Judge of the Day: Jay Spechler

The fabulous Monica Goodling — if you’re on Facebook, join her fan club — isn’t the only person being accused of anti-lesbian bias these days. From the Daily Business Review (via JAABlog):

A longtime Broward County judge resigned after he was reassigned to hear traffic cases in a satellite courthouse and barred from entering the main Fort Lauderdale courthouse.

Courthouse sources said County Court Judge Jay Spechler’s reassignment came after he got into a verbal altercation with fellow County Court Judge Peggy Gehl and made disparaging comments about her sexual orientation.

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Rumor has it that he called her a “robe muncher.”

It seems that Judge Gehl wasn’t the only colleague who had issues with Judge Spechler. According to JAABlog, Judge Spechler had something of a “reputation for bullying his colleagues.”

Being reassigned to handle traffic and parking cases, in a satellite courthouse, didn’t make Judge Spechler very happy. One colleague quipped, “He was reassigned to his car, essentially. He didn’t like it.” So he decided to accept a lucrative offer in the private sector, from a North Miami mediation firm.

If you have a vague sense that south Florida judges misbehave a lot, it’s not without foundation. Per the Daily Business Review: “[Former Chief Judge Dale] Ross resigned following a series of controversies involving Broward judges accused of everything from pot smoking in a park to insensitivity on the bench. The incidents came to a head last March when Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis flew to Miami to meet with minority bar leaders.”