Jesse Scheckner
Roughly two and a half months after the Florida Supreme Court suspended him due to complaints and evidence of improper remarks and actions from the bench, Broward County Judge Gary Farmer has resigned.
He submitted a letter of resignation to Chief Administrative Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips on Friday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
Farmer had been suspended since May 19.
His removal from the bench and subsequent resignation followed scrutiny over the past year into the former Senate Democratic Leader’s unusual approach to ruling over court proceedings.
The Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission’s (JQC) Investigative Panel began investigating Farmer’s conduct in late 2024 after a series of complaints about him resulted in his reassignment from the criminal division to the county’s civil court.
In April, the JQC deemed Farmer “unfit to serve,” citing repeated inappropriate remarks from the bench and conduct the panel deemed damaging to public confidence in the judiciary.
On multiple occasions, Farmer shared sexually themed remarks to attorneys, courtroom personnel and parties with legal standing, including jokes about ejaculate, suggesting a defendant would impregnate his defense lawyer, and homoerotic quotes from an “In Living Color” sketch.
The Investigative Panel also discovered several examples where it said Farmer “willfully ignored” statutes, rules of procedure “or was unaware of the most basic elements of the law which govern his actions as a judge in the felony division.”
In one instance, Farmer “improperly dismissed a pending criminal case after striking a prosecution witness” despite valid objections — and an attempt to explain to the Judge — that he could not dismiss the case outright.
Farmer, who was elected to the bench in 2022, pushed back against the allegations, admitting he’d spoken unsuitably but characterizing his comments as “dad jokes” that were meant to engender camaraderie and reduce stress.
In a May legal filing, he requested a trial over the matter and asked to remain on the bench during the proceedings. His legal team argued the charges are exaggerated and his comments were mischaracterized or taken out of context.
The Florida Supreme Court instead suspended him without pay.
Farmer’s background in Florida politics and law has made this case a particularly high-profile one. As a legislator, he was known for his sharp rhetoric and partisan clashes, including one resulting in his ouster as Senate Democratic Leader in April 2021 just five months after he had taken on the role.
Two and a half years earlier, he drew criticism for “obnoxious” comments he made about his successor as Senate Democratic Leader, Lauren Book, whom he said was ill-suited for the role because she had two young children.
Farmer later apologized.
