‘I don’t buy it.’ Judge downplays mental illness. Defense lawyers want him off cases

A few weeks ago, Miami-Dade County Judge Michael Barket invited the lawyers assigned to his courtroom into his chambers for doughnuts.

What happened at that casual breakfast has now sparked an unusual legal fight.

The Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office is asking Barket to recuse himself from a slew of cases because, over those Dunkin’ Donuts, he allegedly claimed he “didn’t buy” the effect mental illness and substance abuse have on poor criminal-court defendants. When the lawyers pushed back, Barket “again stated that he doesn’t believe that.”

“And that he thinks many of our clients’ problems with mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction, and homelessness could be fixed if they put forth the effort,” Assistant Public Defender Marissa Reichel wrote in a sworn affidavit.

The Public Defender’s Office says it believes Barket is “not impartial” and their clients “will not receive fair ruling pretrial, during trial, and at any sentencing.” Lawyers filed motions asking him to recuse himself in six cases. Barket on Tuesday refused to take himself off one case. The other five are still pending.

Through a court spokeswoman, Barket declined to comment. Under judicial rules, Florida judges are not allowed to comment publicly on pending cases.

South Florida criminal courts have long recognized the role mental illness plays in some cases of defendants, many of them homeless or destitute, committing crimes and being jailed.

Florida’s woeful track record on mental-health care is well chronicled. The state ranks dead last among the states in spending on mental health, according to an analysis by the Florida Policy Institute.

Miami-Dade County Judge Steve Leifman has led many lauded reforms, including a program called the Criminal Mental Health Project, which diverts people with mental disorders out of the criminal justice system and sends them to treatment.

If the defendant follows the treatment plan, their criminal charges are dropped or reduced; between 800 and 1,000 defendants go through the program each year. In May, Miami-Dade County officials broke ground on renovations on a defunct state hospital that will become a $40 million facility to service mentally ill defendants.

Leifman has also pushed for increased training for police officers in dealing with mentally ill people in crisis. Last year, specially trained Miami-Dade police officers responded to 8,047 crisis calls, and made only three arrests, according to stats provided to the court.

Barket, previously a private lawyer, was elected to the county bench in August 2018. In the criminal division, county judges oversee misdemeanor cases.

He made headlines in April when he acquitted a Miami police officer who was accused of kicking at a handcuffed suspect. He made the decision after prosecutors rested their case, then sparked confusion by asking the defense to start presenting its witnesses.

“I think maybe he was just joking around,” the police officer’s defense lawyer told the Herald at the time.

According to the public defenders’ motion, the judge’s comments disparaging the mentally ill happened on June 6. It started when Reichel, the assistant public defender, lamented that so many clients suffer from mental illness.

“Judge Barket replied ‘I don’t buy it,’ or words to that effect,” according to a court motion. “He then stated that both his father and his girlfriend had come to this country with nothing and look at them now. He stated that his girlfriend was a refugee here and now she is a judge. He then discussed his father and how he had created his life from nothing.”

Reichel replied that “many public defender clients are not as fortunate and are unable to do that, and the Judge’s girlfriend and father are exceptions, rather than the rule.”

Barket then repeated his assertions, according to a motion by Assistant Public Defender Natahly Seoane-Soler.

“In this case, this court’s comments denigrating patients who suffer from mental illness more than suggests an unfavorable opinion of them,” she wrote.

This story was originally published June 27, 2019 at 2:18 PM.