April Ademiluyi Removed

Prince George's County Circuit Court Judge April Ademiluyi treated her own staff so badly that two employees needed medical attention for the stress and anxiety it caused them — one of several findings that led the Maryland Supreme Court to remove her from the bench on May 7, 2024, the first time in the county's history a judge has been removed.

The Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities unanimously found that Ademiluyi would routinely "demand, demean, and belittle" her employees. Separately, the Commission found she refused required judicial training and showed bias toward criminal defendants. Investigators also found she had circumvented the state's standard judicial nomination and vetting process on her way to defeating a sitting judge for the seat in the first place — meaning the way she got the job was itself part of what unraveled it.

The Commission additionally flagged a campaign advertisement in which Ademiluyi discussed her own experience as a sexual assault survivor, finding it could "reasonably be perceived as inconsistent with the independence and impartiality of judicial office." Ademiluyi was sworn in on December 18, 2020; less than four years later, the state's highest court removed her entirely.

Ademiluyi filed a federal lawsuit against the Commission alleging the removal proceedings themselves were unconstitutional and retaliatory. She amended those claims and ultimately dropped them, and the Fourth Circuit dismissed her subsequent appeal in August 2025. A judge belittling her own staff to the point of needing medical care is not a close call, regardless of how she later characterized the process that removed her for it.