Opponent responds to newly elected Detroit judge who was suspended

You were one of the candidates. There were four candidates on the ballot for a non-incumbent, meaning an open seat for judge. Three of the four got elected, right? Yes. You were the fourth. Yes. So why are you upset? One person that did get elected is someone named Judge Kalelia Davis, but she was banned by the Supreme Court for being a judge for six years. Yes. So I don't know if upset is the actual word, because I truly believe that what God has... The plan for me, I'm going to get eventually. So, but what I am is disappointed. I'm disappointed in the fact that I put forth such an effort. I was boots on the ground. I was out there talking to people. You know, I have, I think that my background speaks for itself. I think that I was the best candidate to occupy one of those seats at 36th District Court and to see how the numbers came out. It made me feel as if the judicial system is not. For the people. Now the other two people, they were, they're both magistrates within the court, right? Yes, yes, sir. So meaning they do a lot of the judge's work anyway. Yes, sir. And you don't have a problem with those two, right? Oh, no, no. They're good. It's just this particular judge, right? Not judge. Candidate for- Former judge. Yes. She was a judge. She was kicked off the, she was kicked out for six years. Yes, yes. But realistically, though, the Supreme Court said that she cannot be a judge for six years, but it didn't say anything about her running. Yes. Do you think the Supreme Court was wrong? I think that the Supreme Court did not clarify what they meant. Because why would you say that a person is... If you were to run and win, you can't sit, that's almost saying that that's almost equivalent to saying you're not a doctor yet until 2029, but you can apply for a job as a doctor right now. And then when 2029 comes. You can go and take the job from someone else. The Supreme Court got it wrong. They definitely got it wrong, in my view. So, but did you, now, do you have standing even to challenge the Supreme Court's ruling? I believe that I do have standing to challenge, because I am one of the candidates that's affected by what they wrote. I think that if they would have clarified what they meant, I think that this would not have been an issue. Because originally, there were four of us on the ballot, and then the Board of Elections actually put disqualification. by her name because how can you be on a ballot to serve in a position that you're not eligible for? Here's the deal. You're pretty outgoing. Yes. You just said you were out campaigning all the time. Yes, I was. You've got an army background, right? Yes, sir. You led platoons. You've done a lot of stuff, right? All over the world. Yes, sir. All over the world. Yes, sir. You've handled criminal cases, civil cases. Clearly you're qualified. Yes, sir. Why didn't the voters get the message? Well, in my opinion, I think that voters don't research who they are voting for. It's pretty much name recognition. I mean, I'm known, but I'm originally from Selma, Alabama. I'm not from Detroit, Michigan, but I'm licensed to practice in Michigan as well as in New York. And, you know, I have a 28-year Army background. I retired from the military as a major. I operated the prisoner of war camp in Saudi Arabia. I had over 100,000 prisoners. So I have a, I think that my background speaks for itself. for itself. I'm very qualified for the position. Okay, but so in this era of campaigning though, it's really you against the judge, not Judge Davis, because she was not a judge anymore when she was running. Yes, sir. So she was running non-camp. Why did you go, did you say anything bad about her, that she was kicked off the bench for doing a lot of things according to the Supreme Court, that she was... That she was disconnecting videos, that she was sending people to jail for no reason, that she was abusing the contempt powers of the court. I mean, it's all written. I'm not making this stuff up. It's all written by the Supreme Court. Yes, sir. Did you campaign against her? No, sir. I feel that I run on my own merits. I don't have to put someone else down to lift myself up. My experience and what I have to offer should speak for itself. But, you know... Candidate, they did what they wanted to do, they voted for who they wanted. So you're done, you're not gonna appeal, you're not gonna do anything because the voters spoke, right? I don't know what I might do. Maybe the voters wanted someone who's a former judge who can serve three years from now, can't serve now, but in three years. Well, sometimes we, what is the saying? We do what's not in our best interest sometimes. Here's the deal, we had so many The ads on television were so negative for the governor's race, the U.S. Senate race. I mean, oh, my gosh. Yes, sir. Did you ever think about going negative against this particular judge? No, never. Do you think that would have helped you? I don't want to win anything like that. As I indicated, I'm a person, I