A judge in Colorado who was convicted by the state Supreme Court after being accused of using racist language with a colleague has resigned.
The Colorado Supreme Court said Arapahoe County District Court Judge Natalie T. Chase used the N-word several times with a colleague and was racially sensitive on many occasions, according to court documents chasing the discipline for Chase and public rejection of the court recommended.
The documents set out an incident in 2020 in which Chase, a former clerk and a family court facilitator, drove back to work after attending an event in Pueblo, Colorado.
“Judge Chase is white and the family court facilitator is black,” the documents read. ‘On his way back from Pueblo, Judge Chase asked the family court facilitator why black people could use the N word but not white people, and whether it was different from the N word with an’ er ‘or’ n ‘be said’. ‘a’ at the end of the word. ‘
“During the conversation, Judge Chase used the full N-word a number of times,” the documents read.
The facilitator was uncomfortable and according to the documents ‘felt angry and hurt by the conversation’. “She explained that using Judge Chase’s full N-word was ‘a stab through my heart every time,'” but did not feel comfortable sharing her discomfort or emotions with Chase for fear of retaliation.
Following this incident, Chase made other derogatory statements, including to co-workers, some of whom were black, that she would boycott the Super Bowl because she objected to the NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem in protest. against police brutality against Black. people, ‘read the documents.
After the death of George Floyd, who died in 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Former Police Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck, Chase also expressed her opinion on the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests that took place in the US
When two black court employees discussed the protests while in Judge Chase’s courtroom, she told them ‘of her views on issues of racial justice’ and ‘asked an employee some questions about the Black Lives Matter movement ‘.
“The employee tried to explain the Black Lives Matter movement, and Judge Chase said she believes all lives matter,” according to the documents. “Judge Chase also ruled that the conduct of the police officers in the George Floyd case should be investigated.”
Several other incidents in which Chase spoke or treated colleagues inappropriately are listed in the court documents, including one incident in which she referred to another judge as a ‘f ****** b ****’ while talked to a clerk.
The court said the judge violated four separate rules of law, and therefore undermined trust in the judiciary. The Colorado Judicial Disciplinary Commission recommended that the court publicly convict or convict Chase, and the court sought her resignation.
Chase maintained that she did not mean ‘any racial animus’, but acknowledged that her statements violated a’ rule ‘requiring a judge to act in a way that promotes public confidence in the judiciary.’ She admitted that her use of the N-word ‘does not promote public confidence in the judiciary and that it creates the appearance of impropriety’.
Chase filed her resignation and the Colorado Supreme Court accepted it, reports CBS Denver.