Why are taxpayers funding the criminal defense of a prominent Jacksonville lawyer’s minor child? Well, the judge was a friend. 

Jacksonville attorney Stephen Watrel doesn’t seem to be lacking financially. The 57-year-old personal injury lawyer boasts seven-figure awards for clients, owns a gated downtown condo valued at more than $600,000, drives a Tesla SUV and was married in Sicily at a luxury five-star hotel with rooms routinely going for over $1,000 a night that was featured in HBO’s The White Lotus. 

Yet still, Duval County taxpayers are picking up the tab for Watrel’s minor daughter’s legal representation. The girl, who the Florida Trident isn’t naming because of her age, was assigned a public defender – meant only for those who can’t afford a lawyer of their own – in three ongoing felony battery cases back in December 2023. 

The girl’s mother, Kathleen Watrel, a mental health counselor now in a protracted custody battle with her ex-husband, confirmed to the Trident that neither she nor Watrel are financially indigent and both can afford a private attorney for their daughter, who resides with her father. 

She alleges in a federal lawsuit filed last month that Watrel “used his close personal relationships with judges and other legal actors” to secure a “fraudulent appointment” of a Duval County public defender for their daughter, an appointment she said she never approved.

“The community would be outraged by the favors extended by judges to their friends at the expense of taxpayer money, innocent detainees, and children,” she said. 

A review of court records by the Trident indicates the normal protocol for the assignment of public defenders wasn’t followed in Watrel’s case. While indigency assignments are processed and determined by the Duval County Clerk’s Office, this one was handled behind closed doors by Circuit Judge W. Collins Cooper, who would later recuse himself from the cases due to what he called a “personal and professional relationship” with Watrel’s law firm, Coker Law. 

Both Watrel and Cooper, who is also named as a defendant in Kathleen Watrel’s federal lawsuit, declined comment for this article. The minor child’s criminal case, meanwhile, remains open with a taxpayer-funded public defender continuing to represent her 15 months after the dubious appointment.

How it happened 

Florida law requires anyone seeking free legal representation based on financial indigency (which roughly equates to an income of $30,000 or less for an individual) to file an “affidavit of insolvency” with the local clerk’s office to show they can’t afford an attorney, as well as a sworn declaration the financial information provided is accurate.

In the case of a minor child, Florida law says a parent or legal guardian is responsible for filling out those forms to show they can’t afford to pay for a lawyer for the child. Making a false statement on the affidavit is a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by a fine and up to a year in jail.

That affidavit, however, was never filed in Watrel’s case with the Duval County Clerk of Court, according to Jennifer Nelson, a manager in the clerk’s office, in correspondence with the girl’s mother. Nelson further wrote she was “unaware of any exemptions or exceptions” to filing the affidavit, which in the case of minor children must be completed by a parent or guardian.

Instead, Judge Cooper issued an order of indigency for the girl on Dec. 27, 2023 claiming that her parent had testified before him in chambers, meaning privately rather than in an open courtroom. Cooper wrote in his order that the parent directly provided him with an affidavit of insolvency and a financial statement. 

After presiding over the cases for five months, Cooper recused himself in May, citing his personal and professional relationship with Coker Law, a connection rooted in electoral politics. 

The son and grandson of Duval County judges, Cooper’s initial unopposed campaign for judge in 2018 was met with controversy when the Florida Times-Union reported his previous 11-year tenure as a prosecutor had been marked by concerns about legal competence, “interpersonal skills,” and past arrests for DUI, disorderly conduct, and petit theft.

“Very concerned about arrest record … no significant upside to counterbalance bad behavior over a nine-year period,” read a hiring supervisor’s note in his personnel file. “On this one, I defer to the SAO out of respect and deference to lineage.” 

Faced with a possible political challenge, Cooper received thousands of dollars from Coker Law attorneys during the 2018 run, including $500 from Watrel himself. Cooper also held a campaign strategy session in Coker Law’s downtown offices during which Watrel was present, according to a source present at the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

Kathleen Watrel provided the Trident text messages showing she informed the public defender assigned to her daughter’s case, Emily Ruse, that her daughter didn’t qualify for indigency. Ruse responded she would continue representing the girl until she heard otherwise. In response to emailed questions from the Trident, Public Defender Charles Cofer, who is also named as a defendant in the federal lawsuit, responded that it is the court, not his office, that determines who receives a public defender. 

In September, Kathleen Watrel filed a complaint with Jacksonville’s Office of Inspector General, again claiming the public defender’s appointment was fraudulent. Deputy Inspector David Johnston responded that he’d referred the matter to the State Attorney’s Office. When contacted by the Trident, a representative of the SAO said the agency can’t comment on “open cases.” Kathleen Watrel said she has not been contacted about any investigation to date.

More judges bow out 

When Stephen Watrel filed a petition for an emergency protective order against his ex-wife from his daughter last May, Circuit Judge Maureen Horkan dismissed the petition, citing “no evidence of immediate or present danger” for the child. Watrel then requested another emergency hearing before Circuit Judge Eric Roberson, with whom he had what appears an even closer personal relationship than he had with Cooper. 

When Watrel was married to his second wife in June 2023 at the San Domenico Palace Four Seasons Hotel in Sicily – a sprawling resort located on a high cliff in Taormina featured in season two of The White Lotus – it was Roberson who presided over the ceremony.

Kathleen Watrel’s federal lawsuit alleges Steve Watrel paid for part or all of Roberson’s plane ticket and lodging for the wedding, gifts she alleges the judge never reported to the Florida Commission on Ethics as required. On May 23, 2024, Kathleen Watrel’s attorney filed a motion for Roberson’s recusal from the hearing, citing the personal friendship and the wedding trip to Sicily. Roberson, who declined comment for this story through his judicial office, recused himself the same day. 

The minor daughter’s criminal cases, meanwhile, were later transferred to Circuit Judge Michael Kalil, who in April signed an order, identical to Cooper’s, claiming the parent filed an insolvency affidavit and provided testimony in his chambers alleging indigency. In January, Kalil, without citing a reason, also recused himself from the case. When contacted by the Trident, Kalil declined to comment. 

The Duval County Office of the Public Defender, meanwhile, is notoriously stretched thin. According to statistics from the Florida Department of Corrections, 80 percent of inmates in the Duval County Jail qualify for a public defender in an office. On average Florida’s public defenders handle three times more cases than justice standards recommend, according to the National Public Defense Workload Standards. 

“I know people who have sat in jail over three months waiting, hoping and praying to get a lawyer and to get out of jail,” Kathleen Watrel told the Trident. “They came to believe only the wealthy and connected get justice. The actions that have taken place in this case, sadly, give the impression they are right.”