Attorney General Pam Bondi's office is fighting a request that Florida Supreme Court Justice Ricky Polston disqualify himself from a criminal case about a prominent Jacksonville lawyer's ties to the Internet cafe industry.
Attorneys for Jacksonville lawyer Kelly Mathis filed a motion Friday requesting that Polston disqualify himself from the case.
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The request was based on a search warrant that Polston signed in 2013 for Mathis' law office as part of an investigation into illegal gambling in the Internet cafe industry.
Mathis was convicted on 103 charges related to his work for Allied Veterans of the World, which was a major operator in the Internet cafe industry.
But the 5th District Court of Appeal in October ordered that Mathis should receive a new trial, spurring Bondi's office to take the case to the Supreme Court.
In a document filed Monday, Bondi's office said the effort to have Polston disqualified was "facially insufficient" and should be rejected.
"In the … case there is no allegation that Justice Polston did anything more than sign a search warrant within the scope of his judicial duties as a justice of the Florida Supreme Court; as such respondent's (Mathis') motion is facially insufficient, failing to provide a legally cognizable basis for disqualification," the document said.