“I don’t know where that implication of bias comes from.”
Kent County Circuit Judge Christina Mims is dismissing accusations of judicial bias in the trial of former Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr and denying a defense attorney motion for a mistrial.
“In order for there to be judicial bias it would have to be reasonably likely my conduct is improperly influencing the jury, and I don’t believe that to be the case.”
Schurr is accused of second-degree murder for killing Patrick Lyoya three years ago. After a traffic stop Lyoya pushed the officer, resisted, and ran. During the struggle Schurr testified he feared for his life when Lyoya got control of his taser, and he shot him in self-defense. In a written motion his attorneys say the judge rolled her eyes during that testimony.
“There is an allegation that I was rolling my eyes during some testimony. I do often work on other matters while I am up here, I have hundreds of open cases.”
She didn’t say it, but Mims is Kent County’s first black female Circuit Court judge. And she did say this:
“I can’t help but believe if one of my bench mates was presiding over this trial that exact same allegation would not have arisen.”