think I have candor. I think I wanted to run on my own merits. And if individuals, if the voters would have just searched our names as judges, it would have popped up. My resume would have popped up, everyone's experience and who they were would have popped up. But people didn't do that. Do you think Kalila Davis is qualified to be a judge? Based on what the Secretary of State, based on what the Michigan Supreme Court and the Judicial Tenure Committee says, no. I don't know. Voters said yes. Well, that's why we're here. Did you ever think about, because there were four people running and three seats. Yes. Did you ever think about having a pack, you know, the two magistrates and you? Because they have to be worried, too, that you could have beaten one of them or the two of you could have beaten one of them. Yes, well, she came in second. This was Davis came in second. Yes. I know. What does that say about the voters? I can't speak for the voters per se, but I can say sometimes the school that you attend, whether it's Cass Tech, University of Michigan, Michigan State. Sometimes people vote just because of name recognition or you know someone's family member or you attended a certain school and they just vote because, oh yeah, we want someone that attended our school to go there. And that's not right. You can have people in positions, whether it's judicial, it doesn't matter what type of position. You're voting for people blindly and you shouldn't do that. But the reality is that people, maybe they don't take the time to research every little thing. She got 83,000 or 82,000 votes, that's not a none. That's a pretty good number. It's a good number, but I can tell you that it's the voter's loss, cuz I am a prize that would have been on the 36th District Court. You were in for a judge before though, you were a judge back in Eastern. Yes. Yeah, back in 2000 and- Yes, I had just come out of the military After 28 years. Yeah, it was back in, what was it, a couple of years, 2012, I think it was, 2012, Judge Forrester. Yeah, so you want to be a judge. Yes, that's why I ran, because I know that I'm qualified. We're asking our people today, do you think that many vote that don't know the backgrounds of the people that they're voting for? You would answer yes to that, wouldn't you? Yes, I would answer yes. That's not good, though, is it? No. Whose fault is that? Is it the candidate's fault? Is it media? Whose fault is it? You know, sometimes I don't think that it's the candidate's fault because everyone has to do their due diligence and research who they want, who they desire. Because once you go to the court and you stand in front of that person that you voted for, you can't get upset with a judge that is not rendering, you know, putting out rules and rendering your case as you want it to because that's who you put there. So if she was elected, she did get elected. She just can't serve for three years. So in three years, she'd be okay. The voters said yes. I don't think so. I mean, I think it's a better position. Maybe a governor should appoint all judges. And just do away with elections? No, I don't think so. I think it's right for the people to have a choice into who they want. But I think that when you put people in a position of Michigan Supreme Court, they could come back and clarify what their order said. To say you can run but you can't sit, that's ludicrous to me. So I think it's an injustice that was done. I'm not on the Supreme Court, probably never will be. But the Supreme Court may say that we don't want to substitute our Supreme Court judgment for the rights of the voters. And that maybe the rights of the voters, if they They want her. Maybe six years is a punishment. You believe in redemption, and you believe in a second chance, don't you? You're a judge. I'm not a judge. Not yet. You might be a judge someday. You're okay with that. A second chance. A second chance. Yeah, but it has to come appropriately. She paid her debt to society. She can't be a judge for six years. Now she can. Well, I think that it was something that was... What do you say, the wool pull over the voters' eyes? Because had you been transparent about what your position was, people would not have voted, I don't think. I mean, why would you? You've attempted to do this once before, and you were. Joe Irby, hold that thought. We're not done. We want to hear from you. Do voters actually know the backgrounds of the candidates that they elect? Detroit Talk City, back after this. So you want to Zoom on Fox 2, too? We want you to Zoom on Fox 2, but we want to make you look and sound really, really good. So four easy steps. First of all, take the phone and turn it on its side. We want you to fill up the entire screen. Then you've got to look around, and you've got to find the light. Remember, we want the light in front of you, not behind you. That's good. And then, unmute mic. We want all of this. And finally, turn down the television like I'm going to do right now. We want to hear you, not the TV. All right, let's review these easy