Judge Refers to Three Black Female Attorneys as "The Supremes"

01/30/2008
Washington County Circuit Judge W. Kennedy Boone III has been reprimanded by the Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities.
By ERIN JULIUS - erinj@herald-mail.com

HAGERSTOWN — Washington County Circuit Judge W. Kennedy Boone III has been reprimanded by the Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities for referring to three women of color in the Public Defender's Office as "the Supremes" and for suggesting that a defendant who wanted to replace his public defender be given an "experienced male attorney." Boone made the comments in open court April 24, 2007. [me: I'm not at all suprised to hear this. As an attorney, I've heard comments like this and worse from judges. I think judges tend to get extremely comfortable in their courtrooms, thinking that they are in their homes where they can say whatever they want. I can only imagine the "Archie Bunker-like" comments that the judge makes in the privacy of his own home].

The judicial disabilities commission concluded that Boone's comments were "undignified and disparaging," according to a notice of the reprimand printed in the Jan. 18 edition of the Maryland Register. "I have no defense," said Boone, who called the notice of the reprimand a fair document. He said he holds all three attorneys to whom he was referring with the "Supremes" comment in high regard, and he said each of the women has built a solid professional reputation. The judge acknowledged that his comments were "highly suggestive, if not indicative ... of racial and sexual bias," he said. [me: Indicative and suggestive . . .hell these comments were outright racist and sexist. Judge call it what it is. The first step to redemption is honesty].

Nancy Forster, Public Defender for Maryland, filed the complaint about Boone's remarks July 2, 2007. Forster has been with the Office of the Public Defender for 24 years and has never filed a complaint, she said Tuesday morning in a telephone interview. She found it "very disturbing" that anyone in this day and age would refer to three African-American women as "the Supremes," Forster said. [me: Suprised to hear that this was the first complaint. I believe that this was the first reported complaint that was so irrefutably and overtly racist and sexist that it could not go unpunished].

Boone called Forster after she filed the complaint and apologized profusely, said Forster, whose office is in Baltimore. The judge wanted Forster to know there would be no similar conduct in the future, he said Tuesday. Judges must be held accountable, Boone said. "The buck stops here when I'm wrong," said Boone, who said he never before had a sanctionable complaint filed against him.

Boone personally apologized to the women he referred to as "the Supremes." He met with each of them in June 2007 and offered to recuse himself from their future cases, according to a stipulation entered into by Boone and the Commission. Offering to recuse himself from the women's cases was "absolutely the right thing to do," Forster said. The decision to ask the judge to recuse himself has been left up to the three attorneys, Forster said. [me: It goes without question that I would ask the judge to recuse himself from hearing any case where I am counsel as he has already demonstrated that he is biased against black women attorneys].

All three women have since appeared before Boone in court, he said. "I appreciate their acceptance of my apology," he said. Both "the Supremes" comment and a comment that a defendant be given a qualified male attorney came during a hearing for Jermaine Jackson, a defendant charged with first-degree assault and other crimes who wanted to replace the male public defender who had been representing him. Boone wrote in his response that his comments were intended to shield the three female attorneys from representing a very difficult, streetwise and manipulative defendant. [me: Now this takes the cake. The excuse for making the comment is just as bad as the comment. As my cousin from Louisiana would say, "now come on." Black professional women do not have the luxury of going through life without dealing with "game" and manipulation. We deal with it in law school where professors are "pleasantly suprised" that we know how to respond analytically to the many questions that they throw out during lecture, assuming that we are there only because of a quota and not by our own merit and suprised when we are able to engage in the socratic method of discourse often used in law school; we deal with it in law firms where we are placed on certain "tracks" unless we find the right mentor to help us learn the firm's culture so that we are placed on the "partnership track" as opposed to merely holding a job. So, I'm almost certain that encountering this particular defendant was not the first time in which these women have had to deal with a difficult person or situation].

Washington County Circuit Administrative Judge Frederick C Wright III said Tuesday that the judicial disabilities commission has a fair process through which it issued the reprimand. The commission concluded that Boone's comments violated five canons of the Maryland Code of Judicial Conduct. [me: This incident makes clear the need for diversity on the bench. For too long our courts have been made up primarily of white men who have rarely if ever encountered minority groups except as criminal defendants in their courtrooms. If the judge had some kind of relation to or familiarity with black professional women he would have been reminded of women like Constance Baker Motley, Lani Guinier, Mary Frances Berry, Carole Moseley-Braun, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Frankie Muse Freeman, Elaine Ruth Jones, Patricia Robert Harris, Marian Wright Edelman, Consuelo Bland Marshall, Audrey Collins, all of whom are or were highly accomplished black women lawyers. Although I like the Supremes, I know that black women have orgins as professionals, community leaders, wives, mothers, feminists and even attorneys. If this judge truly wants to redeem himself, he will make efforts to learn of this rich history as well].