Replies

Despite the fact that masks aren't required in the building, Judge Winston Charles Gilchrist mandated that everyone in his courtroom wear a mask.

Power-tripping POS. What he did was wrong and he needs to be removed.

Let me share with all of you my story of an insane dictatorial judge.

Back in 1972 my parents were getting a rather ugly divorce in Seminole County Florida. My older brother and I were legal adults and we lived in different counties. My younger brother was a minor and lived with my mother.

A judge by the name of Dominic Salfie (I am not 100% sure of the spelling of his last name after all these years) was hearing their divorce. He demanded that along with my parents my brothers and I were required to get a psychiatric evaluation for the court.

I told my father’s lawyer that he could tell the judge to kiss my ass and I dared him to send a sheriff across county lines to get me. The judge did not do that.

This judge was so bad that lawyers from outside Seminole County would not take cases in Seminole County if they thought it was going to end up in his courtroom. Eventually it got so bad that the county, in order to get rid of him, kicked him up the ladder. So he could screw people at a higher level.

Despite the fact that masks aren't required in the building, Judge Winston Charles Gilchrist mandated that everyone in his courtroom wear a mask.

Well it's not HIS courtroom. It belongs to the people of the state, not the presiding judge. I think every time a judge say "my courtroom" he or she should be fined for misconduct. Of course, lawyers are afraid to complain about judges' behavior.

Some judges are well known for being petty tyrants. I’ve encountered more than a few in my career, and rarely, but sometimes, they do get their comeuppance. Once in the early ‘80s a lawyer wore a pink shirt to court, and the judge was offended. Those were the days when pastel colored dress shirts were briefly popular. The judge railed at the attorney, warning him never to appear in his courtroom again in a pink shirt or he would be held in contempt. As the story circulated, the local bar became more and more incensed, and organized a response. Every lawyer who had any type of civil case put a matter on the docket to be heard on the next Friday Motions day before that judge. When the judge came out that day his courtroom was packed solid with attorneys, all wearing pink shirts. To his credit, the judge smiled and said okay, all right. Then he sat there just smiling talking it all in, before he said “Can we have time estimates”?