More things nobody wants to talk about

Judge Tiffany Baker-Carper

Why would I lead off a story about a controversial judge with a picture of her all dolled up for a social occasion? To get it out of the way. Yes, she’s a good-looking, shapely young woman. That’s not the issue, which is not personal but systemic on the face of it. If she made a grave misjudgment because the situation was over her head, the first appropriate question is not what kind of terrible person is she, but rather why was she on the bench in the first place? 

Here’s the story as reported yesterday by the Gateway Pundit:

FTA: <<The pedophile, Daniel Spencer, was convicted in April 2025 of traveling to meet a minor for sex following an undercover sting operation.

Despite the State Attorney’s Office recommending he be held without bond pending sentencing, Judge Baker-Carper allowed Spencer to remain free, citing his lack of violent criminal history and prior compliance while on bond.

Weeks later, on May 19, 2025, Spencer and his wife, Chloe Spencer, allegedly beat and murdered 5-year-old Melissa “Missy” Mogle in their Tallahassee home.

According to court records and a grand jury indictment, Missy died from asphyxiation after being smothered and brutally beaten, with evidence showing her hands had been bound during the abuse. Disturbing surveillance video from inside the home allegedly captured hours of the abuse occurring in her own bedroom.

Fox 10 reported:

• Responding officers noted “suspicious bruising and injury patterns” to Missy’s body, which indicated abuse.
• She was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy also determined that the 5-year-old was malnourished.
• Investigators found images on security cameras in the girl’s bedroom that allegedly showed Daniel Spencer “physically abusing [the girl] by hitting her, violently pulling her arms, shoving her face into a bed, binding her feet and hands together, and covering her with pillows and comforters.” Additionally, her blood was found on her pillows and comforter.

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You’ll note that Gateway was nervous enough about the story to choose a more businesslike photo of the judge than most of the pics of her on the Internet. She clearly sets great store by her appearance, and why shouldn’t she? Regardless of her looks, what landed her on a circuit court bench in Florida was not her hair, makeup, or attire. It was her resumé. The brief bio of her shown at Instagram is typical of what’s available. She’s not old enough or accomplished enough to be on Wiki yet. That would be a promotion or two from now. In the meantime, Instagram:

I actually found a more effusive and glowing bio that highlighted her love of sports and her active devotion to the Miami Hurricanes in their cheer endeavors. I was more impressed by the fact that her degree was a bachelor of science, with a minor in chemistry. More demanding than a lot of law school graduates can boast. 

From U. Miami, she went on to Howard University Law School, which reminded me that Howard seems to have some kind of inside track to prestigious positions in the public sector. During the lawfare phase of Trump’s Wilderness Years, we were introduced the Fani Willis and Letitia James, both of whom were Howard alumnae, Willis as an undergraduate and James as a law school grad. By then, of course, we already knew that Kamala had gone to college at Howard before law school at Hastings.

The entry for Howard Law School at US News & World Report is — what’s the word? — coy. It seems to be saying between the lines what it doesn’t wish to state plainly.

What it looks like from this overview is that Howard is a middle-of-the-pack law school, just below the top 100 of 200 in the U.S., with surprising success at placing its grads in big prestigious law firms. As the most famous of HBC universities, Howard’s name has an impact beyond any purely academic merit. Interesting that its grads also have a very high rate of success in passing the law boards.

In this context, Judge Baker-Carper’s more modest beginning in solo practice may indicate that her transition to ‘government work’ may have been facilitated by ballooning demands for DEI hires that met goals for race and sex more than professional chops.

I don’t know that this is the case. What AI do know is that this young judge is probably going to get thrown under the bus without much attempt to investigate the hiring policies that made her not only the youngest African-American judge but the youngest judge ever in the Florida circuit court.

It doesn’t look as if Gateway has much interest in digging below the sensational headlines of the case, but the rest of us should be more than curious.

When I went looking for photos of Tiffany I clicked on the first one a Google popped up and was immediately dumped into this scrapbook of juvenile court judges.

I don’t have any basis for saying these people are unqualified to be officers if the court, but I can certainly observe that the list is majority female, majority young, minority white, and very-minority male. I’m not stalking them; why the pic I’m showing you is at an informative angle for reading small-print text. 

This is Florida, not New York City. Not seeing a lot of Cuban-looking faces, just to point out one anomaly. I believe Judge Baker-Carper made an egregious decision in releasing a child molester-killer. But I’m far from certain that throwing the biggest book available at her will solve what appears to be an institutional crisis.

Nobody wants to talk about all this. Including me. But I am. Because we all should be.