Insider: Retiring Judge Vonda Evans' political options limitless
DETROIT (FOX 2) - In a video announcement Judge Vonda Evans did not say when exactly she would retire.
One thing is for sure - this is not the last we've heard from her. It came in a tearful video broadcast live on Facebook - Vonda Evans announced her retirement from the Third Circuit Court bench,
The move is reportedly to stave off a suspension from the Judicial Tenure Commission. There had long been complaints about Evans' attendance: arriving to court late, leaving early and at times not showing up at all.
It all came to head when she ran for the Michigan Court of Appeals last year.
Attorney Todd Perkins has known Evans for the 20-plus years she's been on the bench.
"I don't think her leaving (that the) conversation or the chatter should be about her tardiness," Perkins said. "But more about what she did in cases and how she reasoned with the law.
"As far as someone who reasons and understands the law, she is just incomparable."
But Evans was as brash as she was brilliant.
She spoke from the gut, shot from the hip and in cases like the beating of Floyd Dent by an Inkster cop with a shady past, she verbalized what so many African-Americans think and feel.
"The way you denigrated that man was awful, who would know and who would care about a lone black man being assaulted by upstanding police officers," Evans said at the time at the sentencing of William Melendez.
Political consultant Steve Hood says now that Evans' time on the bench is behind her, there's no shortage of opportunities before her.
"In 2020 she could be the congresswoman from the 13th congressional district walking away," Hood said. "No amount of split like the split that Rashida Tlaib benefitted from, no amount of split could save Tlaib from a Vonda Evans.
"In 2021, there's this guy named Mike Duggan. She could take him."
FOX 2: "Could you see a Judge Evans TV show?"
"Absolutely," said Perkins. "That, a radio show."
Judge Evans said in that Facebook video she has some media projects she's working on and in the meantime will be joining the Hall and Makled law firm.