Alabama Judge Removed for Calling Another Judge ‘Uncle Tom,’ Numerous Other Ethics Violations

An Alabama judge was removed from the bench for committing several substantial ethics violations, including referring to another judge as an “Uncle Tom,” a derogatory term meant to describe a Black person who is overly allegiant to White people.

Jefferson County Judge Nakita Blocton, who is herself Black, “engaged in a pattern and practice of making inappropriate comments – for example, calling one judge ‘Uncle Tom” and another judge a ‘fat b****’ and calling an employee a heifer,” according to the findings of a commission that filed a complaint against the judge for various ethics violations.

The commission also found that Blocton engaged in a pattern of abuse of staff, attorneys and litigants that included referring to one employee as a “heifer” and verbally abusing and belittling another employee.

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Although “she spent a substantial amount of time in her office,” Blocton failed to promptly dispose of many cases assigned to her and was unable to remedy a backlog of cases.

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Blocton also used several Facebook aliases to communicate with litigants in pending domestic-relations cases in an effort to affect the outcome of those cases, according to the commission.

She also engaged in “a pattern of dishonesty and deception” by using the aliases to provide information to litigants in cases and asking potential witnesses to delete evidence related to the commission’s investigation and attempting to influence testimony.

According to an initial complaint made against the judge in May, one person involved in divorce litigation said the judge used online aliases to send several threatening messages which included, “THE DEVIL IS WATCHING U,” “LEAVE THOSE BLACK WOMEN DEMOCRATS ALONE.”

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