Judge Loses Job Over What She told Woman in Court

Jack Phillips
4/24/2018
Updated:
9/27/2018

A Florida judge is facing criticism after she had an angry exchange with a frail inmate who was confined to a wheelchair in Broward County.

Circuit Court Judge Merrilee Ehrlich snapped at Sandra Twiggs, 59, as she explained her ailments and breathing treatments. Her family told CBS News that she suffered from COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“Ma‘am, do you need water? Just nod your head,” Ehrlich said. When she responded, the judge shouted: “Ma’am, I’m not here to talk to you!”

“I need a breathing treatment,”  Twiggs said. “Ma'am, I’m not here to talk to you about your breathing treatment,” Ehrlich said.

“I’m not here to talk about your breathing treatment,” Ehrlich told her. Then she just told her to listen.

“Ma'am, don’t even say yes. Just listen,” she said.

She allowed Twiggs to be released without bond for a domestic violence charge. “You have to arrange for someone to carry you if you cannot get there yourself,” Ehrlich said.

Twiggs then died in her sleep several days later, CBS reported.

Twiggs “tried to tell us how they treated her, but she had anxiety, and every time she tried to talk about it, she couldn’t breathe,” Twiggs’ goddaughter, Carolyn Porter, was quoted as saying.

“When she came home from being in there she was never the same,” she said.

Broward Chief Administrative Judge Jack Tuter said Saturday, April 21, that the judge won’t return to the courthouse due to her conduct, saying that she’ll retire over the summer. She filed paperwork to retire a few weeks before the incident.

“To see a person begging you for help and trying to you, and you treat them like a dog for what reason?” Carolyn Twiggs said, Fox19 reported. “If that judge is listening to us and looking at us, I hope you can sleep at night knowing that you killed her,” Carolyn Twiggs said, adding that the way the judge treated her combined with the night in jail may have contributed to her death.

Tuter said he’ll apologize to Twiggs’ family.

“I am saddened and disappointed in the way Judge Ehrlich behaved on the video. Her behavior cannot be condoned,” he told CBS.

The incident was described “aggressive and tyrannical behavior and revealed her lack of emotional fitness to sit on the bench,” Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein said. Twiggs appeared via a live video stream before Ehrlich at bond court on a misdemeanor charge after she fought with her daughter.
Video Credit: Broward County via Sun Sentinel via Storyful
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Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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