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The scales of justice. (Getty Images)
LINCOLN — An Omaha judge has been reprimanded for violating “several provisions” of the state’s judicial code of conduct for referring to fellow officials as a “goober,” a “dumb ass” and a “bimbo.”
On Friday, the Judicial Qualifications Commission of Nebraska publicly reprimanded Douglas County Juvenile Court Judge Candice Novak, who was appointed to the bench in 2020 by then-Gov. Pete Ricketts.
In a five-page ruling, the state’s high court pointed to an incident in 2022 when the judge angrily slammed her file on her desk and told the participating attorneys to “figure it out” after learning that a juvenile would not be attending the court hearing.
Novak then told her bailiff that since the attorneys were wasting her time, she would make them wait — a wait that extended to 90 minutes.
Judge Novak told an investigator with the Nebraska Judicial Qualifications Commission that she had used the delay to consult with a fellow judge about proceeding without the juvenile present, but that judge said no consultation had occurred.
The court also noted numerous text messages the judge shared with her staff that included “disrespectful or vulgar comments, jokes and insults” concerning other court personnel or those who appeared in her court.
Examples cited by the court included Novak referring to fellow juvenile court judges as a “bimbo” and a “pussy,” and calling a county court administrator a “goober” and a former chief justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court a “dumb ass.”
The Judicial Qualifications Commission concluded that Novak’s conduct brought disrepute to the judiciary and constituted willful misconduct in office. Novak, who had no prior record of disciplinary actions, agreed to the public reprimand and was ordered to pay the costs of the investigation by the judicial commission.
JQC-2023-22_S-26-0214_Public-Reprimand_03.27.2026
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- 5:43 pmEditor’s note: This story has been revised to correct that it was the Judicial Qualifications Commission that reprimanded the Omaha judge.
