Judge Said What?

Judges say the darndest things. Take the case of the Honorable Gary W. Velie, a Superior Court judge in Clallam County, Washington. Back in 1988, in response to a complaint, he admitted “the use of racist and sexist language and embarrassing jokes.” Not only was he not reprimanded, the complaint was dismissed “based upon [his] willingness to take corrective action.” But … sometime the next year … per The Commission on Judicial Conduct of the State of Washington,

[Judge Velie] made a remark to attorney John Doherty in open court and in front of court report Penny Wolfe and clerk Tammy Woolridge that he [Doherty] looked like he had been “jacking off a bobcat in a phone booth.” [I’m trying to imagine that level of dishevelment.]

In 1990, during the armed conflict between the United States and Iraq, [Judge Velie] remarked: “Nuke the sand niggers” in reference to [his] solution to the Mid-East crisis. The comment was made in the presence of others in the clerk’s office coffee room in the courthouse.

While viewing a property in the course of his duties, with two attorneys in his car, Judge Velie “stated that ‘Johnny,’ a defendant in an old case, “had gone crazy from sucking too many cocks.”

And there were a few others, like the time where he said, in open court, that he knows there are not many starving people. It’s just that “there’s a lot of them too stupid to cook what they are given… In other words, if you don’t give them a Kraft dinner with the instructions written on the box, you give them other normal food, they don’t know how to cook it.”

So, what do you think happened this time? Suspension?

Nope, a reprimand with some lame “Corrective Actions.” The case is In re Velie (Commission on Judicial Conduct of the State of Washington). To read the entire Commission Decision, click here.