A judicial commission late last month suspended an Alabama judge after charging him with “inappropriate demeanor and temperament, and abuse of judicial authority,” reports WPMI.
The Judicial Inquiry Commission cited among other issues a complaint that Judge James Patterson mocked an Asian juror with an accent while making a comment that everyone needs to speak English.
He later dismissed the charge as a “stupid, stupid joke.”
The ABA Journal also reports he is also accused of calling another judge a “snowflake,” and dubbing 77-year-old Governor Kay Ivey as “Gov MeMaw,” the slang term for grandma.
The complaint also cited repeated examples of using curse words in court.
“The liberals call everyone they disagree with a racist nowadays. I am nothing of the kind,” Patterson wrote in 2019, according to Al.com.
He also apologized to the Governor saying his “Gov. MeMaw” remark “was a poor attempt at humor in the midst of this Covid-19 mess.”
The Inquiry Commission, in its complaint, cited a previous response by the Utah Supreme Court to another judge who also used the humor intent defense.
“It is an immutable and universal rule that judges are not as funny as they think they are,” the Utah court said.
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