Today’s winner is Florida Circuit Judge Aaron Bowden. He gets the award for the following.
Twelve days before Christmas, Circuit Judge Aaron Bowden fired his 17-year judicial assistant, who had been on leave since August with cancer.
lThe Jacksonville judge said he feared her prolonged illness would leave him without an assistant at a time when the state had implemented a hiring freeze.
But his decision left Christine Birch, 54, with no medical, life or disability insurance and has created a firestorm at the courthouse.
Chief Circuit Judge Donald Moran responded by calling Bowden “a no-good son of a bitch,” prompting Bowden to respond with a blistering e-mail defending his decision and calling Moran’s criticism irresponsible, unprofessional and unseemly.
Other judges’ assistants were also appalled by Birch’s firing. They raised money to pay her rent this month.
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Birch declined comment Thursday. But she thanked Moran in a handwritten note last week for putting her back on the courthouse payroll in a rotating judicial assistant’s position. Birch was paid about $3,275 a month in her old job, and the state paid her health insurance premium. Her new rotating position pays $750 less a month and requires her to pay her own premiums.
Employees can be fired without cause in Florida. Florida Circuit Judge Aaron Bowden was within his legal right, but he’s still a no-good son of a bitch as the Chief Judge called him, or today’s Knucklehead of the Day.
Was the Judge really without a clerk? Read this-
Birch, who has battled cancer for five years, went on leave Aug. 20.
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But Moran’s judicial assistant, Mary Lou Martinson, said she had assigned one of the rotating assistants to Bowden full-time at his request.
Florida Circuit Judge Aaron Bowden is a Knucklehead in this cancer survivor’s opinion.
