Judge A.P. “Pete” Fuller

South Dakota Supreme Court Orders “Retirement” (or Six-Month Suspension without Pay) for Judge Openly Disgusted by Alleged Police Racism

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is yesterday’s order in In re Fuller.

Here are his admissions about Indians:

The walls in Judge Fuller’s courtroom are lined with photographs and artwork. In order to accommodate the audio-visual system, if needed in his courtroom, Judge Fuller would remove three pieces depicting Native Americans. When the trial was over, Judge Fuller would hang the artwork back on the wall. When doing so he admits “saying, again in a smart aleck deal, this is where I hang my Indians.” Judge Fuller admits that the remark was completely inappropriate and claims that he apologized. He testified that the pictures of Native Americans in his courtroom were to demonstrate to Native American juveniles respect for their leaders.

We posted on this case in April here.

Rapid City Judge Openly Disgusted by Racial Profiling by Local Police Could Be Removed by State Supreme Court

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here is the ABA Journal article, with links to both the complaint and the investigator’s report. Of note, the judge allegedly referred to the Rapid City police department as a bunch of “racists” in response to an answer about the reason for the police to stop a vehicle. He also noted it was one of the worst cases of racial profiling he had ever seen.

While the report does mention the comment of a defense attorney that the judge’s comment was justified (and agreed the police had behaved in a racist manner), the report is completely silent on this very serious question of racism. In fact, race is all but absent from the report, and it absolutely missing from the formal complaint. The text of a 2000 U.S. Civil Rights Commission report on South Dakota justice system discrimination against American Indians is here. Rapid City’s police department is featured heavily there.

Much of the investigative report details instances of fairly awful behavior by the judge in other contexts, to be sure.