Florida Judge Anne Marie Gennusa Resigns Amid Misconduct Allegations

Put­nam Coun­ty Judge Anne Marie Gen­nusa has resigned from the bench amid an ongo­ing dis­ci­pli­nary inquiry by the Flori­da Supreme Court over alle­ga­tions she abused her judi­cial author­i­ty.

Gen­nusa, who served in Florida’s 7th Judi­cial Cir­cuit, sub­mit­ted her res­ig­na­tion on Octo­ber 3, effec­tive Octo­ber 31, in a let­ter addressed to Gov­er­nor Ron DeSan­tis. The cir­cuit cov­ers Put­nam, Volu­sia, Fla­gler, and St. Johns coun­ties in east-cen­tral Flori­da.

Appoint­ed to the coun­ty court bench in 2023 by Gov. DeSan­tis, Gen­nusa presided over mis­de­meanor crim­i­nal and traf­fic cas­es at the Put­nam Coun­ty Cour­t­house in Palat­ka. Her res­ig­na­tion comes short­ly after the Flori­da Judi­cial Qual­i­fi­ca­tions Com­mis­sion (JQC) found prob­a­ble cause that she had vio­lat­ed sev­er­al judi­cial canons — includ­ing those requir­ing judges to com­ply with the law, pro­mote con­fi­dence in the integri­ty of the judi­cia­ry, and act with patience, dig­ni­ty, and cour­tesy.

Accord­ing to the JQC’s find­ings, Gen­nusa demon­strat­ed a “pat­tern of abus­ing her author­i­ty,” includ­ing inci­dents in which she alleged­ly held indi­vid­u­als in con­tempt improp­er­ly. The pan­el cit­ed cas­es where she ordered a female vic­tim hand­cuffed in the court­room and jailed a moth­er of already trau­ma­tized chil­dren, rais­ing seri­ous con­cerns about her “fit­ness for the bench.”

“Your unwill­ing­ness or inabil­i­ty to gov­ern your­self with the dig­ni­ty, cour­tesy and patience required by the Code… raise seri­ous ques­tions about your fit­ness to serve as a judi­cial offi­cer,”
— Flori­da Judi­cial Qual­i­fi­ca­tions Com­mis­sion state­ment signed by Assis­tant Gen­er­al Coun­sel Hugh R. Brown

Gennusa Responds and Reflects

In her for­mal response, Gen­nusa acknowl­edged that she might have han­dled some cas­es dif­fer­ent­ly, attribut­ing part of the con­tro­ver­sy to her rel­a­tive inex­pe­ri­ence as a judge. She clar­i­fied that, in one cit­ed inci­dent, she nev­er for­mal­ly held a man in con­tempt and that in anoth­er case, she briefly detained a woman “to calm her,” assert­ing the cus­tody last­ed less than three hours.

Since those events, she said, she has learned “a great deal” through con­tin­ued judi­cial edu­ca­tion and made improve­ments in her court­room prac­tices.

A Return to Private Practice

Despite the dis­ci­pli­nary clouds, Gennusa’s res­ig­na­tion let­ter struck a reflec­tive tone. She thanked the gov­er­nor for the appoint­ment and the res­i­dents of Put­nam Coun­ty for their con­fi­dence in her lead­er­ship.

“The last two and a half years have revealed to me that my true pro­fes­sion­al love is prac­tic­ing law,” she wrote. “I miss help­ing peo­ple nav­i­gate a com­pli­cat­ed legal sys­tem, being there for them dur­ing dif­fi­cult times, and pro­vid­ing pro bono rep­re­sen­ta­tion to those who need it.”

Gen­nusa announced she will return to pri­vate prac­tice, launch­ing the Fam­i­ly, Estate & Medi­a­tion Law Group with offices in Palat­ka and St. Augus­tine.

DeSan­tis will appoint her suc­ces­sor through the judi­cial nom­i­nat­ing process in the com­ing weeks.