One-On-One with Judge Greg Mathis

On the latest episode of The Sharon Reed Show, Sharon goes one-on-one with Judge Greg Mathis. During the podcast, Sharon discusses the Judge's road to success, meeting his wife, his commitment to Chicago and Detroit, receiving the Keep Hope Alive Award by the Rainbow Push Coalition, his views on the 2024 presidential election, and more.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Judge Greg Mathis. I have beenwaiting on this for a very long time
because I like people, and Ithink your fans like people who are originals.
There's nobody else like you. Andwe can start with your story,
which I think a lot of peopleknow about. You've talked about it a
lot. You've talked about it fromthe bench, So I want to know

(00:20):
if when you are sitting on thebench and you come across, I would
guess a good number of young menwho have some of you reflect some of
what you went through. Was itever a struggle to dish out empathy compassion
but at the same time come upagainst statutes and sentences. What's the struggle

(00:45):
there of any for you? Yes. When I was elected judge in Detroit
and was a sitting judge, Iwas still relatively young, early thirties,
youngest judge to be elected in Michigan, fifteen years after leave in jail.
And that's why Hollywood came calling andI came to television. But those five

(01:06):
years that I sat on the benchwere perhaps the most stressful other than the
years they denied me my law license. She became the most stressful part of
my career because Indeed, as yousay, I had to sympathize with the
families who had been victimized or lostloved ones. And then I had to

(01:27):
understand the circumstances in which some ofthese young people came from, because I'd
come from no circumstances, and themajority of the people that I grew up
with came from no circumstances, crimeand drug written communities with failed education systems
and disorganized households afflicted with drugs andalcoholism, and so knowing and having then

(01:56):
to raise themselves on the streets inmany instances, and so that conflict did
trouble me. Having to sentence someyoung man engaged in violent attacks, murders,
that was, yes, very troubling, And so that's why I was
glad to get the television. Tobe honest, I could just ask some

(02:17):
fun and spread some wisdom. Haveyou ever had somebody that you had the
sentence, give a harsh sentence to, maybe Judge, reach back out to
you and say, look, youchanged my life. Maybe I didn't appreciate
it then, but you changed mylife. Yes, many. Let me
first give you a little antidote youlike, And that is my first six

(02:40):
months on the bench, I hadat least two friends from the neighborhood come
before me. No one was thecrack addict, and I asked the prosecutor
in the defensial lawyer if they mindI didn't have to recuse myself, and
there they didn't request that I wasable to sentence a friend of a lifelong

(03:04):
associate to drug rehab and that broughtme joy. On the other hand,
another associate they brought before me.They called him trying to go into the
trunk, trying to get into Mexico, now being convicted of selling over a

(03:25):
kilos of cocaine, and so hecame before me as an escape ee for
the most part, in one ofthe bond. Of course, I couldn't
give him a barb but that wasinteresting that a second one had come.
But you know, I have ayoung lady who I'm most proud of.

(03:45):
She's now a judge, and quitefrankly, I don't remember her. She
said that I sentenced her to gether ged as the judge sentence me.
That's kind of where I learned thatsecond chance from, because I got one,
and she said I inspired her andshe went on get her ged.

(04:06):
She followed the same path as Iand got her law degree and ran I
helped her run for judge recently andshe won in Detroit. So see,
you gave her the blueprint, judge, and she took it, took the
opportunity and ran with it. AndI'm sure others have followed that blue print

(04:27):
authenticity. You know, I've donetelevision for a long time, not at
your level, but I did getgood advice, I think early on,
and it gave me room to breatheand say, you know what, I
don't need to be perfect, butI do need to be me and I
think people at home relate to thatwhen you're not doing this put on thing
or this put on voice or preachingto people. And that, to me

(04:48):
is the beauty of you. Andso when you crossed over into television,
I don't know, Judge, matthisbefore that that was that was our introduction
to you. But I I wonderif you had you know, because Hollywood
gets a hold of people, Judge, and people from the neighborhood don't remember
them, Okay, they don't recognizethem. So how did you do it

(05:10):
and still remain you? Well,I tell people I'm the exact same person
that I was even as a streetkid. I'm just not a criminal anymore.
But I have the same personality,the same ethics, if you will,
and that is loyal to your family, loyal to your community, believe

(05:32):
it or not. As much asfolks like to criticize and stereotype Black men
about their care for their families,they care very much for their families.
And so that's what I learned,and that's how I've been all the majority
of my adult life. I've beenthe same person. And I go back

