Name calling is not just for kids

Judges like to do it too! For more information, read below. And, Judge Tobin, did you really kick Spechler out of the courthouse? That's brilliant! The guy never seemed to do anything but play on his computer anyway.
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JudiciarySources: Spechler reassignment, resignation came after disparaging remarks about fellow judge's sexual orientation
April 01, 2008

Longtime Broward County judge resigned after he was reassigned to hear traffic cases in a satellite courthouse and barred from entering the main Fort Lauderdale courthouse.

Courthouse sources said County Court Judge Jay Spechler’s reassignment came after he got into a verbal altercation with fellow County Court Judge Peggy Gehl and made disparaging comments about her sexual orientation. Calls to Gehl were not returned by deadline. Her judicial assistant said she was out for the day. Rumors have circulated in the legal community for months that the state Judicial Qualifications Commission was looking at Spechler and several other local judges. Gehl is a member of the JQC. The Broward Sheriff’s Office and the Fort Lauderdale police department said there were no police reports regarding any incidents involving Broward judges. Judge Spechler sent a three-sentence letter of resignation to Gov. Charlie Crist on Monday, effective the same day, saying it was “an honor and privilege” to serve the county and state. He started a new job today with a North Miami mediation firm. The abrupt job change was in response to his reassignment, which amounted to a demotion. Spechler’s sudden reassignment and resignation – which was not explained – has been the talk of the courthouse. Chief Circuit Judge Victor Tobin sent Spechler a letter last Thursday assigning him to outlying civil traffic and parking ticket cases. “You are not to return to the Central Courthouse except at my direction,” Tobin said in the letter initially reported today in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. The letter offered no explanation for Tobin’s action. Spechler and Tobin did not return calls for comment by deadline. Attorney Michael Ahearn, a friend of Spechler’s, said the former judge has joined the Center for Conflict Resolution in North Miami, which was founded by former Bay Harbor Islands Mayor Thomas Glick and Rosanne Shore in 1997. Spechler had been courted by mediation firms for a while, and his judicial reassignment demonstrated the need for a change, Ahearn said. “It was a game of chicken, and Jay had an out: a lucrative job offer he jumped at and hadn’t looked back,” Ahearn said. Broward Circuit Judge Thomas Lynch echoed Ahearn’s comments that Spechler had been considering moving into mediation. He said Tobin’s letter prompted Spechler to take the job sooner rather than later. “He had an offer on the table for a long time. You could say the abrupt transfer made the decision easier for him,” Lynch said. Lynch and Spechler have been longtime friends, surfing buddies and former law partners. Representatives at the Center for Conflict Resolution confirmed Spechler has joined the firm. Spechler, who was elected judge in 1988, led the county court for 12 years. He resigned from his administrative post last May, a week after former Broward Chief Judge Dale Ross announced he was leaving the court’s top judicial post. Spechler served as chairman of the county court’s civil division for four years. He oversaw many cases involving United Automobile Insurance, which sought to remove him from its personal injury protection accident cases before him. “Jay will be sorely missed,” Lynch said. Ross resigned following a series of controversies involving Broward judges accused of everything from pot smoking in a park to insensitivity on the bench. The incidents came to a head last March when Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis flew to Miami to meet with minority bar leaders.