http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-pcjudges27apr27,0,7944093,print.story?coll=sfla-news-palm

Judges to receive diversity training

Treatment of minorities sparks action

By Tonya Alanez
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

April 27, 2006

Broward judges have berated litigants for not speaking English and disparaged a cleaning crew for leaving a bench in disarray, raising the ire of minority and women's lawyers groups.

Starting next month, Broward judges will undergo diversity and sensitivity training designed to raise cultural awareness, Chief Judge Dale Ross said Wednesday.

It is the first step toward quashing "incidents that have been getting out of hand and with more frequency," said Deana Holiday, president-elect of Broward's African-American lawyers group, the T.J. Reddick Bar Association. "One [incident] is too many and when it became more than one, it created a sense of urgency for us."

After a planning meeting Wednesday, Ross said the training program was "just another tool a judge can use in the everyday performance of his or her duties."

Ross said the sessions would not be mandatory for current judges, but all new employees would have to participate in a diversity program.

Lawyers who belong to minority Bar associations urged Ross to give his judges sensitivity training after discussing recent incidents.

In December, Circuit Judge Lawrence Korda berated a woman seeking a restraining order for speaking her native Spanish in his courtroom rather than English, said the woman's attorney, Kathy Achille.

The woman made serious allegations of abuse against her husband in her petition, Achille said.

"But rather than focus on that, [Korda] zeroed in on her inability to speak and understand English perfectly," Achille said.

Korda later apologized.

But first, Achille, vice president of the Haitian Lawyers Association, contacted the Hispanic Bar Association.

As the groups talked, it became evident that this was not an isolated incident, she said.

Last June, County Judge Leonard Feiner sparked controversy when he ordered custodial supervisor Nadine Coke into his courtroom after finding his bench in disarray.

"They may live in, in hovels, where they live, but they don't have to leave places they work looking like a dump," he said referring to the cleaning crew.

The Broward Public Defender's Office filed a formal state complaint, charging that Feiner made racist comments.

The Judicial Qualifications Commission did not find "probable cause" of racial bias.