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A Democrat-appointed San Francisco judge is drawing outrage from black lawyers for stubbornly refusing to stop saying the N-word in court.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harry Dorfman –– who is white –– is accused of repeatedly using the slur in court, sparking backlash among black public defenders.
“It took me back to my childhood in Beebe, Ark., when white men in pickup trucks armed with rifles would drive by our house yelling ‘n––s’ and racist chants,” deputy public defender Phoenix Streets told the San Francisco Chronicle.
“Or the father of one of my white friends saying to me, ‘You’re pretty smart for a n––. You must have some white in you,” he continued.
During a court case last year, Dorfman quoted a man who had uttered the slur without the judge abbreviating it. When a defense lawyer in another case brought up the term, the judge told the lawyer to say the full word.
One public defender also once asked the court to stop using the word, to which Dorfman replied: “No, no, no… These are the facts of the case. If it’s the evidence in the case, it’s not casting any insults or offense to anybody.”
In 2022, San Francisco public defender Mano Raju filed a complaint against the judge over using the slur “in full in open court.” The complaint claimed that Dorfman did not show “awareness of the trauma its utterance inflicts and without consideration of alternatives that could ensure a sufficient record.”
Ultimately, no action was taken against the judge, and the city’s Superior Court also refused to act when Raju’s office requested intervention.
Instead, Dorfman held Raju in contempt of court and fined him $26,000 in March for refusing to take on more cases. The judge fined him $1,000 for each of the 26 people he declined to represent.
Just a few weeks later, the First District Court of Appeal issued an order blocking the enforcement of the hefty fine.
Dorfman was appointed to the bench by Democratic former California Gov. Jerry Brown in 2013.
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