US judge resigns after being recorded making racist and anti-LGBTQ+ remarks
Kathleen Ryan (Oakland county court)
Kathleen Ryan (Oakland county court)
A Michigan judge, Kathleen Ryan, has voluntarily resigned after an investigation uncovered recordings of her feelings about the LGBTQ+ community and Black people.
Judge Kathleen Ryan, a self-proclaimed “new racist”, has departed from her Oakland County bench following the investigation.
As reported by WXYZ Detroit, in one recording from September 2024, Ryan shared offensive viewpoints about both demographics and said she isn’t “systemically racist” but a “new racist”.
The recordings were sent to public officials, including Oakland County executive Dave Coulter, who is gay. Some of Ryan’s slurs about the community were directed at him, according to Detroit Free Press.
Ryan, who has been on paid administrative leave for 15 months, has now voluntarily resigned.
Oakland County Probate Court administrator Edward Hutton provided the recordings, claiming that he was harassed by Ryan for years and felt she wouldn’t be able to provide fair rulings.
The lawyer said: “Nobody with that much hate in their heart for certain people — not just individuals, but groups of people – I don’t believe that they could possibly make fair, unbiased decisions regarding them.”
Hutton shared that Ryan referred to Black people as “lazy”. “From England, if you’re a Black from any other country, you’re doing way better. If you’re an American Black person, then you’re a f****** lazy piece of s***,” she can be heard saying in one of the recordings.
“Such language demeans the robe”
Dave Woodward, chair of the Oakland County Board of Commissioners, said he was “sickened” by what he heard on the recordings.
“Such language demeans the robe, corrupts the judiciary, and erases the trust in our legal system,” he told the Detroit Free Press.
Coulter said: “There is absolutely no place for harassment of any kind or racist or homophobic language by anyone at Oakland County, especially by someone the public must be confident will act fairly and impartially. I have confidence that the agencies reviewing this matter will treat it with the seriousness it deserves and will take further action if warranted.”
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