(05:56):
to the neighborhood. First year Iwas on television. We built it ten
thousand square foot Maths Community Center inDetroit, so and I'm there often when
I'm in Detroit, I'll be therethis weekend. Where we provide services,
We have job fares, we haveexponement fairs, many things we do.
So I've never really left the community. I view Los Angeles, where I

(06:23):
spend most of the time, asa vacation area because most of my work
is done in Chicago and Detroit whoneed me most. And I do want
to talk about some of the honorsyou're going to receive. I know you're
the keynote coming up, and we'llget into that but you know, you
mentioned your family, and it's justone more layer of just I think it's

(06:46):
beautiful and your wife that relationship.I've met you before, but I feel
like we got to know her throughthat reality show that you did. And
I want to know more about howyou met because you talk about your past
and sure you went to college,but her parents ended up loving you.
She obviously loves you any insecurity orjust full embrace when you and the family

(07:12):
met. It's deeper than that withregard to her household. You know,
when I met her, I wasgoing through a transition and from street to
college. I was a college kidmy second year and I was still hustling
on campus, selling joints, whateverI could do. I had no parent.
Both my parents had died or mymother had died. Never had a

(07:32):
father in my life, and soI was still a teenager when my mom
died on my own and so Ididn't do any hard core crimes like I
was when I was living in Detroitand running with the street gangs. But
yeah, I did a little hustlingand primarily selling joints on campus, and
believe it or not, flipping threecard MONI and that's where my wife met

(07:57):
meais flipping three CARMANI and then laterI hit on her and she was like,
what are you doing up here?We don't have thugs up here.
No, I'm not talking to you. And then I said, I'm up
here like you are. I'm gettingin education, I'm doing well. And
so I think she was a littlefascinated by that, because I still had

(08:20):
the street persona and she was asquare, suburban young lady. And when
we began to date, her parentsaccepted me. And the reason I say
is deeper than the gloss over ofher parents embracing me, is the fact
that they actually allowed me to stayin a room in their home during the

(08:46):
holidays when I wasn't staying with mybrothers who were running the crackhouse. Wow.
So during the holidays I'd stayed thereand what I saw was the first
time I saw a solid and aintact black family, middle class family.

(09:07):
I really, folks don't believe mewhen I say I had never encountered that
grown up in the streets of Detroit. In the toughest housing projects in Detroit,
only probably twenty percent had fathers,and of those, many of them
more drug and alcohol addicted. SoI've never seen that, and so I
tell my father in law all thetime, and I make sure that that

(09:31):
life is comfortable now that they taughtme fatherhood. He taught me father hood,
he taught me family, and soI give a great deal of respect
and credit to my wife and herfamily. Lastly, with regard to my
wife, that's what really changed me. Ultimately, she said, Okay,

(09:52):
I know you got to do alittle hustle and to get through, but
no, you're gonna have to stopthis if you want to be with me.
So I lived at as a pauperfor my last three years and college.
But but look at you now,I've met her expectations and her family,
I believe. Yeah, it's justsuch an incredible story, a real

(10:15):
story. I mentioned the reality showand I when I first stumbled upon it,
I really just stumbled upon it.And of course, you know,
being a fan, I others I'veheard from started watching and we said,
why didn't he do this sooner?Because what you've displayed, much as you've
described your in laws and the lifethat they allowed you to enter into with

(10:39):
them, it's incredible and one ofthe things that's touched so many and you
hear from so many about is yourtransparency, the love one of your sons
is gay out, beautiful, strong, And what I loved about it was
it's just a family, a beautifulfamily, and coming from where you come

(11:00):
from, that's not always the case, this love and acceptance. And I
don't know if there was another journeythere, but it came across that screen
and it really really resonated with people. Well, you know, I have
adhere to the call of family first. I've had significant opportunities that would have
met a couple of the other lifetimegoals I had, and in a way

(11:26):
I have, but not significantly inthe earlier years. While on television,
which will take six days a weeka year, I'm sorry, a month,
leasing me a lot of a lotof other time for other things.
I was nominated president of SCLC.You know, I was trained in politics
and in civil rights, mentored byReverend Jackson and the mayor of Detroit,

(11:48):
Mayor Coleman Young, and so theyprepared me and I was looking on a
career in politics before I came totelevision. Once coming to television, I
was also working closely with Reverend Jacksonas I do now, as chairman of
Rainbow Push, and I had theopportunity to do that. And it came

(12:11):
down to the numbers. It camedown to the numbers that you taped six
times a month. If you're headof a national civil rights organization, you'll
be on the road another eighteen daysof the month because weeks you're speaking all
around the country. You're going toattend to civil rights issues throughout the country.

