Broward Circuit Judge Matthew Destry failed to properly consider a motion to delay sentencing in a murder case, the Fourth District Court of Appeal found in a ruling that strikes a new blow to the ousted jurist accused of handing down overly harsh sentences.
Destry already faces state ethics charges for ex parte communications in a case where he sentenced a parole violator to 60 years in prison. The new ruling suggests he arbitrarily denied another defendant’s constitutional right to counsel of choice by denying a continuance to allow a private lawyer to substitute for an assistant public defender.
