When Charles Cofer walked out of the Duval County Courthouse on Monday — the final day of his 17-year career as a judge — he knew he would miss his time on the bench.
The next day, he made official what has long been rumored: He will run for 4th Judicial Circuit public defender.
“I don’t think I’ll be away from the courthouse for long,” Cofer said.
He has strong ties to the office, having served as an assistant public defender for 18 years under Lou Frost. He credits Frost with being a stickler for running the office properly and ethically, traits he said are not being carried out by embattled Public Defender Matt Shirk.
Running for the office is something Cofer said he’s considered — and been encouraged by others to do — since not long after Shirk was first elected in 2008.
Cofer said he had lunch with Shirk about six months after the election to let him know that, despite the rumors, he wasn’t going to run against him in 2012.
“I felt like since he had won, he should have an opportunity to run the office without looking over his shoulder,” Cofer said.
He said he gave Shirk advice about managing the office and the importance of focusing on training and mentoring, which he thought Shirk appreciated.
In the years after that lunch, Cofer said he heard talk about poor morale in Shirk’s office and client dissatisfaction with assistant public defenders.
Then came 2013.
Shirk came under fire for allegations of inappropriate conduct with female employees after a Florida Times-Union story.
The matter took on a soap opera-like tone for the next several months, before a grand jury looked at the issue.
Cofer said the grand jury’s scathing report that called for Shirk to resign or be removed solidified his decision to run.
The report didn’t just focus on Shirk’s personal behavior, which he has admitted was inappropriate. It said Shirk violated his oath in the Cristian Fernandez murder case by sharing privileged information with a documentary film crew.
“My reaction was, how can one continue to manage the office and maintain the faith of the employees when something like that goes on,” Cofer said.
He said he has seen a lot of grand jury reports and presentments during his career but, “I can’t recall sensing the outrage on the part of the grand jury that you read in that report.”
As Cofer was making his decision, he sought counsel from local attorneys who had served as president of The Florida Bar.
He also talked with State Attorney Angela Corey, whom he faced in court many times when he was in the Public Defender’s Office and she was an assistant state attorney.
After telling Corey he was contemplating running for office, he said he wanted to make clear he would not be seeking her endorsement as Shirk had done. (Cofer said Corey endorsed Shirk’s candidacy.)
Cofer said he thought it was inappropriate for Shirk to seek Corey’s backing. “It showed that he failed to understand the adversarial relationship of the two offices,” Cofer said.
It also led to some public defender clients viewing the leader of the office as being beholden to the other side, Cofer said, which is difficult to overcome.
Cofer said his campaign will focus on what he will do versus how Shirk has performed. That will include Cofer making sure the right people are in supervisory roles, training and mentoring young attorneys, and properly and ethically running the office.
He said he will handle some of the office’s most difficult cases and use those instances as a teaching tool by having younger or lesser-experienced attorneys serve as second chair.
“You learn how to practice law by trying cases,” he said.
Cofer said he’s confident his team, including treasurer Brian Kelly, will be able to raise the six-figure amount needed to win.
“From the number of people who have approached me indicating if I run to let them know, I really don’t anticipate to raise whatever we need to be a difficult issue,” said Cofer, who will run as a Republican.
Shirk, also a Republican, has not filed to run for re-election.
The primary is in August, with the general election in November.
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