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FLORIDA RECORD

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Former Broward School Board member suspended additional 2 years from law practice

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Coral Springs attorney and former Broward County School Board member Stephanie Arma Kraft has been suspended for two additional years following an June 22 Florida Supreme Court order after her 2014 guilty plea to official misconduct.

Kraft had been suspended in 2015 and the latest state supreme court order extends her suspension another two years. Before she may petition for reinstatement, Kraft must complete 30 hours of legal ethics and/or professionalism training, according to the Florida State Bar's announcement of the discipline and the Supreme Court's order Sept. 27. The state court's two-page order also directed Kraft to pay about $2,456 in costs.

Kraft was admitted to the bar in Florida on Sept. 22, 1988, according to her profile at the state bar website.

Kraft and her husband, longtime Tamarac city attorney Mitch Kraft, were arrested in October 2010 on charges including unlawful compensation and bribery for allegedly selling her school board office for $10,000 to South Florida developers Bruce Chait and Shawn Chait. The developers allegedly hired Kraft to assist in effectively reducing school-required development fees by $500,000, which Kraft allegedly pushed school staff to place on the board's consent agenda.

Kraft's suspension announced in a March 2015 Supreme Court order had been predicated on a notice of determination of guilt, which the state bar filed the same month. That determination was issued following Kraft's conviction in U.S. 17th Judicial Circuit Court for official misconduct, which is a third degree felony. Kraft was acquitted on charges of unlawful compensation, bribery and criminal conspiracy. She was sentenced to five years' probation, community service, fines and court fees.

The probation sentenced was stayed pending appeal to the Fourth District, which in December 2016 affirmed her conviction without a written opinion. The stay on her probation was lifted this past March, according to the nine-page report of referee signed by 15th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Sandra Bosso-Pardo in April 21.

In that report, Bosso-Bardo said she considered Kraft’s "dishonest and selfish motive" and her "substantial experience in the practice of law" as aggravating factors for continuing Kraft's suspension. In mitigation, Bosso-Pardo cited the absence of any prior disciplinary record, Kraft's "full and free disclosure to the disciplinary board", her character and other penalties already imposed.

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