A Broward County judge asked a domestic battery suspect how to cook steak during his bond hearing, then set bail at $1,500, a moment advocates say fails survivors.
Judge Allison Gilman of Florida’s 17th Judicial Circuit turned a bond hearing into a kitchen tutorial after Christopher Johnson appeared on domestic battery charges, Daily Mail reported from footage obtained by WSVN.
Johnson, who works as a chef at a Florida bar, was arrested Monday. In court, Gilman did not open with the allegations. She opened with dinner plans.
“If you were going to cook me a dish, what would it be?” she asked.
"If you were going to cook me a dish, what would it be?"
Johnson answered like a line cook, not a defendant facing violence charges.
"To make food, I’m gonna start with steak on the grill, man,"
He advised angling the steak at the 10 o’clock and two o’clock position in the pan. Gilman described her own cooking problems in detail.
“See, I either burn it on the outside and then it’s not enough on the inside, or I just overcook it,” the judge said.
"See, I either burn it on the outside and then it’s not enough on the inside, or I just overcook it,"
She reacted with “Wow,” then added that the rest of the lesson was “for another day.” When the hearing reached money, Gilman set bond at $1,500 and asked whether Johnson could pay it.
“Of course you can. With those kinds of things you’re cooking,” she said after he answered yes.
She closed by naming his workplace. “There are so many restaurants I have to go to and, yeah, I’ll see you at Slackers. What do I order at Slackers? Is it the wings?”
Court records reported by WSVN show this was not Johnson’s first case involving the same woman. He had previously been arrested for aggravated battery against her while she was pregnant with his child.
Injury details from the new domestic battery arrest were not laid out in the available reporting. The prior record was. That history sat in the file while the bench traded grill tips and restaurant orders.
Linda Parker, CEO of Women in Distress, did not treat the exchange as harmless banter. She told WSVN the focus itself was the problem.
"Turn the steak? What? We’re talking about steak in a domestic violence case?"
Parker tied the moment to what victims conclude when a courtroom drifts into small talk.
"It just tells survivors: \"I may not get the justice that I need.\""
Domestic battery cases demand a clear record, firm conditions, and a judge who keeps the alleged violence at the center. Food advice does none of that.
WSVN also reported that earlier this month, Gilman told a suspect who worked at a seafood restaurant she would not get into her “shrimp-making abilities.” The steak hearing was not a one-off joke that slipped out under pressure. It fit a pattern of culinary asides with defendants who cook for a living.
Broward’s chief judge told WSVN the office was aware of the clip and offered no further comment. Daily Mail reached out to Gilman. No response appeared in the reporting.
Fifteen hundred dollars is a modest number for a domestic battery defendant with a prior aggravated battery arrest tied to the same victim and a pregnancy. The hearing still made room for pan angles, overcooked steak, Slackers wings, and a promise to see the defendant at work.
Johnson said he could post the bond. The court moved on. The victim’s alleged experience did not drive the conversation that viewers later watched on local footage.
Courtrooms are not open-mic nights for recipe swaps. When a judge treats a repeat-linked domestic case like a catering consult, the public sees a system that flinches from seriousness. Survivors already struggle to trust that system. Moments like this give them fresh reason to doubt it.
If the bench wants public confidence in domestic violence prosecutions, it can start by keeping the hearing on the charges, not on how to avoid burning the steak.
