After Wakulla Circuit Judge Layne Smith issued a public apology for telling three lawyers in his courtroom he was so frustrated he wanted to have them shot, one of the attorneys is speaking out, calling his words “grossly offensive.”
“I cannot imagine what repercussions I would face if I stated I wanted to have a deputy draw his gun out and shoot a judge,” said David Kemp, a Crawfordville lawyer, in a statement to the Democrat.
Smith’s comments came during a Sept. 23 hearing in a family civil dispute at the Wakulla County Courthouse. The judge was irked in part because the parties in the lawsuit hadn’t been served to appear for the proceeding..
“I would like to tell the deputy to pull his gun and shoot all three of you, as far as my level of frustration,” Smith said. “I really don’t want him to do that. But, guys, for crying out loud, what is this, the Keystone Cops, just not very funny?”
Smith publicly apologized on Oct. 20 in response to questions from the Tallahassee Democrat, calling his comment “impulsive” and “unprofessional and out of character.”
He noted he recused himself from three different cases involving the parties in the dispute and self-reported the matter to the state’s judicial disciplinary authority, the Judicial Qualifications Commission.
“I apologize to the public and the lawyers involved,” he said.
Appearing before Smith at the time were attorneys Stephen Webster of Tallahassee and Kemp, who represented one family member, and Danny Phillips of Tallahassee, who represented the other. Later, Webster and Kemp filed a motion asking Smith to recuse himself from their cases.
Kemp, responding to an Oct. 21 article about the incident, told the Democrat in an email that it was “shocking” Judge Smith “refused” to disqualify himself from all cases he and Webster have before him. They filed disqualification motions in five other cases, all involving felony defendants, but Smith denied the motions, Kemp said.
“Given the judge’s obvious bias and animosity towards me, it would be unfair to my clients to appear on their behalf in front of Judge Smith, and as a result, I am now forced to turn away potential clients in my home county where I have practiced for almost 20 years,” he said.
He wrote that while Smith “claims to have apologized,” neither he nor Webster received any apology. Kemp, who served in Iraq as a staff sergeant from 2004 to 2005, also noted how seriously he took Smith’s comments.
“As an Army veteran who served in a combat zone in Iraq, I have experienced how it feels to be shot at and I find the judge’s comments grossly offensive,” he wrote.
USA: ‘Grossly offensive’: Attorney wants justice after Judge Smith said lawyers should be shot
