Judges and prosecutors in Miami-Dade have had official court records altered and kept secret dockets to disguise what was actually happening in some court cases.

The Miami Herald has found two criminal cases where court dockets were changed to cover up felony convictions. In both cases, the defendants were informants for the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office.

But more bogus records apparently exist. Jose Arrojo, a top assistant to Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle, said judges' altering public records in informant cases at prosecutors' request has been "an established practice in this circuit" for two decades.

Florida law makes it a crime for anyone - including judges, clerks or "other public officers" - to alter or falsify court records or proceedings. Offenders can be sent to prison for a year.

A spokeswoman for Miami-Dade Chief Judge Joseph Farina said Friday that Farina was unaware of the practice.

"Chief Judge Farina is not aware of any judge altering or falsifying any court record in violation" of state law, spokeswoman Eunice Sigler said.

Experienced jurists were surprised to learn dockets had been doctored.

"Creating a false record to allow somebody to work undercover. That's shocking, " said Miami First Amendment lawyer Thomas Julin.

"I've never heard of such a thing, " said ex-Florida Chief Justice Gerald Kogan, a former criminal court judge and prosecutor in Miami-Dade.

Miami-Dade prosecutors argue that court rules that exempt some sensitive records from public disclosure also authorize judges to misrepresent the public record to protect informants. But no rule explicitly gives judges power to order the creation of a false court record.

"It all sounds so Machiavellian, " said Julin. "I think you've uncovered the commission of a crime here."

Evidence of Miami-Dade's docket being used as a kind of witness protection program comes amid an inquiry by Florida's chief justice into the improper hiding of court records across the state.

The probe followed reports in The Miami Herald about the veiling of hundreds of civil and criminal cases, mostly in Broward. Many such "super-sealed" cases were the divorces of politicians, judges, lawyers and high-profile businessmen - warping the public record and raising questions of favoritism.

Those cases have since been restored to the docket, but most remain sealed as the court system studies proposed public access rules.

In Miami-Dade last month, Farina informed Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis that a clerk's search of nearly two million cases dating to 1993 found no "hidden cases" or "secret dockets." A dozen civil cases - including at least one judge's divorce - were found to be largely inaccessible to the public because litigants' names were hidden.

A secret docket was used to mask events in the case of Salim "Johnny" Batrony, who cooperated with state prosecutors after he was caught laundering drug money in 2001.

Court Clerk Harvey Ruvin said he learned from Arrojo only this week that court records were being altered. "He called and assured me it was totally proper, " Ruvin said. Ruvin pledged to look into the practice, and take action if needed.

For four years, until a reporter started asking questions, Miami-Dade's electronic court docket for the case said charges against Batrony had been dropped in 2002, and that Judge Daryl Trawick had closed the case.

But that wasn't true.