(12:31):
And so I had to choose betweenthat and my family, and it
was the ultimate sacrifice because that hadbeen a lifelong dream. But I said,
I would only see my family sixdays a month, and it was
more important to me to have acohesive, solid and loving family than to

(12:52):
go throughout the country trying to saveothers. I'm sorry, doctor King gave
his life and others gave up theirfamilies. Most don't have close families our
major civil rights leaders. But Iwasn't willing to sacrifice that because of the
joy it brought me and because ofthe benefit it would have on my family.

(13:13):
And as you see, that hashelped our family to progress. Me
being present in the home and veryactive with them. You're active, and
so let's get into we're taping thisrecording this days away from Doctor King's National
Holiday. I know you're going tospeak in Chicago, and I want to

(13:35):
know what that message is going tobe. You're the keynote, and so
tell us about what you'll say.Well, I'm going to challenge the federal
government on their failure to help withthe migrant crisis in the major cities,

(13:56):
which for the most part of haveblack mayors. One Denver as a white
mayor, but in constituents are allblack and Latino for the most part.
But they've dumped these migrants. They'vedumped the migrants into the major cities by
bus, as we know from Texas, and it's created crisis, economic crisis,

(14:20):
and they have the voters turning againsttheir mayors. They're turning against and
so in Chicago, if the electionwere held tomorrow, that would be a
big problem for Mayor Brandon Johnson,second black mayor of the third black mayor
of Chicago, because the federal governmenthas allowed the migrant crisis to influence the

(14:48):
thoughts on their leaders, and thatbeing New York as well. Mayor Adams
under attack from his voters, theprimary very voters who have him elected,
that being people of color, andso they have us turning on each other
and turning instead of toward each other. Mayor Johnson has begged and pleted the

(15:11):
federal government to help, as hasAdams, and they have pretty much set
on their hands. So my messageis going to be, don't turn against
your leadership that cannot get the servicesthat you want from the federal government.
And I'm going to warn the federalgovernment that this administration, our folks are

(15:37):
very much concerned about the lack ofthe lack of attention we've received since the
election and the promises that have notbeen met. We were unable to get
the George Floyd Policing Act so wecan have police reform. We are unable
to get the voting rights extensions sowe can keep the voting rights suppressors from

(16:03):
coming in and hurting our voting power. We've failed to get the school reform,
the criminal justice reform in many instances. For the most part. Yeah,
we're having some that are coming home, but coming home to what.
They're not coming home to jobs,and they're not coming home to training.
And in that sense, that's kindof where I'm a focus and I'm a

(16:26):
challenge them. On King Day,I mean, we really we hope that
the Ukraine wins. We have come. We hope that we see Palmer's free
Gaza strip, and we hope thatwe mourn for the Jewish people who are

(16:49):
victimized by terrorists, and certainly weepfor the Palestinians. But you know who
at some point is going to weepfor us. Yes, we hear so

(17:10):
much about how to address the migrantcrisis, work permits being one of them.
Well, I can tell you peopleon the East side of Detroit and
an Inglewood in Chicago have had workpermits for decades, but no jobs with
livable wages. So perhaps the corporationswill benefit from the migrant crisis because their

(17:37):
focus is on getting them work permitsfor cheap labor. But what about Inglewood,
which needs to be rebuilt, rebuiltand has a sixty percent unemployment rate.
What about the East side of Detroit, which is the most impoverished community
in America. So while we sympathize, have compassion, weep and mourn and

(18:04):
rebuilding Ukraine, don't forget about us. And that can be addressed by the
federal government providing the funding to accommodatethe migrant crisis. It isn't as if
this can't be solved. It can. But we have to have the federal
government who has promised us everything fromvoting rights to George Floyd Policing Act and

(18:29):
have not delivered. You know,they gave us a Supreme Court justice,
but I'm not so much into blackfaces and high places, you know.
I'd like to see the masses ofour people provided for. And that's what
the challenge lies, and that's whatI'm going to challenge them to do on
Doctor King's Day. I think that'sa message that he might appreciate. I

