The Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission, the investigative arm of the Florida judicial system, last week filed a notice of formal charges against Flagler County Circuit Judge Scott DuPont stemming from allegations that he may have acted unethically and “recklessly” during his just-ended re-election campaign against challenger Malcolm Anthony.
In a series of five charges, the commission found that DuPont spread” scandalous information” about Anthony without substantiating it, that he implied Anthony had been jailed and that his wife and daughter had been arrested two dozen times between them, that Anthony had cheated in a straw poll, though DuPont had no documentation substantiating the allegation, and that, aside from his claims about Anthony, that DuPont himself had flatly declared in a forum that he has and would as a judge continue to refuse to find any statute unconstitutional—itself a violation of his oath to uphold the Constitution.