Judicial candidate forum offers rare insight into new crop of Brevard judge candidates

Judicial forums during election season can provide a closer look at the guiding principles that Brevard County judge candidates might use to rule from the bench.

While all three contested judicial elections this year — Circuit Court Group 17, and County Court Groups 6 and 10 — offer a slate of experienced attorneys, a candidate forum hosted Monday by the North Brevard Democratic Club at Dixie Crossroads restaurant in Titusville presented a rare look at the views and opinions of the new crop of potential judges.

The candidates are:

Circuit Court Group 17

• Andrea Fant
• Kristen Smith-Rodriguez

County Court Group 6

• Clarissa Harrell
• Jacob "Jay" Speicher
• Margaret "Maggie" Wagner

County Court Group 10

• Jonathan Skinner
• Timi DeAnn Tucker

Candidates in the remaining judicial elections this year are unopposed. Circuit court judges typically handle felonies, estate and property cases, tax disputes and civil cases over $50,000, among others. County court judges handle misdemeanors, small claims, traffic cases and other minor disputes. Both circuit and county court judges serve six-year terms.

The judicial candidates fielded questions from a panel of moderators Monday night (including FLORIDA TODAY Engagement Editor John Torres) on a range of topics, from the meaning of justice to their strategies for clearing the backlog of cases built up since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Each group was asked a different set of questions chosen by a different moderator. Below are answers from each candidate to a representative question from their portion of the session. Candidate answers have been edited for length and clarity.

To view the forum and see the questions and answers in their entirety, visit the Facebook page of the North Brevard Democratic Club at www.facebook.com/OfficialNorthBrevardDems .

Circuit Court Group 17

Fant graduated from Florida A&M University School of Law and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2009. She has worked as an attorney for 14 years, specializing in family and civil law, and then criminal litigation and trial advocacy as an assistant public defender in the office of Public Defender Blaise Trettis for the last five years.

Smith-Rodriguez graduated from Florida Coast School of Law and was admitted to the bar in 2010. She has worked as a general magistrate in the 18th Circuit Court since 2019, handling divorce and adoption proceedings, mental health and substance abuse orders, and other issues. Before that, she ran a small private law firm in Titusville, she said.

Question: "The last three words of the Pledge of Allegiance are 'justice for all.' What does that phrase mean to you?" — Sonya Mallard, Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Cultural Complex

Fant: "It means exactly that. Justice for all, regardless of your background, socioeconomic status, race, creed. Regardless of any of that, you're all treated equally in the courtroom. Regardless of your income. I'm an assistant public defender [representing indigent clients]. I represent people who are homeless, ... suffer from mental illness, who suffer from intellectual disabilities ... substance abuse, alcohol abuse. ... They deserve to be treated equally in a courtroom as anyone else, and I demand that when I go into the courtroom every day."

Smith-Rodriguez: "I deal with a lot of self-represented litigants. Those are the people that don't have an attorney, either by choice or through financial circumstances. It's important they all be honored, they all be respected and they all be heard. Every single day I see [people] from all different backgrounds, socioeconomic background especially. Different races, different creeds. ... When I think of 'justice for all,' I truly make sure that every single person that comes through that courtroom is getting a fair hearing, their due process is served, and they have the opportunity to be heard."

County Court Group 6

Harrell was admitted to the bar in 1993 after graduating from Tulane University Law School. Since then, she has run her own law firm and worked as a senior attorney for Children's Legal Services and a Florida Guardian Ad Litem. For the last 12 years, she has served as an assistant state attorney under Phil Archer.

Speicher graduated from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in 2004 and was admitted to the Florida Bar a year later. He began his career as an assistant state attorney before transitioning to private practice, where he has spent the last nine years working in family law. He is also an instructor and coordinator for the paralegal program at Eastern Florida State College.

Wagner passed the bar in 2006. She graduated from Stetson University College of Law, working as an assistant public defender in Brevard and Indian River counties before going into private practice as a criminal defense attorney in 2012.

Question: "What will each of you do to help move cases along in an efficient and timely manner, in an effort to address the backlog while also maintaining the rights of the litigants, the people in court?" — John Torres, FLORIDA TODAY

Harrell: "Many of the delays are caused by defense attorneys being zealous advocates for their clients and taking the time to adequately and thoroughly research the issues [and] investigate the case. ... We on the prosecutor side have an obligation as well to act in good faith to make sure we've done all that we can to vet the truth [and look at] avenues in the case that could be explored for justice.

"On a more basic level, though, in terms of moving cases, ... I think it's much more feasible to use features like virtual appearances through Teams or Zoom to enable pro se litigants who don't have attorneys or civil claims and smalls claims ... to appear in court without the time and expense involved with coordinating travel."

Speicher: "On the first day, I'd like to get in and look at the docket and see what's there. What kinds of cases have motions pending? Are there motions that haven't been resolved? And to make sure we look at those. Why was motion still pending? What are the ages of these cases, and not having the same excuses or the same reasons for cases sticking around.

"[We need to] make sure we're communicating with the parties, with the attorneys, that, 'Hey, we've had enough continuances here or we need to try to move this case along, it's getting too old.' We have victims, we have defendants, we have witnesses who keep getting brought into cases, and they deserve to be able to have some sort of resolution."

Wagner: "Justice delayed is justice denied. The people that are in custody or that have criminal cases pending, or victims that deserve resolution to their cases, these people deserve to have justice, whatever that may be. ... We see people all the time that languish in custody, that are low-risk offenders, low-risk inmates, that the state is going to offer time served on, and they stay in jail for 45 days or more.

"There is no reason someone who is indigent, who can't afford bond, or someone that doesn't need to be in custody, that we as citizens of Brevard County are paying for these people to be in custody ... [if they] are a low-risk defendant. These are the people that deserve to get moved through the system efficiently and effectively, and we as citizens and taxpayers of Brevard County deserve to have them moved through the system effectively."

County Court Group 10

Skinner joined the Florida Bar in 2013, graduating from the Barry University Andreas School of Law. He has worked for the last 10 years as an assistant state attorney under Archer. He did not participate in the forum Monday due to a family obligation, according to Cathy Riley, president of the North Brevard Democratic Club.

Tucker graduated from University of Kentucky College of Law and passed the bar in 1998. She has worked for the Kentucky Court of Appeals, the public defender's office, and was a senior attorney with the Department of Children and Families. She opened a small private firm in 2004, handling civil, criminal and family law cases.

Question: "Tell us about a mistake or a misstep that you've made in your career that you think will make you a better judge." — Suzanne Taylor, Florida League of Women Voters

Tucker: "When I went before a judge as a very young attorney, I was getting my footing in court. I was new to practice, and certainly new to court, and the judge treated me what I would consider very poorly in court. ... I committed from that day forward, obviously, to watching others, to learning, to going to court to see the proceedings. I can tell you, I don't think that was the appropriate response from the judge, and I would never treat a new lawyer in any such way. Especially in county court, you have a lot of young attorneys going in front of you from the state attorney's office and the public defender's office, and they are there to learn. I believe it's a training ground, and I would always treat all attorneys and all litigants with respect and civility."

Eric Rogers is a watchdog reporter with FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Rogers at 321-242-3717 or esrogers@floridatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Judicial candidate forum offers rare insight into new crop of Brevard judge candidates