Broward Circuit Judge Gary M. Farmer Jr. (17th Judicial Circuit of Florida).
A Florida judge said he was trying to “lighten the tension” in his courtroom, but the commission that oversees those who preside on the bench in the Sunshine State wasn’t laughing.
The Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission indefinitely suspended Broward Circuit Judge Gary M. Farmer Jr. for a series of remarks that they said were “wholly inappropriate, undignified, or discourteous.”
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Many of the comments occurred during felony criminal docket hearings in August. In one instance, Farmer was overseeing a case where the litigant was expecting three children from three different women.
“OK, you’ve been busy,” Farmer said. “You were just shooting all over the place! That’s good, do you know their names? First and last? Romantic are you? Don’t tell Susie about Jane, don’t tell Jane about Mary. God bless you, man. One’s enough.”
He later quipped: “I’m going to order that you wear a condom at all times. For your own good. OK?! Probation is going to check. No, I’m kidding. I’m kidding.”
When the defendant was appointed a female attorney, Farmer joked, “Don’t get her pregnant.”
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In another case with a defendant named Georgia, he started singing a song about “Sweet Georgia.”
“You’re supposed to say ‘peachy.’ How you doin’, Georgia? Peachy!” he said.
Farmer also “quoted extensively” from a Marlon Wayans “In Living Color” sketch, per the commission.
Even Farmer himself admitted he was telling “exceptionally, exceptionally bad jokes.”
During a bond hearing for a suspect charged with first-degree kidnapping, the defense attorney joked: “I gotta tell you judge, in the history of kidnappings, this would be the first time someone gets kidnapped and taken to a strip club.”
Farmer replied: “I was about to say, I think there’s a long list of husbands who have claimed exactly that in the past. We’ve all been taken against our will.”
He also made quips about the clothing lawyers appearing in his court wore.
“These jokes were said to lighten tension, reduce stress for criminal defendants, and show a sense of humanity,” Farmer wrote in his response to the allegations. “They generally are G-rated ‘Dad jokes’ that are corny but not offensive, and were not degrading to the solemnity of the proceedings.”
The commission did not give a timeline for Farmer’s suspension, just saying it would last “pending disposition of this proceeding.”
Before being elected to the bench in 2022, Farmer, a Democrat, served in the Florida State Legislature.
