Judiciary
Divorce Lawyer Banished After Calling Black Court Staffer ‘A Little Monkey’
Posted Jul 30, 2008, 07:52 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
An Atlanta divorce lawyer has been banned from the entire fifth floor of the DeKalb County courthouse following an incident in which he called an African-American court staffer a “little monkey.”
Two judges cited the remark in an order that bans lawyer Paul Koehler from the floor where the judges have chambers unless he is accompanied by a sheriff’s deputy, reports the Fulton County Daily Report. The judges' order says the behavior was "racist and disrespectful."
Koehler, who is white, admitted he made the remark in an interview with the Fulton County Daily Report and said it was not intended to be a racial comment. He has since written letters of apology.
Koehler told the publication he thought he was speaking to someone he knew, but apparently the woman was a court staffer. "It was a pretty black lady that I thought I knew and was joking with,” he said.
"I made a comment like, 'How you doing, you little monkey?' or something like that," said Koehler. "I had no intent to make it a racial comment. … I think every day, when I'm playing with my granddaughter or I'm playing with someone else I use that word, monkey.”
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