CNN has reported that the judge in the Emanuel AME church massacre case has gotten in to trouble for saying a racial remark in court before.
Charleston County Magistrate James B. Gosnell, Jr. had been reprimanded for using the N-word in court in 2003.
During a bail reduction hearing in November 2003, Gosnell was speaking to an African-American defendant, whom he knew. He claims he repeated to the defendant a phrase he overheard from a black sheriff’s deputy: “There are four kinds of people in this world — black people, white people, red necks, and n—–,” a statement he claims he made to try and get the young man to change his life.
Unfortunately, this is not the only time the judge has been in trouble. It was also reported on the SC Supreme Court’s website that Gosnell was also given a judicial disciplinary order for showing favoritism toward another judge.
This incident stemmed from a case where another judge, Judge Mendelsohn, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. Although the law required people to stay in jail overnight, Gosnell drove to the jail and set a bond for the judge; telling officials at the detention center to, “make it appear that Judge (Joseph) Mendelsohn’s bond was set at 8:00 a.m.” even though Mendelsohn was set free at 2:30 a.m. Such bond arrangements were banned by the state Supreme Court except in the case that a judge sets bail for everyone who had been detained.
Gosnell’s combination of the judge’s favoritism and his racial slur, merited a public reprimand.
Friday was the initial court appearance for mass murder suspect Dylann Roof, and when Gosnell spoke about the nine dead victims in the shooting he added that “we also have victims on the other side,” referencing the Roof family, who he says didn’t ask to become a part of this tragedy and they will need help too.
The next scheduled court date for the Roof case is October 23.
Source: CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2015/
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