ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – An Orange County judge is being investigated following reports of “misconduct” while presiding over criminal cases, according to court documents filed on Friday.

In a notice, investigators with the Judicial Qualifications Commission told the judge — identified as Martha Adams — that they had voted in favor of bringing formal charges against her during a December 2024 meeting.

“While performing your judicial duties, you made statements and performed actions that were impatient, undignified, discourteous, and evinced animus and bias against members of the Ninth Circuit State Attorney’s Office,” the notice reads.

More specifically, the notice states that Adams became frustrated with certain “administrative and procedural issues” that she believed existed in the SAO.

As a result, she made several “inappropriate remarks and comments” in court about members of the SAO, who were representing the state in some of the cases that came before Adams.

Some of these alleged comments include:

• referring to an assistant state attorney as an “ass”

• telling a group of assistant state attorneys that if their supervisor was going to make Adams’ life a “shambles,” then she would do the same to him

• expressing her belief that the SAO was engaged in a conspiracy to remove Adams from the criminal bench, thus stating that she would have to “start being a [expletive]” in regard to her rulings

As a result, the commission announced it found that Adams had violated several tenets of the Code of Judicial Conduct, including rules related to impropriety and prejudice.

According to court records, Adams had agreed that the charges against her were backed by evidence and that she should be disciplined as a consequence. She also sent apology letters to those affected by her behavior.

“(Adams) admitted to her misconduct and has cooperated with the Commission in all respects during this inquiry,” the discipline report states. “She has expressed deep regret that her conduct could have eroded the public’s perception of the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”

On Friday, the commission wrote that Adams has been on the bench since 2007 without any prior disciplinary issues, so the commission ultimately chose to punish her recent comments by way of public reprimand.

“The Commission believes that this penalty will serve to deter future misconduct by Judge Adams,” the discipline recommendation reads.