Judge Placed on Leave for Tarzan Remarks to Immigrant
Tuesday, August 05, 2003
BOSTON ? An immigration judge was placed on administrative leave Monday after complaints that he made jokes about Tarzan to a woman who had been raped and tortured in her native Uganda.
The woman, whose first name is Jane, went before Judge Thomas Ragno in June, seeking political asylum in the United States, saying government soldiers killed her husband and attacked her.
"Jane, come here. Me Tarzan!" Ragno said, according to the woman's doctor, who attended the June 20 deportation hearing to testify as an expert witness about the woman's claims.
"It was disrespectful and insulting, and in my mind it was racist to have a white judge making Tarzan comments to a black woman," said Dr. Sondra Crosby.
Ragno also dialed the weather number on his speaker phone so he could listen to the weekend weather forecast and talked in open court about looking for a new condominium, Crosby said. The judge rejected the woman's bid for asylum.
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