\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA Central Florida judge has been publicly reprimanded for making a racist comment during a courtroom hearing, according to court records filed Thursday with the Florida Supreme Court.The incident occurred on July 28, 2025, when Circuit Court Judge John Jordan of the Ninth Judicial Circuit of Florida was overseeing a plea hearing in a felony battery case involving a 33-year-old Black woman who had negotiated a plea requiring 30 hours of community service.While discussing possible disciplinary measures with the woman and her great-uncle, a Black man present at the hearing, Jordan asked, \u201cDo you own any land where I could have her work it for 30 hours?\u201d according to court documents.The great-uncle laughed, and Jordan then said:\u201cAll my family\u2019s farming. They\u2019d love me out there. You ever \u2013 You ever chopped cotton before? You know what that is? You take a hoe and you knock out the weeds. That\u2019ll \u2013 That\u2019ll straighten you up real quick doing that stuff. All right. Well, no pulling weeds for your great-uncle then. So, let\u2019s move on.\u201dPrior to that incident, on April 9, 2025, during jury selection for an aggravated battery case, court documents show that Jordan \u201cunprofessionally scolded two public defenders.\u201dWhen they complained about being treated unfairly and rushed, the judge reportedly raised his voice and told them to \u201cshut up\u201d three times.In September 2025, a notice of investigation was served to Jordan for both incidents. A hearing before the Investigative Panel was held the following month, and the panel found that the judge violated judicial ethics.Jordan accepted the ruling and expressed remorse for his actions. Court records show he acknowledged that his questions and comments were \u201cill-considered\u201d and admitted he failed to consider how, as a judge deciding whether a Black defendant should \u201cwork the land,\u201d and his immediate reference to \u201cchopping cotton\u201d could be seen as inappropriate, given the historically demeaning stereotype linking Black people to picking cotton.Jordan also stated that he is not a racist and does not make rulings or decisions improperly based on race. His punishment, announced this week, is a formal public reprimand, according to court documents.More Orange County news:\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A Central Florida judge has been publicly reprimanded for making a racist comment during a courtroom hearing, according to court records filed Thursday with the Florida Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
The incident occurred on July 28, 2025, when Circuit Court Judge John Jordan of the Ninth Judicial Circuit of Florida was overseeing a plea hearing in a felony battery case involving a 33-year-old Black woman who had negotiated a plea requiring 30 hours of community service.<\/p>\n
While discussing possible disciplinary measures with the woman and her great-uncle, a Black man present at the hearing, Jordan asked, \u201cDo you own any land where I could have her work it for 30 hours?\u201d according to court documents.<\/p>\n
The great-uncle laughed, and Jordan then said:<\/p>\n
\u201cAll my family\u2019s farming. They\u2019d love me out there. You ever \u2013 You ever chopped cotton before? You know what that is? You take a hoe and you knock out the weeds. That\u2019ll \u2013 That\u2019ll straighten you up real quick doing that stuff. All right. Well, no pulling weeds for your great-uncle then. So, let\u2019s move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to that incident, on April 9, 2025, during jury selection for an aggravated battery case, court documents show that Jordan \u201cunprofessionally scolded two public defenders.\u201d<\/p>\n
When they complained about being treated unfairly and rushed, the judge reportedly raised his voice and told them to \u201cshut up\u201d three times.<\/p>\n
In September 2025, a notice of investigation was served to Jordan for both incidents. A hearing before the Investigative Panel was held the following month, and the panel found that the judge violated judicial ethics.<\/p>\n
Jordan accepted the ruling and expressed remorse for his actions. <\/p>\n
Court records show he acknowledged that his questions and comments were \u201cill-considered\u201d and admitted he failed to consider how, as a judge deciding whether a Black defendant should \u201cwork the land,\u201d and his immediate reference to \u201cchopping cotton\u201d could be seen as inappropriate, given the historically demeaning stereotype linking Black people to picking cotton.<\/p>\n
Jordan also stated that he is not a racist and does not make rulings or decisions improperly based on race. <\/p>\n
His punishment, announced this week, is a formal public reprimand, according to court documents.<\/p>\n
More Orange County news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Central Florida judge has been publicly reprimanded for making a racist comment during a courtroom hearing, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[96028,96030,67423,21094,3473,96027,96031,28,30,29,96029,658,96033,32770,2785,96034,96032,56182],"class_list":["post-209530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-black-defendant","tag-central-florida-judge","tag-cotton","tag-court-document","tag-court-record","tag-courtroom-hearing","tag-felony-battery-case","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-great-uncle","tag-incident","tag-investigative-panel","tag-jordan","tag-judge","tag-racist-comment","tag-remark","tag-ruling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}