Michigan judge suspended after racist comments leak

Kathleen A. Ryan, a probate court judge in Oakland County, Michigan, has been suspended after leaked call recordings revealed inflammatory comments she made about African Americans and her usage of a homophobic slur.

Chief Probate Judge Linda Hallmark made the move on Aug. 27, announcing “a complaint regarding internal allegations of unprofessional conduct,” according to local ABC station WXYZ Detroit.

The recordings originated from Oakland County Probate Court administrator Edward Hutton, an attorney who said Ryan’s off-hours phone conversations put him through “a living hell.”

“It’s been terrible. It’s cost me relationships. I think it’s affected my health. I can’t sleep,” he said in an interview released this week.

Short snippets from Sutton’s phone calls with Ryan were published by WXYZ on Sept. 5, including her denigration of fellow public officials with vulgar and offensive language, and a description of Black Americans that attempted to draw a distinction between Black immigrants and African Americans.

“If you’re a Black from any other country, you’re doing way better,” she said in a five-second segment, the context of which was not made known by WXYZ. 

“If you’re an American  Black person, then you’re a f*****g lazy piece of s**t.”

In another isolated snippet, Ryan appeared to admit that she holds prejudices against non-White people—a group that makes up some 30% of her constituency in Oakland County, where she was elected to office in 2010 and ran unopposed in 2016 and 2022.

“I can honestly say that, OK, I’m not systemically racist. I’m a new racist. I never was, but now I am because you’re shoving this s**t down my throat making allegations that you don’t know s**t about,” she says in the recording.

“You’re telling me who I am and you’ve never even f*****g met me. F**k you.”

The recordings were shared by Hutton with Oakland County Executive David Coulter, who said Ryan’s removed from the bench is “merited.”

“There is absolutely no place for harassment of any kind or for racist or homophobic language by anyone at Oakland County, especially by someone the public must be confident will act fairly and impartially,” he wrote in a statement. 

“I have confidence that the agencies reviewing this matter will treat it with the seriousness it deserves and will take further action if warranted.”

Ryan, who operated a private practice after her graduation from the University of Notre Dame and the Detroit Mercy School of Law, hails from a prominent Catholic political family in Michigan.

Her father, James L. Ryan, served as a U.S. Circuit Court judge for 25 years after an appointment by President Ronald Reagan. Her brother, Daniel P. Ryan, also served as a judge in Michigan until his retirement in 2015. Another brother, Jim R. Ryan, served as a Republican member of the Michigan House of Representatives.

Kathleen Ryan has previously faced legal troubles while in the public eye, having been charged with domestic assault and battery in 2021 after an altercation with her then-boyfriend. The case was later transferred to another county and eventually dismissed.

The investigation she now faces will go before the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission with an unspecified timeline for review. She has not spoken publicly about the call recordings and did respond to a request for comment from Black Catholic Messenger.

Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.

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