A group of current and former prosecutors will host the next and third judicial forum for Miami-Dade County and Circuit Court candidates on Thursday — but not everybody is going.
Teressa Maria Cervera, who has always gone professionally by the name Tessa Tylman until this election, has been the only one of 14 judicial wannabes who has not shown up to any forum so far. And she is likely skipping the forum Thursday.
It’s not because she doesn’t want to be confronted about the name change, she said.
“I have a full calendar,” Cervera, er Tylman, told Ladra on Wednesday.
Read related: 14 Miami-Dade judicial candidates qualify for county, circuit court races
“I’ve always dreamed of being a judge and, as an attorney, I had my understanding of these campaigns. But I did not anticipate how I woud get such an overwhelming response to my candidacy,” she said. “I’m three days behind on requests. I have one or two events daily.
“And, on top of that, I’m still handling a full caseload.”
Cervera, Tylman or whoever (right) is challenging incumbent Circuit Court Judge Lody Jean, the first Haitian-American woman appointed to the bench (left). She has loaned herself $100,000 for the campaign while Jean has loaned herself $25K.
Many think she’s using her husband’s name to get the all-important Latino Vote, which in Miami-Dade can make or break an elected. It is a common campaign tactic.
“The whole thing is a lie. It’s twisted. Deliberately distorted,” said Cervera, who speaks almost fluent, if accented, Spanish. “I have a passport dated April 2014 in the name Cervera. I’ve been filing my taxes as Cervera. All of my IDs say Cervera.”
The Justice Building blog that broke this story said her driver’s license and voter’s registration were in the name Tylman until recently.
Cervera says she made the decision to change her name on her IDs when her son wondered, during post-COVID virtual school, why her name on the Zoom screen was different than his. She says that her Florida Bar number was given to her under the name Tylman and that is why she still conducts her legal business that way rather than bear “the professional cost” of changing her name.
But it just seems dishonest. Especially for a judicial candidate. FIU Law Professor Scott Fingerhut, who was appointed to the Florida Bar’s Professional Ethics Committee, said in the Daily Business Review that Cervera was doing constituted fraud.
“That is why Florida’s Code of Judicial Conduct makes clear that a candidate shall not knowingly misrepresent their identity. And having neither lived, nor practiced law, by this ‘new’ name before, that is precisely what Ms. Tylman is doing,” Fingerhut said. “Indeed, to call hers a mere ‘misrepresentation’ is kind. What it is is a public fraud.
“While no judicial seat is guaranteed,” Professor Fingerhut concluded, “in light of Ms. Tylman’s seeming lack of qualifications to serve as judge, her decision to run against an experienced, respected incumbent — Judge Lody Jean — based on name-recognition alone is foul play and must cause our community to question why.”
If Tylman, Cervera or whatever her name is has proof that she has been using this name for years, as she said, she needs to go to the forum and take some audio visual aids to show. She can call it evidence if she wants.
The forum Thursday is from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday and is hosted by the League of Prosecutors at the Miami Police Benevolent Association Hall, 2300 Northwest 14 St. It will be open to the public. A caucus of current and former prosecutors will then meet to make endorsements.
Candidates were asked to return questionnaires by Monday.
The League has the forum each judicial election year in order to review the candidates and provide the public with an opportunity to learn about their qualifications.
Prosecutors present Miami-Dade judicial candidates forum Thursday added by Ladra on
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