Three county court judge contests in Florida will head to runoffs in November’s General Election, including challenges to two sitting judges — one initially appointed by the governor and the other disciplined for a profane outburst.

County courts, known as the “people’s courts,” are limited jurisdiction courts responsible for both criminal and civil matters, including handling citizen disputes, misdemeanor criminal cases, civil contract issues, traffic violations, and landlord-tenant disputes.

Of the 18 county court judge races in Florida this year, 15 contests were resolved after the primary election when one candidate must receive more than 50 percent of the vote. Three races remain to be determined in November — a seat each in Seminole, Liberty, and Duval counties.

The candidates, who must be members in good standing of the Florida Bar for the past five years, are vying to serve six-year terms. (In counties with less than 40,000 people like Liberty County, candidates only need to be good-standing members of the Bar.)

Octavius A. Holliday Jr. and Melina Buncome: Duval County Group 13

In Duval County, public defender Melina Buncome and prosecutor Octavius A. Holliday Jr. advanced to the general election to fill the vacated Group 13 bench after Judge Mose Floyd’s retirement.

The August results were relatively close, with Holliday receiving 37 percent of the vote and Buncome earning 33 percent. Buncome, a public defender since 1997, works as the director of the Problem Solving Courts in the Fourth Judicial Circuit, overseeing mental health, veterans treatment court, and adult drug cases in Nassau, Clay, and Duval counties. 

“I bring all that, so if you wrap that all up and you take that on the bench, you have a better insight on the people that come before you on a daily basis,” Buncome said in an interview.

Holliday previously told The Florida Trib about serving as a prosecutor as well as in criminal defense, family law, civil law, and in private practice.  At the State Attorney’s Office, his cases mostly involve elder abuse or exploitation, while also serving on both grand jury and officer-involved shooting review panels.

“I’ve always just poured myself into Jacksonville,” Holliday said. “I’m very fair-minded when it comes to my prosecution. That is, I listen to all the aggravation and mitigation in the case and try to do my best to be as fair as possible, so I think that’s what most people would think would tend to make me a good judge.”

In an interview, he also addressed an admonishment he received from the Florida Bar, the least severe disciplinary sanction, which he called “embarrassing.” A former client filed a complaint after hiring Holliday to represent her for a civil case in 2015, according to court records. He never filed anything on her behalf and “failed to effectively communicate with his client,” the report of minor misconduct said.

Holliday refunded her $2,200 after she filed the grievance, the report stated. He admitted the minor misconduct in a subsequent court filing, telling the Trib that his calendar was overloaded and the case was moved to federal court, where he was not qualified to practice yet. 

“It fell below the standards that I set for myself in terms of keeping her informed, and I took the admonishment and learned from it,” Holliday said. “I can’t be in Duval County with a whole case load and having trials after trials, which is what my situation was, and then have to go down to Marion County.”

Alena Chaban and Judge Wayne Culver: Seminole County Court Group 6

Seminole County voters will choose between sitting Judge Wayne Culver, who was disciplined for a profanity-ridden speech while on the bench, and Alena Chaban, a young lawyer who earned 9,000 more votes than him in the primary.

Judge Wayne Culver, who grew up in Jacksonville and went to University of Central Florida and law school at Suffolk University in Boston, was first elected in 2020. Culver’s background includes both prosecuting with the State Attorney’s Office and working as a public defender, his biography says. 

In 2024, he was suspended without pay for 60 days after “engaging in abusive and intemperate conduct during two separate court proceedings,” the Florida Supreme Court ruled.

“Since we elected Wayne Culver, he has done his best, but like us he has made mistakes, no one is perfect,” his campaign website says. “He lost his temper in the courtroom. But he admitted his mistake and has moved on, becoming a better Judge.”

During Culver’s second year on the bench, he yelled at a man scheduled to appear who entered the courtroom during a different hearing, according to the Judicial Qualifications Commission. 

As the man looked for a seat, Culver “noticed him, and yelled in a loud, aggressive voice, ‘Sir, I’m doing something here. Could you shut up and sit down.’” When the man replied that he was trying to find a seat, Culver said, “that’s not shutting up. You want to be held in contempt and go to jail? I asked you a f—g question, a—e,” according to the Florida Bar.

In another incident, Culver violated governing rules when finding someone in contempt and taking them into custody, not allowing a man who was “polite and respectful at the hearing” to present his own mitigating testimony. An appellate court granted an emergency habeas petition for his release, according to the Bar.

While the court said Culver’s conduct made him a candidate to be removed from the bench, they accepted that he was experiencing “intense personal pressure and loss” caring for his imminently dying father.

Culver did not respond to the Trib’s request for an interview.

Chaban, a family law attorney, is challenging the sitting judge — a relatively rare occurrence among county court races. Her campaign slogan is “calm, committed, and consistent,” but she denied it’s a direct allusion to Culver’s discipline.

“Calm is pretty standard as to what’s just expected in general of the judiciary when we talk about judicial temperament, especially at the county court level,” Chaban told the Trib. “Voters deserve a choice. That’s what elections are for.”

She attended University of Central Florida for her undergraduate degree and attended law school at Barry University in Orlando. 

In 2021, she and her husband founded their own law firm in Apopka, focusing on family law. Chaban acknowledged that she has practiced the majority of career in family law in circuit court, which is a different jurisdiction than county.

“Case law doesn’t change, interpreting law statutes, that process doesn’t change… When you’re dealing with an area of law you’re unfamiliar with, it’s the homework, it’s preparation,” Chaban said. “The county is important to me, and I want the bench to be a place where people feel as if they received the due process that the law demanded they received.”

Judge Christopher Bufano and Laura Wahlquist Parish: Liberty County Group 1

In rural Liberty County, Judge Christopher Bufano — a former lawyer representing state law enforcement — is facing a challenge from lawyer Laura Wahlquist Parish. While Bufano came ahead of two opponents in the primary with 41 percent of the vote, he missed the benchmark to secure the seat outright.

Bufano was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2024 after longtime Judge Kenneth Hosford resigned amid an ethics investigation into his ex parte comments to prosecutors about their decision not to file charges in a theft case. 

Bufano, who lives with his wife and five children, is now running for a full term. He is also an acting judge in the 2nd Judicial Circuit.

“My dedication to professionalism and integrity has been the guiding principle throughout life, into my legal career, and now on the bench as a judge,” Bufano wrote on his website. “The role of judge is highly important and comes with great responsibilities, which I do not take lightly.”

Before his appointment, Bufano worked in general counsel roles for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement since 2016, as an assistant state attorney, and in private practice.

“My well-rounded and varied experience provides a solid foundation to serve the people of Liberty County in a professional, ethical, and reasoned manner on the bench,” Bufano said. “I pursue the basic tenants of our legal system in making decisions based on the law and not personal beliefs.”

Laura Wahlquist Parish went to law school at Brigham Young University and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2010. She worked as an assistant state attorney in the Panhandle’s 14th Judicial Circuit for nine years before moving over to the public defender’s office, serving as chief for Calhoun County. 

The candidate shared her resume and updates on her campaign on her Facebook page. She does not appear to have a campaign website.

Bufano and Parish did not respond to the Trib’s request for an interview.