Detroit’s Top Lawyer Resigns Over ‘Ghetto Court’ Remark
The chief of Detroit’s law department has resigned in a flap stemming from her reference to one of the city’s courts as “a ghetto court.”
Kathleen Leavey, who is white, made the comment in a meeting last week with court staffers, according to the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News.
Leavey told the newspapers that her statement was taken out of context by the court’s chief judge. She said she told a court administrator that the facility is regarded as a ghetto court because of its poor treatment of people through slow service and long lines.
But Chief Judge Marylin Atkins said in a letter sent to city officials that Leavey instead said that “when the court stopped ‘acting like a ghetto court,’ the city would be more inclined to pay for our operations.”
“How dare you!” Atkins wrote. “Not only are your words insulting and racist to this court and the entire city, but they are highly unprofessional coming from the highest ranking attorney for the city of Detroit.”
Leavey told the Detroit News that she is not racist, and she hopes to return to her former job as a law department employee. “I am not going down without a fight,” she said.
