Detroit, Michigan – A judge accused of repeated sexual harassment against a male employee was only removed from her duties after leaked audio recordings allegedly showed her making ‘racist’ and ‘homophobic’ comments behind closed doors.
Oakland County Probate Judge Kathleen Ryan is facing allegations of unprofessional conduct by Edward Hutton, Oakland County’s Probate Court Administrator, who released the recordings to various state and county officials.
Hutton claims that Judge Ryan had been sexually harassing him for years, repeatedly calling him both during and after work hours. Concerned about her behavior, Hutton began recording their conversations.
The recordings allegedly capture Ryan using vulgar language that could be construed as ‘racist.’ In one recording, Judge Ryan could be heard praising non-American Blacks while stating that American Blacks are “f*** lazy piece of s***.”
In another recording, Judge Ryan appears to sound fed up and states, “I can honestly say that ok, I’m not systemically racist – I’m a new racist. I never was. But now I am because you’re shoving this s*** down my throat making allegations that you don’t know s*** about.”
Hutton claims the judge also used ‘homophobic’ slurs when referring to other elected officials, saying, “You little f*****.”
Oakland County Executive David Coulter—who is openly gay—was reportedly the subject of some of the judge’s remarks. In response, he issued a statement condemning the behavior:
“There is absolutely no place for harassment of any kind of racist or homophobic language by anyone at Oakland County, especially by someone the public must be confident will act fairly and impartially,” he bemoaned in a statement.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel responded to the allegations, calling the story “very disturbing” and emphasizing the need for fairness and impartial justice from judges.
While the media and local officials fixated on the ‘bigoted’ comments made by Judge Ryan for her dismissal, Hutton claims that most of the time, the calls were conversations about sexual encounters that she was having with various individuals in intimate detail.
On May 24, Hutton says he sent a notice of sexual harassment to Chief Probate Judge Linda Hallmark, but for three months, no action was taken.
It wasn’t until August 22, when Hutton emailed the recordings to the Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, Oakland County Executive David Coulter, and other public officials, that the situation changed.
In the email, Hutton informed the state and county leaders that Judge Ryan had “vocalized her hate and contempt for various protected groups” and attached recordings of Judge Ryan’s statements, saying, “I don’t want to lose my job, I just want to do the right thing.”
After the recordings were shared, Chief Probate Judge Linda Hallmark removed Judge Ryan from her docket on August 27. Hallmark stated that “a complaint regarding internal allegations of unprofessional conduct” had been sent to the Judicial Tenure Commission.
Only a week later were the audio recordings released to the media, and the reason behind Judge Ryan’s removal became public knowledge.
Although Judge Ryan’s ‘inflammatory’ comments were made in private and seemingly out of frustration, further investigation by the Justice Report appears to substantiate Hutton’s claims of sexual harassment.
In November 2021, Judge Ryan had been arrested and charged with misdemeanor domestic violence. According to police reports, Ryan allegedly struck a male companion during an argument and later shouted obscenities at police officers and hospital staff. The charges would later be dismissed in March 2022 for reasons that remain unclear.
Sexual harassment claims by men are often not taken seriously by the criminal justice system. It was only after Hutton clipped his recordings of Judge Ryan for ‘bigoted’ statements that he was able to get her investigated and subsequently removed.
In the United States, White people often lose their jobs or careers for merely expressing their views on race in and out of the workplace.
In June, a White Doordash driver was fired from his gig job after allegedly using the so-called “n-word” while delivering food to a Black customer. The encounter was caught by a ring camera and posted on TikTok, which got millions of views. It is widely understood that Doordash drivers make most of their money on tips, while Black Americans maintain a notorious reputation for not tipping.
Also in June, a White police officer was fired for making ‘racist’ comments off duty towards his Chinese neighbors. The incident occurred over the unhygienic disposal of dog bones at the condominium complex where they both lived in suburban Seattle.
This article originally appeared on the Justice Report and is republished by The Noticer with permission.
