The Third District Court of Appeal disqualified Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Beatrice Butchko from litigation that began as a “straightforward mortgage foreclosure” but “has somehow transformed into an ever-escalating battle that no longer resembles its original form.”

And Anthony V. Alfieri, a professor and director of the Center for Ethics & Public Service at the University of Miami School of Law, said the appellate decision to boot Butchko from the case after she charged several petitioners with perjury was consistent with settled due-process principles governing indirect criminal contempt sanctions at trial.