(18:51):
think no doubt he'll appreciate it,and the King family appreciate you too.
You're also set to receive a tremendoushonor those who came before you and got
the rainbow push. Let freedom bringDesmond Tou Tou, Aretha Franklin, John
Conyers. I know Harry Belafonte willalso get it this year. We miss
him dearly. But Judge, thereseems to be and you brought it home

(19:15):
with what you said about the politicsthat's going on and the lacking because it
seems like every four years or whatever, we're needed as a reliable voting base.
They whoever they is, come aroundand when we need them, the
Black community, we're always last.At least that's how it feels, and

(19:38):
that's what you see in a lotof these cities, Los Angeles included Mayor
Bass. So I wonder if youcould speak to that in our responsibility,
because we're being looked at to onceagain carry a certain party through. Well.
I hope that we don't have toendure four years of the biggesting con

(20:03):
man we've had in the past.However, unfortunately, I think this might
be a year that the Democratic Party, who's made so many commitments over the
time, they might have to paythe price. Black men in particularly are
turned off. And only sixty eightpercent of the Black community at this point

(20:30):
has concluded their vote for Biden.So they have a lot of campaigning to
do because Democrats can't win without eightypercent of the Black vote, and right
now they don't have that. Andso I'm concerned that we might be so

(20:52):
numb to the failures of society asit relates to our community that will be
numb enough and dumb enough to stayhome and not vote. I told you
offline, I've been doing some workthat focuses on and uplifts we hope black

(21:14):
men as it relates to them gettingto the polls because the owner should be
I would think, judge correct meif I'm wrong on the candidate to reach
out and then listen. And itdoesn't seem like there's a lot of listening.
It seems like there's a lot ofdivide between black men black women purposely
so to dumb down Black men,as if they just don't want to do

(21:37):
right. What do you think aboutthat? Because I really think that there's
a disconnect here, and it mightbe media consultants, white media consultants that
are doing their entrenched work and notallowing others to get in there. But
I want to know what you see. Well. I see that typically of

(21:59):
our community in general, those whoseek our help and our vote don't know
us, particularly black men. Theydon't know that we are much more sophisticated
and have a better analysis of whatgoes on in our life and our community
and in society in general. Thenthey might think. And so I think

(22:23):
that it's very it's almost as simpleas they don't they know con when they
see it, and so they're notgoing for the red card anymore to use
my three Karmani analogy. If youlook at and I know I'm getting controversial
now, but if you look atour Black church, the Black church is

(22:48):
eighty percent black women, particularly thechurches that preach prosperity, and the preachers
the only ones prospering. We're notgoing for that, so we's staying home.
We resent the fact that our womenpartners, whomever is being calmed after
money by the preacher or at leastsome of the analysis. So that's what

(23:14):
it is. They don't know us, they don't know black men, They
don't know our needs. They don'tknow that we told go to training program
after training program, and there's nojob black men coming home from prison where
they have locked us away. Asyou know, millions of us over the
years after dumping the drugs and gunsin our community for us to kill ourselves.

(23:40):
With those left standing, they wereable to come home to nothing because
we are not preparing them for theworkplace. They come home to training program
after training program. I'll suggest toyou that though if I went by the
polls, the people that I thatcome by the Mater's Community Center, we

(24:00):
have an extensive ex offender program.The average person has been through three free
training programs. Wow, they're prettymuch given up. And so it's that
sense of hopelessness that sets in innot only I'm analyzing this con game that
you're running on me and my family, but also I'm just gonna give up

(24:23):
because I know you're not providing anything. You're not there to serve my needs,
and I'm not gonna be tricked anymore. And so that's something that has
to be addressed. And I thinkthey have to deliver something before we deliver
the vote. And there are thingsthat can be done before the election.
Wow, you would have been aterrific I mean you're terrific now speaking to

(24:48):
these issues, but I would havevoted for you, hands down, judge
for anything you run for. Iwant to switch gears, and I know
we don't have too much time.I don't want to hold up all your
time. But the show, whenI learned the show wasn't coming back,
this hit show, you know forwhat they had their own reasons and number
crunching or whatever they're trying to do. Heartbroken. But then you and Byron

(25:12):
Allen got together, your friend,you formed a business relationship here, and
I want to know because it waslike it didn't miss a beat. The
show was back and better than ever. So I want to know what that
phone call was like and what therelationship is like. Tell us. Well,
let me just suggest to you thatByron and I have been friends.

