MovieChat Forums > Judge Alex (2005) Discussion > Very Disturbing Case

Very Disturbing Case

posted 15 years ago by jamesbwill
10 replies | jump to latest

I don't watch Judge Alex very often, but today he had a case that I found very disturbing. It involved a black female tenant trying to get her security deposit back from her female Jewish landlod. The plaintiff began her case with a vile racial slur against the defendant. Alex immediately stopped her and fined her $1,000 and told her not to say anything like that again in his court. However, after that, he seemed to be biased against the Jewish lady. Three times, the two women started yelling at each other. Each time, Alex stopped it by ordering the Jewish lady to sit down. The third time, as Alex was telling her to sit, the camera was on the black lady, and she was laughing and clapping her hands. When Alex finally allowed the Jewish woman to stand up, the black woman immediately made another snide comment to her in an obvious attempt to start another argument. The defendant did not respond and Alex did not take notice of it. Alex allowed the plaintiff to explain her case the way she wanted to, but it seemed that he just fired questions at the defendant and did not really allow to tell her story. Alex ruled for the plaintiff, minus the $1,000 fine. When he explaining his decision to the defendant, he really seemed to be talking down to her, rather than just explaining the law. This case really left me with a bad impression of Judge Alex. Let me know if I am wrong.

[–] KaleshaB 15 years ago

I'm watching it right now, however I didn't notice the biasedness with Alex towards the Jewish lady.
In a way though, this case is a little disturbing as well as very tensed, mainly because the whole case was based upon arguing and him fussing at both of the ladies in the courtroom for interrupting so much...there's been so much tension since the case started. It's very frustrating watching cases like that...

Interesting enough to know that the plaintiff wins, wow. She was very rude & b-tchy.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] jamesbwill 15 years ago

That was exactly what she said. I thought that Judge Alex should have dismissed her case right then and there. Also, a big part of the plaintiff's case was that the landlord had failed to do an inspection of the apartment when she moved out. The black lady said that she was very busy, and she insisted that the Jewish lady, and only the Jewish lady, not a representative, come over on a specific date at a specifc time to do the walk through, and that the Jewish lady refused to come. The Jewish lady stated that the day the tenant insisted that she come over was the beginning of Yom Kippur and that she was unable to transact business on that day. I can't remember exactly what Alex said about that, but I know that he did not go back to the black lady and ask why she could not have the inspection on a different day. It seemed that Alex considered the Jewish lady's insistence on observing her religious holiday to be a point against her. Also, the three times the women were yelling at each other, it seemed to be a mutual thing with both of them to blame, but Alex only told the Jewish woman to sit down. I really can't understand why he allowed the case to continue after the black woman made her opening comment. Maybe, since he had started off by fining and reprimanding the black woman, he was concerned about appearing to be biased against her, so he bent over backwards to favor her for the rest of the case. Whatever it was, Judge Alex looked very bad.

[–] princess_tumtum 15 years ago

You're so full of it.

First off, when it started, she should have had her case dismissed. However, he chose to fine her instead and if that was the resolution -- she absolutely should have won.

The woman had no grounds for keeping her security deposit. If a landlord is going to contest it, and not do a walk through and then when they do, there's damage, they can document it and sue for it. That wasn't the issue. This woman didn't do the walk through so she thought she had a right to keep the deposit.

You're DEAD wrong -- it didn't make him look bad at all. She should have won, and the landlord was absolutely wrong.

[–] jamesbwill 15 years ago

This case was rerun today. I watched it very closely and I have to say that Judge Alex still seems quite unfair. He completely tolerated the attitude and remarks by the black lady toward the Jewish lady, but always reprimanded the Jewish woman for every comment she made in response. Once, when Alex told the Jewish lady to be quiet, the black lady actually took a step toward the Jewish lady and sneered "NYAHH" like a little kid, and Alex took no notice of that. Near the end of the case, Alex actually told the baliff to shoot the Jewish lady. I hadn't noticed that the first time I saw it. He may have been making a joke, but it was totally inappropriate.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] jamesbwill 15 years ago

I have no problem with the plaintiff winning. The defendant did not send her a letter advising her that she was keeping the deposit, so that makes her liable. Concerning the shooting remark, Alex asked the Jewish lady about why she did not send the letter about the deposit. The Jewish lady was in the process of trying to explain when Alex cut her off in mid-sentence and said, "I've heard enough!" The Jewish lady did continue on, but just to finish the sentence that she had started. It was then that Alex turned to the baliff and said, "Why don't you just shoot her?" He definitely said "her." Nobody laughed, but I did hear a couple of gasps from the spectators. Alex made the proper ruling, but his conduct toward the Jewish lady was unprofessional and that shooting comment would have gotten him into a lot of trouble if he were in a real courtroom.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] PKLarkins 15 years ago

If you're going to make even a pretense of following the law, you can't dismiss a legal case because the person who filed it issues a racial slur.

[–] princess_tumtum 15 years ago

He didn't dismiss it. He knocked $1000 off her claim.