Attorney who returned $150K to Orange clerk in severance controversy now working at appeal court

A former judge who returned over $150,000 in taxpayer dollars to the Orange County clerk’s office before being found in violation of state ethics law and was later suspended from the Florida Bar is now working for one of the highest courts in the state.

In January, Stephan Carter began working as a district staff attorney for the Sixth District Court of Appeal, according to state salary records. The 6th DCA was created last year by the Florida Legislature; it’s the first appellate court to be added in the state since 1979 and now handles appeals across a 10-county area stretching from Orlando to Naples.

According to Supreme Court records, Carter became embroiled in investigations that led to disciplinary action in 2013, when he and another employee at the clerk’s office in Orlando took out two large severance payments and then continued working for the public agency for nearly one year.

In May 2013, then-Orange County Clerk of Court Lydia Gardner died after a battle with a long illness. The next day Carter, who was the clerk’s general counsel, and Colleen Reilly, who immediately became interim clerk, took out two severance payments together totaling about $277,000.

Carter told the clerk’s payroll office to “process severance payments pursuant to the employment agreements” for Reilly and himself. Carter ultimately received over $150,000.

Carter and Reilly continued working for the Clerk’s Office after their hefty severance payments; Carter officially resigned as the clerk’s general counsel in April 2014.

The pair gave the money back in 2014 after Eddie Fernandez, the clerk appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to replace Gardner, started looking into the payments.

Then-Orange-Osceola State Attorney Jeff Ashton decided against filing criminal charges against Carter and Reilly and, instead, notified the State of Florida Ethics Commission of his findings.

After an investigation, the commission determined Carter violated state ethics law. The commission recommended the governor impose on Carter a civil penalty of $10,000 as well as a public censure and reprimand.

The commission determined Carter “coerced, harassed, and intimidated subordinate employees and demanded that they cooperate in order to carry out his unlawful scheme,” according to a final order by the commission in March 2017.

“[Carter] used clandestine means to secure a severance payment to which he knew he was not entitled, including requiring secrecy from the employees who questioned his scheme, circumventing the established office process, and avoiding the creation of a record of the transactions,” the final order said.

Carter appealed to the Fifth District Court of Appeal, which affirmed the ethics commission’s earlier recommendation.

In the fall of 2018, then-Gov. Rick Scott accepted the recommendation by the ethics committee and Carter was made to pay the $10,000 penalty.

The following year, Carter was suspended from the Florida Bar for one year. In a conditional guilty plea entered by Carter, he admitted “his misconduct violated” several Bar rules, including its standards of professional conduct.

As of Wednesday, he is still not eligible to practice law in the state.

Multiple attempts to reach Carter through phone calls and an email were unsuccessful.

Charles Crawford, the marshal for the 6th DCA, told the Orlando Sentinel that Carter was hired by Judge Jay Cohen to work as a staff attorney, which is the lowest of three attorney positions. Staff attorneys are not required to be members of the Florida Bar; senior staff attorneys and career staff attorneys are, Crawford said.

According to a law clerk job posting for a different district in Florida, which Crawford called a standard example, the position requires the ability to identify legal issues, communicate effectively and work with others.

“[A] law clerk must exercise discretion, confidentiality, impartiality, and honesty in handling all matters before the Court,” the listing said.

Crawford said staff attorneys undergo a background check and are fingerprinted, but are not required to meet the same standards as other staff in the appeal court.

“Judges make their own hiring decisions,” Crawford said.

On his application, dated Dec. 12, Carter listed general counsel for the Orange County clerk’s office from 2003 to 2014 as his most recent employment, according to a copy obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.

“Provide and/or supervise all legal services for the office,” he wrote in the duties and responsibilities field. Carter wrote “resigned/retired” as his reason for leaving.

He did not disclose his suspension from the Bar or the findings of the ethics committee in his application, which did not specifically ask about either. Carter also did not submit a resume or any letters of recommendation for the job.

Crawford said he does “not recall if he knew” Carter was suspended by the Florida Bar after being found in violation of state ethics law. He did not wish to comment on Carter’s suspension or discipline signed by Scott, the former governor.

Cohen, the judge who hired Carter, retired from the 6th DCA in May after three months on the new appellate bench.

In mid-July, Judge Paetra Brownlee was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to the 6th DCA to fill the vacancy. In 2020, Brownlee was appointed by DeSantis in 2020 as a judge in the Ninth Judicial Circuit, where she took on cases in Orange and Osceola counties.

Brownlee, however, did not take on Carter as a law clerk and has employed two other people for those roles, said Crawford.

Carter still works at the 6th DCA and has not been assigned a judge since Cohen’s retirement in May.

“We still have one judge vacancy, and when we get the next judge appointed, it will be up to the next judge to determine their law clerks,” Crawford said in an email.

Before Cohen worked for the 6th DCA, he was at the 5th DCA since 2008. In 2017 and 2018 – the time Carter’s case was reviewed by the 5th DCA – Cohen was the chief judge there.

In an email, Cohen said that when the 6th DCA was formed, he was persuaded to delay his planned retirement to provide his institutional knowledge and perspective, especially considering that he had many more years of experience as an appellate judge than the rest of the judges appointed to the new court.

Cohen had known Carter since 1990 when they were both appointed as judges in the Ninth Judicial Circuit by former Florida Gov. Bob Martinez.

Cohen said he was aware of Carter’s strong academic credentials from his time at the University of Florida School of Law and that he had served as a law clerk for the Florida Supreme Court.

In an email, Cohen noted that he knew his own tenure on the court would be short-lived due to his retirement. He said he reached out to Carter about the job because “It would have been virtually impossible to find someone with such strong credentials willing to work for an indeterminate period of time.”

Cohen was aware of Carter’s “issue with the Florida Bar,” he said in an email. He added that it was “not a disqualification for the position for which he was hired.”

While under Cohen, Carter did not practice law in any capacity as a clerk and had no participation in deciding cases, Cohen said.

Cohen said the former judge’s role was to assist in editing opinions written by Cohen and to also prepare memorandums of law, which present the competing arguments “and an analysis as to the merits of those arguments,” Cohen said, adding, “It is not uncommon for judges to disagree with the recommendations of law clerks.”

Cohen described Carter’s work as “exceptional” and said “the role of a law clerk is academic in nature and requires a keen intellect.”

“I would be surprised to hear any criticism as to the quality of Mr. Carter’s work product from any member of the court,” Cohen said.

ccann@orlandosentinel.com