*Yes, a-holes come in all shapes and sizes. And just in case you’re wondering, we’re referring to the 2-legged kind. Like the orange one in the White House. Well, we just learned of another one … in Florida and she’s a judge. Well, she used to be a judge, but because of her outright callousness, which could be blamed for someone dying, she has resigned.
The magistrate’s courtroom rant was so over the top that Broward’s elected public defender, Howard Finkelstein, demanded that Judge Merrilee Ehrlich be banned from the criminal courthouse. Ehrlich, a circuit court judge known for her “tyrannical ways,” scolded Sandra Faye Twiggs, 59, after she requested a breathing treatment.
According to the family, Twiggs suffered from COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
In a video of the April 15 encounter, Ehrlich appears to the left in a split screen, and Twiggs is shown seated in a wheelchair, barely visible above a lectern at the North Broward satellite courthouse. Ehrlich asks Twiggs whether she and her daughter, the alleged victim, live in the same house.
Twiggs tries to answer the question, which requires more than a “yes” or “no” because the 19-year-old doesn’t live with Twiggs full-time. Mid-sentence, Ehrlich snaps at her: “Excuse me! Don’t say anything beyond what I am asking you!” Clearly exasperated, Ehrlich asks Twiggs’ lawyer, who is in a different location during the video hookup, to make Twiggs stop talking.
As Twiggs coughs and holds her head, Ehrlich speaks to deputies, who are off-screen: “Can someone there give her water as a kindness?” But the judge’s anger continues to boil over. Twiggs tries to tell the judge that she needs medical treatment for her pulmonary problems.
The bond court judge erupts: “Ma’am, I am not here to talk to you about your breathing treatments!”
READ THIS: WHO CARES! KANDI BURRUSS’ ON KIM ZOLCIAK LEAVING ‘RHOA’: ‘SHE HASN’T HELD A PEACH IN YEARS’ (WATCH)
The now heartbroken family said Twiggs was in court last Sunday, after squabbling with her 19-year-old daughter over a fan. Her daughter suffered scratches.
“My mom is gone and there is nothing I can do about it,” said Michelle Ballard, the daughter. “I’m now a teenager who will have to bury her mother.”
Twiggs’ family said they were disgusted after they watched how the judge treated her in the video. When Twiggs got home from jail her sister Anna said she was extremely upset.
According to her sister, Anna Lee Twiggs, Sandra Faye said:
“Anna, they treated me like a dog in the courthouse. They didn’t let me talk. The judge was so cruel. I needed a treatment and she (Twiggs) just kept on gasping for air as she was telling me this and she was so devastated.”
“When she came home from being in there she was never the same,” said Carolyn Porter, Twiggs’ goddaughter.
As we said above, the public defender’s office says Judge Ehrlich has since resigned, but it is not clear when that resignation becomes effective.
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
