Florida Judge Known For Inappropriately Timed ‘Dad Jokes’ Gets Put On Time Out

If you were to make a Venn Diagram of avoiding even the appearance of impropriety and a judge mocking a defendant for being named Jacques Strapp, I could guarantee you two things. The first is that the circles wouldn’t be touching. The second is that Judge Gary M. Farmer Jr. would try his best to make a boob joke out of the picture. Humor has its place and — barring some extraordinary circumstance like the Onion arguing about free speech — it is not in the courtroom. Judge Farmer stated that he took full responsibility for his ill-timed attempts at being funny. Now he has the opportunity to take full punishment for them. Law360 has coverage:

The Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday suspended a state judge pending disposition of allegations that he made inappropriate jokes and comments while overseeing a criminal docket that he claimed were mostly inoffensive “dad jokes.”

Circuit Court Judge Gary M. Farmer Jr., a former Florida state senator who was elected to the bench in 2022, will be suspended without pay effective Monday night, the high court said in a brief order Wednesday that encourages the state Judicial Qualification Commission to “conduct any remaining proceedings promptly.”

In the meantime, perhaps His Honor should spend his suspension doing a couple sets of standup at Fort Lauderdale Improv to get the bug out of his system. Speaking of Broward County, what’s with all of these goofy judicial ethics stories coming out of Florida? A judicial neighbor to Farmer just got in hot water for citing a book she never read and a judicial deepfake as evidence of a judicial image problem during her election run. Is Florida Judge going to be the new Florida Man? As entertaining as that would be, let’s hope that the remaining Florida judges do their judging by the book. And for the love of Florida, make sure that the book is not The Ninth Circus Court of Florida, My 30-Year Job From Hell!

Judge Who Defended Remarks As ‘Dad Jokes’ Is Suspended [Law360]

Earlier: Amateur Comedian Judge Faces Ethics Complaints Over Groan-Inducing ‘Dad Jokes’

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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