Miami Judge Commended for Handling of Antisemitic Allegations Against Justice System

A Jewish judge at Miami is winning praise from his fellow jurists for defending the Jewish people and the impartiality of American law from an attorney who allegedly told his client that a Jewish judge wouldn’t look favorably upon a black defendant.The American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, of which the Sun’s lawyer serves as president, is commending Judge Zachary James for his handling of antisemitic allegations against him from a lawyer in his own court.The attorney in question, Joseph Klock, allegedly told his client, Sahdi Cunningham, and Cunningham’s mother that Judge James would not grant him a fair trial because Jewish judges are predisposed to ruling against black defendants.Cunningham was previously sentenced to four years in prison on charges of murder and grand theft auto — to which he pleaded guilty. In this most recent round of legal woes, Cunningham pleaded innocent to parole violations — a battle he ultimately lost, leading to a sentence of 15 years, though in the chambers of another circuit judge.The antisemitic claims by Cunningham’s attorney, Mr. Klock, against Judge James came to light when Cunningham motioned to dismiss Mr. Klock as counsel in December.“I want him to do the job that he was paid to do,” Cunningham said of Mr. Klock — accusing his attorney of long lapses in response, canceling appointments, and failing him as a client. “We paid this man thousands and thousands of dollars and that’s what he was paid to do, and he has not done.”Mr. Klock chimed in to defend himself as an attorney and said that speaking to his client was “like talking to a wall.”Yet it was when Cunningham’s mother piped in that Mr. Klock’s antisemitic words came to light.“I asked him, why did he tell me when I came to Florida that my son would never get a fair trial in front of you?” Robin Cunningham told the judge. “Because you’ve taken it personal. He also told me that the Jewish judges are against black people.”“There are some other things that I won’t say in open court,” the defendant’s mother continued.Mr. Klock said Ms. Cunningham’s allegations were mostly “nonsense,” but he confirmed that he did tell the family Cunningham would “not get a fair trial” in front of Judge James.Judge James said such a statement called into question Mr. Klock’s “professionalism” and gave him the opportunity to respond.“Any response to the assertion that you told Mr. Cunningham and/or his family that Jewish judges don’t like black defendants?” the judge asked a silent Mr. Klock, per the court records.After a two-day adjournment, Judge James delivered an address to the court that the American Association Jewish Lawyers and Jurists described as a “masterclass in grace, the dialogue of co-existence, and, above all, judgment.”“Please understand that if Mr. Klock did say this, it is a malicious, antisemitic lie,” Judge James told the court. “Black people and Jewish people have a dynamic history. Both groups have been oppressed and subject to countless instances of violence and discrimination. “I myself am the grandson of a Holocaust survivor whose first husband and children were murdered because of their religion,” the judge continued. “We live in the greatest country in the world, but we must grapple with historic and ongoing racism and antisemitism, and we must speak out when we see it.“Antisemitic tropes are proliferating and an attorney’s statement to a Black defendant’s family that Jewish judges hate Black defendants is fundamentally false, antisemitic, and extremely dangerous.” Judge James also affirmed his understanding of his obligation as a judge “to treat all people with equal dignity, equal justice, and equal rights,” before recusing himself from the case.The defendant’s mother told the judge that his words touched her heart. “I’ve never heard that type of compassion from a judge,” Ms. Cunningham told Judge James. “I can’t even describe how it makes me feel because to hear that — and then to all this time be thinking that because of my skin color, my son’s skin color, that we weren’t going to be treated fairly.”In a March letter from the Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, the organization’s president and the Sun’s lawyer, Robert Garson, wrote that he had “never seen antisemitism so blatantly, brazenly and unapologetically directed at a judge” as that of Mr. Klock’s in this instance.“Your words and actions are a credit to the judiciary, the profession and to the Jewish community,” Mr. Garson wrote. “The transcripts of the proceedings should be published to the judiciary and to law schools nationwide for the dual purpose of dispelling this vile and vicious falsehood but also to teach us all how to handle lawyers like Joseph Klock.”

Miami Judge Commended for Handling of Antisemitic Allegations Against Justice System

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