A Florida judge is facing backlash after discussing steak-grilling tips with a domestic violence suspect during his court appearance, even asking what meal he would prepare for her.
Broward County Judge Allison Gilman turned to cooking during Christopher Johnson’s bond hearing Monday. Johnson was in court on a domestic battery charge when the conversation took an unexpected culinary detour.
Johnson, a chef at a Florida sports bar, was arrested after Sunrise police accused him of pulling his former girlfriend’s hair and punching her in the mouth. The alleged attack left the woman with a split lip.
“If you were going to cook me a dish, what would it be?” Gilman asked, according to courtroom video obtained by WSVN.
Johnson answered that he would begin with “steak on the grill.”
The exchange then became a discussion about the judge’s own difficulties when cooking steak outdoors.
“Steak on the grill. Right. See, I either burn it on the outside and then it’s not cooked enough on the inside, or I just overcook it,” Gilman said.
Johnson appeared to explain a grilling method, using hand gestures to describe rotating the steak between the 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock positions.
“You mean turn the steak?” Gilman asked.
“Ten o’clock, two o’clock,” Johnson repeated.
“Ten o’clock, two o’clock. So you keep it on the same side and you turn it. But are you flipping it? Do you flip it?” Gilman responded.
She then raised another question about achieving the right texture.
“How do you not make a steak chewy? That’s also another — but that’s for another day, I guess,” Gilman said.
The judge set Johnson’s bond at $1,500 and asked whether he could pay it. He replied, “Yes.”
“Of course you can. With those kinds of things you’re cooking,” Gilman said, adding that she would “have to” visit the sports bar where Johnson worked to eat a meal.
The unusual courtroom exchange has since sparked criticism from domestic violence advocates, who questioned the appropriateness of the conversation during a case involving alleged abuse.
Dr. Linda Parker, chief executive of Women in Distress, said the discussion was particularly troubling given the allegations against Johnson.
“Turn the steak? What? We’re talking about steak in a domestic violence case? It just tells survivors, ‘I may not get the justice that I need,’” Parker told the outlet.
“This is not indicative of how this should look at all and I hope that something gets said to the judge,” Parker added.
Gilman was elected to the Broward County Court in 2020. She holds a bachelor’s degree in criminology from Florida State University and a law degree from St. Thomas University, and previously practiced as a criminal defense attorney.
Johnson was previously arrested for aggravated battery involving the same woman when she was pregnant with their child, according to court records obtained by WSVN.
He has since been released on bond and was ordered to have no contact with the victim.
The steak talk was not Gilman’s first food-related courtroom exchange, either.
Earlier this month, while presiding over an unrelated case involving a man who said he worked at a seafood restaurant, the judge joked that she was not going to get into her “shrimp-making abilities.”
