Discipline case against judge over Rundle texts in murder case will move forward
The disciplinary case against a Miami appeals court judge — scrutinized over text messages she sent to Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle during the resentencing phase of a notorious killer — will move forward, a judge ruled.
Judge Morris Silberman, an appellate court judge in St. Petersburg who is presiding over the disciplinary case, rejected Judge Bronwyn Miller’s efforts to dismiss disciplinary charges brought by a state judicial investigative panel over the content of the messages. The panel said the texts cast doubt on whether Miller could act impartially as a judge on the 3rd District Court of Appeal.
Miller was the prosecutor who secured the death penalty against convicted murderer Corey Smith in the 1990s. Now an appellate judge, Miller sent a series of texts to Rundle, her former boss, as the resentencing in the death penalty case began to unravel.
At a hearing last week, Sandy Bohrer, Miller’s attorney, argued she was merely exercising her First Amendment rights in sending the texts and was not interfering in the case against Smith. Miller, Bohrer said, “did nothing in her official capacity” as an appellate court judge when she texted Rundle.
READ MORE: Miami judge tries to get disciplinary charges linked to Rundle texts dismissed
In his six-page order, issued Friday, Silberman wrote that Miller’s constitutional challenges are “premature at this juncture” and require the case proceed in order to be addressed. Silberman also said the facts cited by the investigative panel were “sufficiently detailed” to put Miller on notice of the conduct that allegedly violated ethical rules.
Bohrer declined to comment when reached by the Herald on Monday afternoon.
Miller was a prosecutor in Fernandez Rundle’s office in 2005 when she secured the death penalty conviction against Smith, a drug kingpin and gang leader who murdered four people in Liberty City in the 1990s.
But after the state changed the law requiring only a two-thirds vote by a jury to recommend the death penalty, rather than a unanimous decision, Smith was granted a new death-penalty resentencing trial in 2024. During the resentencing phase, Miller sent text messages to Fernandez Rundle about the case, concerned about her reputation since she had prosecuted Smith.
Miller was not involved as a judge in the resentencing hearing; Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson presided over the case. In several texts, Miller was critical of Wolfson’s handling of the case, even calling for her removal from the case in texts to Fernandez Rundle.
And she fumed when prosecutors waived the death penalty against Smith last year after a series of missteps.
The Miami Herald obtained Miller’s text messages with Fernandez Rundle and published them in an article on its website on Nov. 10, 2024. Three days later, on Nov. 13, Miller reported herself to the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission.
Smith was resentenced to 30 years in prison in the new deal with prosecutors. Smith’s attorneys accused prosecutors of coaching witnesses’ testimonies and speaking to a convicted murderer in a recorded jail call about a difficult witness.
Miller can file an answer to the notice by mid-May, according to the order.
This story was originally published April 27, 2026 at 5:48 PM.
