Given the scandals in Hillsborough County, the Judicial Qualifications Commissions should investigate, a new grand jury should be impaneled and the chief judge should be replaced.

A report on the latest scandal in the Hillsborough County Courthouse shows a judicial system corrupted and in disarray. The state Judicial Qualifications Commission needs to investigate charges against Judge Gasper Ficarrotta and force Judge Robert Bonanno to resign. Incoming State Attorney Mark Ober should impanel a new grand jury to investigate the relationship Ficarrotta had with Sheriff Cal Henderson and his deputies. And his colleagues should vote to replace Dennis Alvarez as chief judge for the circuit.

Immediate action is needed by the state. Repeated scandals over the past year show the courthouse won't reform under Alvarez's leadership. The JQC needs to investigate the most recent charges that Ficarrotta and Bonanno carried on extramarital affairs with court staff. Such relationships are unethical and compromise the integrity and function of the courts. His impending resignation does not let Ficarrotta off the hook. He still falls under the JQC's code of judicial conduct, and the investigation should reflect on Ficarrotta's ability to practice as an attorney.

Bonanno still hasn't offered a reasonable excuse for why he was caught after hours in the private office of Judge Greg Holder. The two aren't friends and don't share cases. A special prosecutor's report on Bonanno has not been released, though Bonanno's lawyer wants to sanction the Tampa Tribune for publishing details of the grand jury report. Going after the press instead of accounting for his own actions is further evidence that Bonanno has contempt for the obligations of his public job. He should resign. And while the special prosecutor examined any criminal intent on Bonanno's part, the JQC has a broader responsibility to probe the ethics of what Bonanno did and what he told investigators.

However tawdry the sexual affairs, the most damaging allegation is that Ficarrotta may have had improper ties with the sheriff's office. Among the claims: The judge helped raise campaign money for Henderson, shared a safe deposit box with the sheriff's deputy who oversees courthouse bailiffs and kept large amounts of cash in his office. The sheriff has begun an internal investigation, but he has an obvious conflict.

Ober, who becomes state attorney Jan. 2, should convene a grand jury and answer the following: Did the judge violate ethical canons and campaign for the sheriff? If so, why? Did a political or business relationship exist between the judge and the courthouse security chief? What was in the safe? Why did the sheriff's office fail to report a threat against Ficarrotta allegedly made by his mistress' husband?

Having Ficarrotta and Bonanno go won't solve the problem. The judiciary needs a new chief, one who doesn't promote laxity by acting as a backstop. "That's one of my duties, responsibilities, to try to defuse things like this early on," investigators quoted Alvarez as saying. "Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don't." Alvarez genuinely cares about the court's public image, but the record shows his formula for resolving conflict isn't working. Maybe it never did. Or maybe times have changed.

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