Courts

Florida Judge Has Moment Of Racist Stupidity, Followed Immediately By Ultimate Clarity

He recognized this was a "career-ender."

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Oh my. It seems even judges are capable of racist bullsh*t. (I mean, that’s obviously true, but still a bit of a slap in the face when it happens.) A local judge in Florida, Palm Beach County Judge Peter Evans, was caught — on the record — referring to a black lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Sheldon Graves, as “the other gorilla defense counsel.”

Day-am. That’s… not a good look for a judge, for a professional of any sort, or a human being.

The remark was reported by an anonymous observer to Chief Circuit Judge Krista Marx, and the issue was dealt with swiftly. As the Palm Beach Post reports, when Marx spoke with Evans he was apologetic and immediately retired from the bench:

Evans was contrite, Marx said. “He apologized profusely and he immediately retired,” she said. “We both recognized this is a career-ender.”

He’d already intended to retire in January, but the incident sped up those plans.

It’s been reported that at the time the racial slur was used, it was done so quickly that Graves didn’t hear it. But as Public Defender Carey Haughwout noted, that isn’t really the point:

“Whether or not it hurts the person it’s directed to is not the issue,” Haughwout said. “It harms everyone who hears it and it harms the reputation of our courts.”

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Graves has said that though Evans’s use of the term was inappropriate, it was out of character for the judge he knew:

“I’ve been in front of him for 1 1/2 years and I never felt any racial animus,” he said. “He can be a curmudgeon. He can be a jerk. But he’s fair.”

That sentiment is shared by others in the local legal community:

Attorney John Howe, the first black president of the Palm Beach County Bar Association, agreed.

“I’ve never known or heard of him expressing any kind of ethnic or racial bias,” he said. “It’s sad. It was probably a misjudgment for him to use that particular term.”

Even if the remark was unexpected or even unintended, it is good to see the judge is appropriately contrite and is no longer in a position of authority.

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headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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