Alabama judge booted for racist, inappropriate behavior

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By JAY REEVES

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A judge who oversees elections in an Alabama county was removed from office after being accused of racist, sexually inappropriate behavior that included demeaning comments about women and saying George Floyd “got what he deserved” when an officer in Minnesota murdered him.

Talladega County Probate Judge Randy Jinks, 65, was ousted in a unanimous order filed Friday by the nine-member Alabama Court of the Judiciary. Following a trial, the panel found that he violated five judicial ethics rules including failing to uphold the integrity and independence of the court system.

A former business owner who served as chairman of the county Republican executive committee, Jinks denied most of the claims, blamed workers for misinterpreting jokes and accused employees of eavesdropping, court records showed.

Jinks, who doesn’t have a law license, was first elected in 2018 and took office the following year. His conduct was the subject of a complaint filed in March that accused him of watching and sharing sexually inappropriate videos and making comments about the appearance and anatomy of women.


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-lifestyle-elections-alabama-minnesota-ae710a18996c16d9a056c71d239281e3

[turbinetree]

1. Great qualification...........no law license and they make him a judge....

[Alexander Of Assyria]

2. Shocking. What next in Alabama, surgeons without a medical degree?

[FSogol]

5. Barbers are held to a higher standard than judges.

[melm00se]

3. Contrary to popular belief

even the highest court in the land does not require a law degree. There have been 18 Supreme Court justices who did not have a law degree.

Other federal judges have no constitutional requirements either.

According to The Atlantic:

Twenty-eight states require all judges presiding over misdemeanor cases to be lawyers, including large states like California and Florida. In 14 of the remaining 22 states, a defendant who receives a jail sentence from a non-lawyer judge has the right to seek a new trial before a lawyer-judge.

But Montana and seven other states—Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New York, Texas, South Carolina, and Wyoming—allow non-lawyer judges to hand down jail sentences for misdemeanors without the right to a new trial before a lawyer-judge.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

8. They are not judges in those few states, they are justices of the peace, JJPs.

And of course everyone has the right to appeal to an actual law degree judge.

[Polybius]

10. I think W Bush's pick of Harriet Meyers didn't have a law degree

It's been a while though.

[niyad]

16. Are these the same states that do not require a medical degree for the coroner?

[Lonestarblue]

4. Just another Republican "good ole boy" doing what lots of Republicans do.

These people are disgusting, but they’re everywhere. We certainly have our share in Texas!

[marble falls]

6. The tippiest tip of the iceberg. There are judges (especially here in Texas) all over the nation ...

without any legal license or training. JPs, Small Claims Judges, "county" judges all over this country are doing all sorts of duties that are elected or appointed politically, and some of them also act as coroners in their counties.

[Haggard Celine]

14. Yeah, Justice Court judges without law degrees here are common as mud.

I don't know how much they're paid exactly, but I'm sure it's quite a bit less than a real attorney can make in private practice. One of my cousins is a Justice Court judge, and he was a cop before he became a judge, so he had some familiarity with the law at least before he became a judge. It's an elected position, and he's well liked in the county. People say he's fair, which is about the best thing you can say about one of these judges.

You don't really have to have a law degree to do what they do. They see the same cases over and over again, so they know enough about the laws they apply to these cases. If they encounter something they're unfamiliar with, they can always call a lawyer for advice. It would be ideal for every judge to have a law degree, but it isn't practical to require that in counties where there aren't many people with law degrees to begin with, and the ones that have them don't want to be a county judge.

[riversedge]

7. "Jinks also mouthed the n-word when referring to Black people, including during Black Lives Matter d

No doubt the Repug Party will find him a good job



............


Jinks also mouthed the n-word when referring to Black people, including during Black Lives Matter demonstrations, and told a deputy clerk that Black people get benefits and welfare “because of the color of their skin” that don’t go to white people, the complaint said.

The court found that after Jinks saw a new automobile purchased by the only Black employee in the probate office, he remarked: “I seen that car. I can’t even — I’m the judge and I can’t even afford a Mercedes. What you doing, selling drugs?”..........................

[KS Toronado]

9. Looked him up

Just as I figured, he's a good ole white boy, probably belongs to the klan.

[Hekate]

11. "Was first elected in 2018" -- he was elected by the townfolk. A lot of people, including me...

… do not pay attention to judges when they run. As as been pointed out elsewhere, you can get elected by your friends and relatives because that is the case.

Kind of a mistake.

[Cryptoad]

12. They another judge,,,,

that is more batshit crazy,,,,,,,,

[littlemissmartypants]

13. Being an election judge like him, me and many others in the country,

Is a distinctly different thing than a judge who works in the judiciary and holds a law degree.

This headline is just another example of sloppy reporting by stupid reporters who have little regard for how to ask questions and research facts. They are writers for "clicks" and not for news.

Jinks is a crap person, but the reporter is doing us no favors with crap reporting, either.

[Demovictory9]

15. Good