Judge Nakita Blocton in Birmingham, Ala., was permanently removed from the bench on Dec. 10 after she was caught verbally abusing staff, litigants and attorneys. She also used Facebook aliases to discuss cases with litigants.
The judge was removed by the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission on Dec. 17 after an investigation into her behavior was completed.
Blocton reportedly engaged in a pattern of bad behavior that included abusing her staff, litigants and attorneys. The former Birmingham judge forced her employees to delete information from their cell phones and show her after a disciplinary investigation was launched against her. She used a fake Facebook account to discuss one of her cases with the litigants to affect the outcome.
The disgraced judge also forced her staff to take the diet pill Phentermine to give them energy. She also called a staffer a “heifer” and a “fat b***h” and another judge an “Uncle Tom.” Blocton also reportedly took Phentermine and was often under the influence in court.
“These pills created behavioral changes in Judge Blocton while she was performing her judicial duties, including but not limited to, becoming hyper-talkative and hyper-somnolent (when a person experiences significant episodes of sleepiness) in chambers and on the bench, exhibiting paranoid behavior, such as talking in circles about the same topic for hours and expressing a belief that the commission or someone at its direction is ‘going to kill her.’’’
A 37-page report also accused the judge of mental illness, drug use and failure to properly handle her docket. She was also accused of having a pattern of threatening lawyers on her cases, deception and dishonesty.
Blocton had been temporarily removed from the bench in May when the investigation began. The Court of the Judiciary did not weigh in on the former judge’s mental state, noting that the commission had not proved she was unstable.
Blocton was also ordered to pay for the cost of the investigation.
