White Chicago Judge Under Fire For Allegedly Sending Racist ‘My First Ankle Monitor’ Meme

According to the Illinois Courts’ website, Caroline Glennon-Goodman, who is white, was appointed to the 10th Subcircuit of Cook County in February 2023 to succeed Judge Claire E. McWilliams, who retired after nearly 20 years of service. Before taking the bench, she represented criminal defendants who couldn’t afford a lawyer as an attorney in the Cook County Public Defender’s Office in 1997. Brings nearly 20 years of experience as a homicide attorney, handling murder cases within county lines.

Glennon-Goodman’s judgment is now in question after a discriminatory text of hers was exposed. During the holidays, she sent a message with a screenshot of a Little Tikes toy box mockup pictured a Black toddler, Injustice Watch reported. The toy itself was for a “My First Ankle Monitor.” Another featured photo was of an ankle monitor around a Black ankle, an AI image from a video circulating around TikTok. Her text allegedly read, “My husband’s idea of Christmas humor.”

This incident resulted after Chief Judge Timothy Evans removed her from the pretrial division, where she oversaw decisions regarding whether defendants in criminal and domestic violence cases would be detained, placed under electronic monitoring, or released, following an internal meeting with the court’s executive committee.

Furthermore, Glennon-Goodman will undergo implicit bias training and has been reported to the state’s Judicial Inquiry Board to determine whether further disciplinary measures are warranted.

A close acquaintance of the judge, who remained anonymous, informed Injustice Watch that Glennon-Goodman’s message was intended for a friend but was mistakenly sent to a judge with the same first name.

“It is our understanding that the photo was meant to be shared with a different audience and that the judge involved has apologized profusely as a result. Nevertheless, such media is inappropriate to share regardless of the intended audience,” the bar association said in the statement per the publication. “Discernment and judgment are of utmost importance for the qualifications of a judge. Any judge should be unbiased enough to not further circulate such a racist trope.”

The Cook County Bar Association, which is the oldest and largest organization of Black legal professionals in the region, denounced the image’s circulation.

“The imagery recalls our nation’s history of inappropriate media images of Black people (such as blackface) and such imagery continues to shape the opinions of Black people, particularly Black men,” the organization wrote in a statement to Injustice Watch.