Richter apologizes after berating an elderly cancer patient for ridiculous reasons

Alexis Krot, a Michigan judge, has apologized after threatening jail time to an elderly cancer patient over unruly weeds in his front yard. “I made a mistake,” Krot said in a statement. She has also turned herself in to a state commission investigating judicial misconduct.

Krot’s comments came at a court hearing via Zoom call, which then circulated on social media. The clip shows Judge Krot telling a visibly ill man that he “should be ashamed” of the state of his home. “If I could give you jail for that, I would,” she said, threatening him with jail a second time at the end of the meeting. “If you come back here, you’re going to jail.”

The man, whose name is Burhan Chowdhury, was struggling to breathe. “I’m a cancer patient, very old ma’am,” he said. His son also interjected to explain his father’s health condition.

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Aside from calling the judge unprofessional and rude, many people viewed her comments as racist and intentionally intimidating a sick man whose first language is not English.

“When I was a kid I went to interpret for my parents and was so intimidated by the judge that I wasn’t even able to interpret or translate for my parents,” Rebeka Islam told USA Today. She lives in Hamtramck, the area where Chowdry lives, and is executive director of the APIA Vote-MI civic group.

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“I made a mistake,” Judge Alexis G. Krot said in a statement Thursday. “I acted excessively. I am very embarrassed that I did this. I apologize to the person who appeared before me and to our entire community for not having met the high standards that we expect of our law enforcement officers and that I expect of myself.”

Her apology follows a Change.org petition with over 230,000 signatures calling for Krot’s removal from Michigan state court.