10 June 2014 :

Judge disbarred over 'personal relationship' with prosecutor during death penalty trial. Ana Gardiner, 52, White, sentenced Omar Loureiro to death in 2007 after presiding over his murder trial. It was later uncovered she had entered into a 'personal and emotional' relationship with the prosecutor in the case, Howard Scheinberg, 53. The two exchanged 949 phone calls and 471 texts in the months leading up to Loureiro's sentencing. Loureiro was granted a retrial as a result and his sentence was reduce to life in prison (see JULY 14, 2010). Gardiner was permanently kicked out of the legal profession today. In 2013 the Supreme Court suspended Scheinberg from practice for two years. He will be allowed to return to the practice of law in 2015. When the Judicial Qualifications Commission began an investigation in late 2008, the court said Gardiner 'failed to disclose the honest and true nature of her relationship with Scheinberg' during Louriero's trial. It was not until the following April, when the Broward state attorney was investigating, that Gardiner 'acknowledged for the first time her ongoing emotional relationship with Scheinberg'. Ana Gardiner resigned from the Broward Circuit Court bench in 2010 after serving for 11 years. She now has 30 days to close out her Fort Lauderdale law practice. 'Considering Gardiner's dishonest conduct and the harm that her actions have caused to the administration of justice in a capital first-degree murder case, we conclude that disbarment is the appropriate action,' said the Supreme Court order. The court also ordered her to pay $8,117.18 in costs.