Judge tells defendant how to get a better man

Jet, Sept 2, 1996

A female judge in Ohio caused a controversy when she advised a woman defendant that she needed a better man in her life and suggested that she look at a local medical school to find him, according to an Associated Press article.

"Men are easy," Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold told the defendant Katie Nemeth. "You can go sit in the bus stop, put on a short skirt, cross your legs and pick up 25. Ten of them will give you their money."

The judge continued, "If you don't pick up the first 10, then all you got to do is open your legs a little bit and cross them at the bottom, and then they'll stop."

Judge Saffold allegedly made the comments as she fined the 19-year-old Nemeth $200 for misusing a credit card. Nemeth had pleaded guilty.

Her lawyer, Terry Gilbert, said Nemeth had worked in a store where a customer lost a credit card, and Nemeth's boyfriend used it. He later repaid the owner.

According to a transcript of the hearing, the judge, who is married to a doctor, told Nemeth she should break up with her boyfriend because "all of the women in prisons across these United States of America are there because of a guy."

Nemeth said she wasn't with the boyfriend anymore, so Saffold suggested she go to a nearby medical school and "marry a doctor lickety-split."

"All you got to do is take a biology book, don't even read it," the judge said. "When one of them walks by say, 'Excuse me, could you tell me what this means?' You got yourself a date."

Saffold told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that her remarks were taken out of context. "I was telling her her boyfriend's a bum," she said. "I think she's a nice kid. I was telling her her choice was the wrong choice. She's a young kid with no prior record. She has a chance to be productive."

Nemeth's lawyer said the judge's comments were "inappropriate."

Two national organizations--the National Organization for Men and the Center for Women Policy Studies--called the judge's alleged remarks sexist and insulting to men and women.