steps. First, flip it, light it, unmute it, and turn down the TV. And then you are ready to Zoom Fox 2. Remember, you can be a part of Fox 2's Detroit Talk City and the sports office. Just Zoom in live. Detroit Talk City, I'm your host, Charlie Lyghton. Do voters actually know the backgrounds of the candidates that they elect? I'm with Joe Irby. She was, well, she was a candidate for 36th District Court. She came in fourth place out of four votes. The top three went on. She didn't get to go, but one of those candidates got kicked off the bench. It was a judge that got kicked off, but she won the other one. All right, let's go to the phones, okay? Let's do it. Steve from Harper Woods, you're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Steve. Hi, Charlie. Hey, this is beyond insane to me. I can't even believe it happened. My question is, does she get compensated in any way, pension, benefits, any salary? Before she actually gets to the bench, just because she's elected, does she go on the payroll? Great. Do you know the answer? No. In the Supreme Court ruling, it said that it would go unpaid, that she wouldn't be paid because she can't sit in the seat. Yeah, I understand it was an unpaid suspension for six years, but I don't know how many years she has before. If she's vested in the state's pensions, they don't have pensions anymore. They have 401ks, I think, the equivalent. But she may get some benefits if she's a sitting judge. Let's go to another phone call. Pat from Detroit. You're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Pat. Hi, how are you? Good. The reason I'm calling is I agree with your guest that oftentimes we go according to name recognition and how in the world did that was that judge who was not allowed to sit on the bench able to run? Yeah. So that's my. I mean, no, Pat, I think I think you're right. How did that judge get this run? That's the question. I think that's an error. That's an error that was made above my head. It's higher than me. Like I said, the Supreme Court and this court of claims allowed it. The court of claims is the one who allowed her name to be on the ballot for a position that she couldn't hold. Yeah. When she filed, the election board said, well, hey, a minute, you can't you can't fill out this position. You can't do it. But the court of the claims, another judge said. You can run. All right, Gail from Livonia. You're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Gail. Hi, how are you? Good. I just wanted to make a statement. A lot of times as a voter, we go to the polls and sometimes we haven't educated ourselves in the manner in which we should. And so when it comes to the judges, you don't see whether or not they're a Democrat, Republican when they are trying to tell us to vote completely Democratic down the line. All right. I'm upset that that happened for you. I believe that you are an honorable woman that could have led our city great. But for those who, like myself, we have to do more of our due diligence, we've been given the right to vote, that we need to make sure we exercise that right by knowing who we're voting for. A lot of times they just go down the ballot. They go down the ballot, and we don't know. So I concur with her that sometimes they just don't educate themselves. Thank you. Thank you, Gayle. I appreciate that. What do you say to that? What do you say to Gayle? I appreciate, Gayle, and thank you very much. I know that I would have been a great judge at 36th District Court because they need it. You know, sometimes the people, they say, you'd be a great judge, you've got to get elected. Yes. You've got to get elected. It's a different animal than being appointed or running or whatever. And I, you know, sometimes I think you have to go negative. I think you have to go, it's not going negative. You're just pointing out this person may not be qualified, and the Supreme Court said so. Why didn't you go negative? It's not just not my character to do that. I think, like I said, I mean, whether you're religious or not, I just believe that what's meant for me, I'm going to get, regardless of. And if it doesn't happen this second, that's not saying it's not going to happen. All right, let's go to some text questions here. First one, can the governor step in and make it right? If not for that particular seat, can the governor appoint Joe Irby to another judicial seat? There you go. Well, the governor can do appointments, of course. Yes, they can do that. So interesting that she takes this. Theoretically, she would be sworn in in January, but because she can't serve, there's a vacancy. Yes. I don't know. Maybe the governor can appoint a vacancy for the three years. Well, I'm not interested in doing a vacancy for someone that I believe that should not have been on the ballot in the first place. Why would I help them out? Why would I do part of their job for them to come in and finish it? I don't think that would be of interest to me. Joe, what do you say to the people? There may be a few out there that said, It's just sour grapes. You