Colorado Judge Resigns After Using N-Word and Declaring 'All Lives Mattter'

A Colorado judge has resigned after telling her colleagues “all lives matter” and repeatedly using the n-word, among other instances of inappropriate comments.

According to the Washington Post, Colorado District Judge Natalie T. Chase agreed to step aside after a Colorado Supreme Court censured her based on a report that she had “undermined confidence in the impartiality of the judiciary by expressing [her] views about criminal justice, police brutality, race and racial bias, specifically while wearing [her] robe in court staff work areas and from the bench.”

Chase, appointed by former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, did not challenge accounts of the incidents.

Accusations of racism or inappropriate behavior have followed Chase for years. During a road trip to a conference in 2020, Chase subjected a family court facilitator, who was Black, to a very uncomfortable conversation. She asked the facilitator why it was OK for Black people to say the n-word and not whites and if it was different if the n-word is said with an ‘er’ or an ‘a’. During the conversation, Chase repeatedly used the word.

The facilitator, “angry and hurt” over the judge’s actions, feared challenging the judge because she worried about retaliation.

The’ All Lives Matter’ declaration came after she asked two Black court employees to explain the Black Lives Matter movement. In the middle of the conversation, Chase supposedly said the cops who killed George Floyd should be investigated but that “all lives matter.”

Here is more on the behavior that lead her out the door, per The Post:

There were other allegations of misconduct against Chase, including assigning a law clerk early last year to do research unrelated to the judge’s caseload but rather for “personal family legal issues.” Several times last year, Chase also asked her clerk to proofread and rewrite her personal emails before sending them. After returning from a meeting with another judge last year, Chase told her clerk that the judge was a “f****** b****,” court documents say.

The judge also “repeatedly discussed personal and family matters” with staff and other court employees during work hours and in work settings “in a manner that was not dignified or courteous,” according to court documents.

Last August, Chase declined an ambulance after a medical incident at the courthouse and instead instructed a court employee drive her to the hospital and stay with her, forcing the employee to miss half a day at work.

That we know about Chase’s censure at all is pretty rare. Only four judges in the state were publicly censured between 2010 and 2020.

Chase isn’t the first judge forced to resign or face discipline over the years for racist remarks. A Louisiana judge was forced to leave her job in February of last year after using the n-word in messages with her lover. Another judge in Pennsylvania resigned later that year after allegedly calling a juror “Aunt Jemima” during a post-trial conference and assuming that she had a drug-dealing baby-daddy.”