judge unless the person is, and has been for the preceding five years, a member of the bar of Florida.”
But in a court filing this week, DuPont’s attorney, former state Rep. Anthony Sabatini, argued that DuPont meets the eligibility requirement because he remained a member of The Florida Bar while suspended.
“The Florida Constitution provides that ‘no person is eligible for the office of circuit judge unless the person is, and has been for the preceding five years, a member of the bar of Florida.’ Under a fair reading of this clause, member clearly means someone who belongs to the Florida Bar, whether they can practice at the time or not,” Sabatini wrote Tuesday.
He also argued, “Being part of a group does not denote that a member has each (of) the privileges exercised by that group. For example, a member of a sports team who is suspended from the team is still a member of the team. What is under suspension, is the privilege of playing on the team for a time. Similar to practicing law, a member of the bar is suspended from practicing law for a time, but still a member.”
Preddy’s attorneys, however, filed a motion for final judgment last week that disputed such an interpretation. The motion pointed to legal precedents and said DuPont’s “eight-month disciplinary suspension from the practice of law less than five years ago renders him constitutionally ineligible for the office of circuit judge in this year’s election cycle.”
“Under (the section of the Florida Constitution), a candidate for office who has been suspended from the practice of law is not a ‘member of the bar of Florida’ during the period of suspension for purposes of eligibility to hold an office requiring Florida Bar membership for a prescribed period of time,” wrote Preddy’s attorneys, who include prominent Tallahassee lawyers Daniel Nordby and Barry Richard and former state Supreme Court Justice Ricky Polston.
A further Nordby filed on Thursday appeared incredulous at DuPont’s position.
Leon County Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh is scheduled to hear arguments in the case Wednesday. “DuPont’s response asks this Court to reject the interpretation of the constitutional term ‘member of the bar of Florida’ adopted by both the Florida Supreme Court and the First District Court of Appeal,” the reply states, and takes on DuPont’s Orwellian contention that the “drafters, ratifiers, and citizens of Florida” would have understood the term “member of the bar of Florida” to include lawyers who are prohibited from practicing law as a result of a disciplinary suspension.
“The Supreme Court in Commission of Elected Judge reached the contrary conclusion based on the term’s context in an eligibility provision,” the response continued. “And that decision is consistent with the decisions of other states construing similar provisions of their own constitutions, which reflect the “common sense understanding” that, where Bar membership is an eligibility requirement for judicial office, “one may not be a judge in a court in which one’s own practice as a lawyer would be disallowed.”
Preddy was appointed last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Preddy filed the lawsuit after an April qualifying period in which she and DuPont submitted paperwork to the state Division of Elections and were deemed candidates for the seat.
They are the only candidates who qualified, and the race — if DuPont is on the ballot — will be decided during the Aug. 20 primary election.
DuPont was suspended from practicing law after the Supreme Court removed him as a circuit judge in 2018 because of improper and “scandalous” conduct. The removal, was preceded by an order by then-Chief Judge Raul Zambrano that DuPont clear out of his offices at the Flagler and Putnam courthouses, came after an investigation that, in part, focused on allegations that DuPont spread false information about his 2016 election opponent.
A hearing on the motion for a final judgment is scheduled for 9 a.m. on May 29 before Circuit Judge Lee Marsh in Tallahassee.
–FlaglerLive and News Service of Florida
another one lost says
In 2016 my wife and I were involved in a minor civil dispute with former business partners. We were LITERALLY 5 minutes late for a hearing presided over by Dupont. Upon our arrival in court, we were immediately handcuffed, arrested and spent the night in jail. We presented our case to the governing body who oversaw his removal from the bench. My wife to this day has PTSD and cannot enter the court complex without experiencing a minor panic attack. He is an absolute menace and most likely mentally ill.
Anon Guy says
Don’t be late. PTSD…gtfo
Another one lost says
We were at the courthouse In plenty of time. The deputy at the front desk gave us the wrong courtroom number. I should have clarified that. The PTSD is real. Pretty traumatic for a grandmother who up until that moment had never even had a parking ticket.