lost the election, and now you're here on television blaming everybody. I don't think that my face showed that I'm sour grapes because I do what I actually love. I help veterans get their disability. I mean, I am doing the same thing I was doing prior to running for the election. All right, we don't have enough time to go take, a lot of people wanna talk to you. We're gonna get to everybody over there, but no sour grapes. You know what? You wouldn't take that appointment? If the judge said, yeah, you can have it for three months. No. No. No. Ooh, okay. All right, let's do this. All right, don't go away. We want to hear everyone's opinion on this issue. Do we actually know who we're voting for, especially when we're voting for judges? The Zoom room is open as well. We will take a quick break. Detroit Talk City, back after this. Welcome back to Detroit Talk City. I'm your host, Charlie Light. Sorry, do voters, I don't know. Anyway, do voters actually know the backgrounds of the candidates that they elect? Joe Irby is with me. She was a candidate for 36th District Court. She came in fourth place. She lost, but a candidate that won can't even serve. Got kicked off the bench. Let's go to the Zoom room right now. Shandrika from Detroit. You're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Shandrika. Hello, and thank you for having me. My comment is that the city of Detroit missed out on a great judge, and I hope that she runs again. Joe Irby has been an attorney for 28 years, I've known her for at least 20 of those, and she's served this community very well. She's my go-to person for all things veterans, and I think that the Michigan Supreme Court needs to step in and address their mishaps with their ruling as it relates to former Judge Davis. Thank you for that. Well, what do you think? Thank you so much for that. I mean, I agree. I definitely agree that they need to step in and correct that error. But if you run again, I'm not asking you if, but if you did, knowing what you know now, knowing who your opponent is, would you do anything differently? No, except for I would run for Supreme Court so I can make sure that my orders are clear. Clear. Clear. Let's go back to the phones. Mike from Detroit. You're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Mike. Mike. I mean, not Mike. Lord have mercy, Charlie. Good afternoon to you too, young lady. Good afternoon. Hi, Mike. Charlie, let's walk it back a step. She is very upstanding. Don't know her personally, but she looks like she has a good teaching aspect. I've been following her. DP officers need help, a good teacher. The kids need help. The principals need help in Detroit. She's coming back running again, and she's going to win. Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right, so what do you want to say? The election is two more years. You might as well announce now. I'm going to run for Supreme Court judge. You're not going to run for Supreme Court. You'll think about it, right? Yes, thank you for that. Gwen from Detroit. You're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Gwen. Hi, how are you? Good. And thank you for having me on. My question is to Attorney Irby is, how did it get past the Secretary of State and the Chief Judge in 36th District Court to get to the Supreme Court? Does the Secretary of State have anything to do or was able to say that this person, it seemed like maybe she has, you know, emotional and mental problems. Yeah, and in fairness, I did reach out to Kalilia Davis, I invited her to either come on, give me a statement, she didn't get back to me, so that's fine, I at least made the effort. But how do you answer that question, though? How did it get passed, well, as I indicated, the Supreme Court The first error was how they wrote the order. So the second thing was that once we turned our petitions in in April, the Board of Elections did put disqualified down by her name. So it was really three of us going into three open seats. But then later after the appeal, the Court of Claims came in. So I was confused about the Court of Claims because I didn't know that Court of Claims covered these type of actions, let me get let me get one more text in right here. Hello, I'm not a resident of Detroit, but it is absolutely ridiculous that she could have even run if she has been if she had been unseated. How could the how the heck could she have run? That's so crazy to me. No, I don't think people do the research and candidate so overwhelmingly false ads, texts, etc. What do you think? People don't do the research, should they? Yes, I think they should do the research. I'm a prime example. Well, you really are. Joe Irby, I have a feeling you're going to hear more about Joe Irby, and maybe she's running, maybe she's not. Who knows? Maybe you'll get a million-dollar verdict tomorrow on one of your cases. Who knows? Do, do, do. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me here. All right, coming up in our next half hour, is owning a home in Detroit actually affordable? That is next on Detroit Talk City.