Charge against mainland judge dropped

Prosecutors dropped a criminal-mischief charge against a Miami-Dade judge accused of smashing a pickup truck with a metal pipe in June.

The decision not to charge Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Victoria Brennan was made by State Attorney Stephen Russell, chief of the 20th Judicial Circuit’s prosecutors who was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott after the Keys state attorney, Catherine Vogel, removed her office from the case. The reason Vogel gave for not taking the case was that one of her prosecutors once dated Brennan and that she and Brennan worked closely together as Miami-Dade County prosecutors in the 1990s.

Brennan is accused of smashing the pickup truck in front of a Key Largo home she owns on June 28, a day after her son was arrested for driving under the influence and hit and run. She was reportedly angry her son’s friends were still partying at her house after she was forced to drive down from the mainland to deal with her son’s case. As the three men left in the pickup truck, she attacked the vehicle with the pipe, which was in the bed of the Chevy.

Days after the incident, Monroe County deputies signed an arrest warrant for Brennan and detectives contacted her lawyer trying to arrange her surrender on the misdemeanor charge. Brennan was in Hawaii and her attorney, Daniel Lurvey, convinced the truck’s owner, Victor Garcia of Homestead, to sign an affidavit not to file charges. Brennan subsequently paid Garcia, 20, for the damages she allegedly caused to his vehicle.

According to the court minutes of Thursday’s hearing before Monroe Circuit Court Judge Timothy Koenig, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office general counsel Patrick McCullough was present and stated the Sheriff’s Office did not object to the charge being dropped.

The matter stayed out of the limelight until the Keynoter/Reporter and Miami Herald detailed the allegations earlier last month. Vogel took heat from her opponent in the November election, Dennis Ward, for her decision to stay out of the case. Ward, a former Keys state attorney, on Thursday called the matter “another case of Vogel ducking her responsibilities as state attorney.”

Vogel’s office is prosecuting the younger Brennan’s DUI case, which is scheduled for a status update on Oct. 3 at the Plantation Key courthouse. The 17-year-old is accused of hitting three cars with his BMW in Tavernier before being apprehended by an off-duty Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer. Florida Highway Patrol troopers allegedly found marijuana and prescription pills in the car. According to a Sheriff’s Office report, the younger Brennan spit in a deputy’s face when taken to the Plantation Key lockup that night.

On Aug. 25, the Miami-Dade Circuit Court temporarily moved Judge Brennan from criminal court over the truck-smashing incident. That was days after dozens of defendants before her asked that Brennan be removed from their cases because she failed to publicly disclose her scrape with the law in Monroe County.

Last week, the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office began filing motions asking that Brennan remove herself from the case, saying they felt she would not be fair and impartial after her run-in with the law.

Two days later, Miami-Dade Chief Judge Bertila Soto issued an “administrative order” reassigning Brennan to the dependency division in juvenile court. The assignment is not permanent – she’ll return to the criminal bench after Dec. 31, unless otherwise ordered, according to the chief judge.

Brennan, 53, has been a circuit judge since 2011.

David Ovalle of the Miami Herald contributed to this report.

This story was originally published September 1, 2016 at 1:45 PM with the headline "Charge against mainland judge dropped."