A Houston lawyer was fired from his law firm in February after he sent a “harassing” letter to a federal judge that asked, “Who do you think you are?”
Attorney Ben Aderholt penned the disrespectful missive on his firm’s letterhead and mailed it to U.S. immigration Judge Erica Hughes, who said Aderholt “started off in the wrong direction” by addressing the judge by her first name.
“I was shocked and surprised to receive that letter,” Hughes told Fox 26 in Houston.
Hughes was elected as a criminal court judge in Harris County in 2018 before she was appointed to the federal bench in the Biden administration.
She immediately went public with the letter to call out the blatant disrespect toward Black female judges.
“Calling me Erica, as if we are friends or as if he knows me, started off in the wrong direction,” she said, pointing out that the letter became “progressively worse.”
Aderholt’s now former law firm, Coats-Rose, issued a statement in late February announcing the lawyer’s termination after he “practiced poor judgment.”
In the letter, Aderholt reportedly mocked judicial officials as “political animals who treat our judiciary as political games.”
Judge Hughes said she was appalled.
“The ‘animals’ part stands out to me, that an individual in 2024 would show such disdain for an individual they’ve never met,” she said.
Hughes said the presence of several Black female judicial candidates, including herself, is continuing to inflame tensions throughout Houston, leading to multiple lawsuits.
“I expect to be attacked when I serve in the military. I don’t expect to be attacked when I run for a political position in a party, in a democracy in the United States,” she said.
Hughes was elected and rose to the federal bench at a time when many Black female judicial candidates faced scrutiny over their eligibility or qualifications, and in this case, led to an…
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