Florida Bar opens inquiry into Monique Pardo Pope following Billy Corben complaint

The Florida Bar has opened an official inquiry into Monique Pardo Pope, a runoff candidate for the Miami Beach Commission whom documentarian Billy Corben accused of spreading lies about his legal record.

In a letter to Corben, the Bar confirmed it has opened a disciplinary file and is looking into his complaint that Pardo Pope intentionally lied about him after he revealed she is the daughter of serial killer Manuel Pope and detailed loving social media posts she wrote about him.

Pope has until Dec. 10, the day after Miami Beach’s runoff election, to respond to the matter, after which Corben will have 10 days to file a rebuttal.

According to the Florida Bar, just 25% of complaints or inquiries result in the opening of a disciplinary file.

Corben’s complaint points to a written statement Pardo Pope made to the Miami New Times in September, following his reporting that her father was an admirer of Adolf Hitler who killed nine people in the 1980s, tattooed the family dog with a swastika and was later executed.

Pardo Pope, who called her father her “hero” in a since-deleted Instagram post, said Corben — an Emmy, Peabody and Edward R. Murrow Award-winning filmmaker — has “made a career of slinging mud, which has even resulted in losing a defamation case.”

Corben called that statement false, noting that the only time he was party to a defamation case, his side secured a six-figure fee award under Florida’s anti-SLAPP statute. He then sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding that Pardo Pope immediately stop “making false statements of fact” about him.

Two months later, she still hasn’t “retracted the lie she published about” him, Corben said, adding that her conduct “appears to run afoul of the Florida Bar’s standards for professionalism.”

The complaint, sent Thursday, cites the Bar’s Professionalism Expectations, which among other things states that lawyers shall not “engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation,” and that in law-related communications, a lawyer “must not disparage another’s character or competence.”

“Ms. Pardo Pope’s disparaging statement claiming I have lost a defamation case is unambiguously dishonest, deceitful, and misrepresentative of the facts,” Corben wrote.

“It is unfathomable that a lawyer with over a decade of legal experience lacks the ability and/or judgment to ensure they speak truthfully when commenting to the media about the outcome of litigation. Yet here, Ms. Pardo Pope apparently knew I had been involved in litigation alleging defamation, but she either (1) knew nothing of the actual facts of the case and falsely ascribed an outcome; or (2) knew I won the case, but falsely claimed I did not. Regardless of which explanation Ms. Pardo Pope invokes, it is irrefutable that she lied about the adjudication of a case that occurred in her own home judicial circuit.”

Pardo Pope, a Republican, is competing against Democrat Monica Matteo-Salinas for the Group 1 seat of the Miami Beach Commission.

The two earned the most votes in Tuesday’s General Election, but not a large enough share — more than 50% — to win outright.

Matteo-Salinas received 23.2% of the vote, while Pardo Pope got 20.1%, edging out third-place candidate Brian Ehrlich by 0.84 percentage points. Notably, Pardo Pope outraised Matteo-Salinas by more than twofold, though roughly a third of her funds were self-given.