Homophobic, Racist Oakland County Judge Investigation a Reminder to Vote Smart

Kathleen Ryan recorded using gay slurs aimed at County Executive Dave Coulter

Published: September 17, 2024 | Last Updated: September 18, 2024

Late last month, Kathleen Ryan, an Oakland County Probate Court Judge, was removed from her docket pending an investigation by the Michigan Supreme Court centered on recordings of Ryan using gay slurs and racist comments about Black people. In the recordings, Ryan made several graphic statements about Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter and called Black Americans “lazy.”

Probate Court Administrator Edward Hutton told WXYZ-TV that he created the recordings and sent them on to Supreme Court Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement, Coulter and others, months after Hutton filed a notice of sexual harassment to Oakland County Chief Probate Judge Linda Hallmark that has yet to be addressed.

Among Ryan’s “colorful” commentary: “Put that in your fucking ass and stuff it," she said, directed at Coulter. She also said Coulter was "more concerned about the fucking AIDS vaccinations” and called him a “skinny white girl.” She referred to another, undisclosed person as a “fucking cocksucker.”

On the topic of Black people, Ryan claimed in the recordings that Black people from countries outside the U.S. are “better” and added, “If you’re an American Black person, then you’re a fucking lazy piece of shit.”

She fully acknowledged that she is racist. “I’m not systemically racist,” she said. “I’m a new racist. I never was, but now I am because you’re shoving this shit down my throat, making allegations that you don’t know shit about. You’re telling me who I am and you’ve never fucking met me.” Oakland County includes more than 170,000 Black residents, according to 2020 U.S. Census data.

Let’s be clear. Bigots and racists aren’t new (even “new racists”). Is anyone surprised to hear that one of our neighbors would say these things in what she presumably assumed was a private conversation? Of course not. We all have the internet (and a relative or two who keeps things spicy at the Thanksgiving table). But most people we know — and most people we know of — do not have the kind of outsized power to impact the daily lives of regular people as a judge.

Here are just a few of the kinds of cases probate court judges focus on: juvenile delinquency, abuse and neglect, adoptions, administration of estates and trusts, guardianships, conservatorships, and committing mentally ill individuals to hospital care.

It’s not a stretch to imagine the kind of damage an admitted racist and clear homophobe could inflict on the life of a Black or LGBTQ+ person standing in front of her bench.

“It’s a painful reminder that ugly and hateful views are still out there,” Coulter told me in a recent call. “Our community is still subjected to this, even in this day and age. It can still happen.”

Coulter said that as a gay man, he’s used to being called names occasionally, so while he is angry, it isn’t focused as much on the things Ryan said about him. It's about her role in the community he serves. “This was a judge. Someone who people trust to be an arbitrator of their cases and they may not have gotten that from her. So, I wasn’t thinking so much of myself,” he explained. “It’s the families, especially Black families, LGBTQ+ families, who have been in front of this judge. They may not have received the kind of independent and objective judge that they deserve.”

It wouldn’t be the first time. A 2020 Reuters investigation revealed that problematic judges frequently go unchecked in the U.S. legal system. “In the past dozen years,” the report reads, “state and local judges have repeatedly escaped public accountability for misdeeds that have victimized thousands. Nine of 10 kept their jobs — including an Alabama judge who unlawfully jailed hundreds of poor people, many of them Black, over traffic fines.”

That judge, Les Hayes, sentenced Marquita Johnson, a single mother, to nearly 500 days in jail for failure to pay traffic tickets, a sentence longer than the jail time the state allows for negligent homicide. While she was incarcerated, Johnson’s three children were sent to foster care, including a daughter who was molested and another who was physically abused. “Judge Hayes took away my life and didn’t care how my children suffered,” Johnson told Reuters. “My girls will never be the same.”

In 2017, Hayes wound up answering to Alabama’s Judicial Inquiry Commission, which found that he had broken state and federal laws by jailing residents too poor to pay fines, including, Reuters reports, “a plumber struggling to make rent, a mother who skipped meals to cover the medical bills of her disabled son, and a hotel housekeeper working her way through college.” Hayes admitted to violating 10 different portions of Alabama’s judicial conduct code and acknowledged that he had failed the most essential of all judicial duties, to “respect and comply with the law.”

Surely, then, Hayes received fair justice. Maybe some jail time?

Nah. Hayes wasn’t barred from judicial service. He served an 11-month unpaid suspension and returned to the bench in 2018, where he continued to serve until his taxpayer-funded retirement in 2020.

We can’t let the same scenario play out when it comes to Judge Ryan, especially if it becomes apparent that her personal bigotry has influenced decisions she has made in cases impacting Oakland County families. Implore the Michigan Supreme Court (email [email protected]) to keep the avowed racist and homophobe off the bench. The good news is that even if Ryan is allowed to return to her role, county probate court judges are elected in Michigan. Vote her out if she runs for reelection to the 2028 term.

Remember, elections have consequences, and local elected officials often have a greater impact on our daily lives than federal officials like U.S. senators and even the president. Find your local ballot at vote411.org and research the people who may one day have a hand in determining your very future.