Brooklyn judge who made racist and homophobic comments agrees to resign

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A New York judge who was facing an upcoming hearing to determine whether she was at fault has resigned from the bench.

Last Friday, Brooklyn Surrogate Court Judge Harriet L. Thompson, 67, notified New York’s top administrative judge in a letter that she would be stepping down from court on March 1, The New York Times reports.

A condition of her resignation agreement was that she would not seek or accept any judicial office in the future and that she would end any litigation she had initiated against the Judicial Conduct Commission.

There was supposed to be a hearing on the charges on January 17.

Commission Administrator Robert Tembeckian released a statement regarding Thompson’s resignation.

The conduct alleged against Judge Thompson was egregious and, if established at trial, would have warranted her removal, he wrote.

She now claims that a medical condition prevents her from performing her judicial duties, which opens a different path in promoting the public interest for her immediate and permanent departure from the bench.

Thompson’s issues resolved themselves throughout the review process.

A top New York judge wrote in a filing that Thompson said being gay is an abomination to mankind and that Hispanics had a deceptive trait that dates back to biblical times.

An affidavit last year included anti-LGBTQ+ language attributed to Thompson.

I hate these gay white men, she said before continuing on these gay racist fa–ts…trying to ruin me and get me, and that being gay is an abomination to humanity. The Holy Spirit [is] go get them.

Thompson also said she assumed the litigant was a liar whenever a litigant had a Hispanic-sounding name, according to the filing.

They have a deceptive trait that dates back to biblical times, she says. Men still steal and women are no better. They lie, steal and use their vaginas for whatever they want.

The Judicial Ethics Commissioner received a formal complaint about these and other comments, which Thompson denied making, but which were supported by a report from the inspector general.

While Thompson was on the bench, she clashed with Richard Buckheit, the court’s gay public administrator. Thompson, who is black, accused Buckheit, who is white, of creating a hostile workplace for black employees and only hiring white men for temporary positions.

Buckheit denied these allegations and said the false allegations resulted from Thompson’s homophobia.

Andrew S. Fisher, an attorney for Thompsons attorney Andrew S. Fisher, told The Times that the agreement contained no findings of wrongdoing, adding that had it not been for her medical issues, she would have vigorously defended.

Thompson, whose term would have expired on the last day of December 2026, has been a judge on the Surrogate Court since 2019. She served as a judge on the New York Civil Court for seven years prior, beginning in 2011.

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