(25:34):
He just kind of wanted me onhis network for some time now. And
when Wanner Brothers gave me two hoursnotice before it went to the media,
two weeks before we were to resumetaping, they canceled the show and it's
the new CEO and cancel People's Courtas well. It's not just me.

(25:57):
However, the way it was mishmdoedafter I'd been with them twenty four years,
I think it's I'm resentful love.And so Byron calls me once he
reads about it in the paper thesame night. He says, hey,
Juzz, I couldn't call you andtell you, but they were and perhaps

(26:18):
I'm disclosing too much, but I'lljust say that they were trying to sell
my reruns, all while telling methat we were going to be back that
year. Wow. And so hesuggested that if we could come to a
conclusion by that following week, hewould go back to the stations and say,
do you want rerun maths or youwant new mathes. I love it

(26:44):
came together and we whooped that giantand now folks have new maths. And
how important is the way Byron becausehe's got a philosophy with his he really
wants to take over the world,it seems, and it's it seems good
for us. It seems good representation, and I look forward to more.

(27:07):
What does he mean to the televisionlandscape today well and to our society in
general. He's one of the greatmedia executives I think of modern times,
being an African American man that canbuild an empire twenty seven television stations around
the country, six cable networks,twelve Judge or ten Judge shows except go

(27:33):
On and On Grilloh, which isappealing to the African American audience, and
an effort to uplift and educate ourcommunity. We've never had anyone like him,
and I'm very appreciative of his efforts. He has and he walks to
walk. I mean, he hassued other stations and other cable groups for

(27:59):
discriminate nation and one he's taking lawsuitsup to the US Supreme Court, and
so he's not afraid to fight back, and I'm glad I'm with a fighter
because that's who I am. Yeah, that's who you are. I promise
it's two more. When you areoften in Detroit Chicago, given people,

(28:19):
you know, what you did,things you've been through at this stage,
do you ever have to look overyour shoulder? Never? Quite Frankly,
the only folks that I got tolook over my shoulder is to watch my
back from the envious political class thatI grew up with, if you will,

(28:45):
made my bones with you know,it's kind of funny how when you
kind of surpassed her colleagues in away that they never envisioned. That is
the most welcome response. And that'swhy I'm so glad to receive this award
in Detroit, my hometown from RainbowPush One, Reverend Jackson is the one

(29:06):
who inspired me to go to collegeafter meeting him in jail. I then
I was mentored him by him inpolitics, and he helped my election,
and all that was also buffered bythe political class in Detroit. I worked
for city council, I worked forthe mayor, and all those folks were
proud of me when I became electedjudge. Many of them when I came

(29:30):
to television. Not as many whenI came to television. But so I'm
glad to see that I'm appreciated inmy hometown and I look forward to that.
But the community, folks, theyloved me to death. You can't
find anybody in the community who willsay anything negative about me, even when

(29:52):
they messy and gossip. Will youkeep telling stories, Judge? I know,
f when you were part of aproject and that didn't deter you,
it didn't stop it. So Iwonder if you'll keep telling more stories and
still speak truth to power. Absolutely. We have a movie coming out,

(30:14):
a television movie on BT plus againabout a transgender black woman who was abused
as a child and became a crimgot involved in criminal activity, went to
prison, was a bruised in prison, and now has come out working within
the transgender community to fight against theoppression and attacks against them. And so

(30:41):
we have another what I call cautionarytale with an inspirational ending television movie based
on our successful series Trap Queens.Wow, Well, we love you.
You are a hero to us.We thank you for the time you took.
I think I asked you pretty mucheverything, maybe not about Kat Williams

(31:03):
blowing up the universe. I suspectyou wouldn't be pred of him. Laugh.
I gotta tell you on that lastnote, my buddy Anthony Anderson,
he just ater me. Uh.He's out of the country filming and so
what's up. You know, wetalked whatever Little John I said, Yeah,
Kat Williams said, you didn't stealhis jokes. He said, you

(31:26):
stole this woman. So he's wantedevery man to keep them. Wow.
I loved it. He's the funniestguy in the world. That was funny.
It was funny everything he said,Judge, I think if it was
true, but it was funny.It was funny, Okay, and it
is what it is. He's gonnabe one of those people that speaks the

(31:48):
truth too. Well. We loveyou, Judge. I hope this won't
be our last sit down. Thankyou for everything you do and keep doing.
Thank you so much, Judge Matts, appreciate your support and congrats on
the award. Thank you.