There were two people you were guaranteed to see when you were watching Judge Judy - and they were Judith Sheindlin and Bailiff Byrd, also known as Petri Hawkins-Byrd.
The duo were iconic together and remained on the court programme for its entire 25-year run.
However, on episodes of her new show Judy Justice, he is nowhere to be found, leaving fans of the show questioning where he went.
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Judith and Petri’s relationship dates back to the 1980s. She was working as the Supervising Family Court Judge for Manhattan, while Petri was interested in law due to his awareness of active Jim Crow laws and the civil rights movement.
He began working as a court officer for the Brooklyn circuit of the New York City court system in the early 1980s. Around this time, he was attending John Jay College of Criminal Justice and was transferred to the family court division in Manhattan.
He worked as a courtroom officer for several different judges, including Judith.
Petri graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 1989.
Six years later, he read that Judith was starring in a television court show programme and wrote her a letter of congratulations. In it, he added: “If you ever need a bailiff, my uniform still fits”.
While filming the show, she found that there wasn’t chemistry between her and the actor who held the bailiff role and called Petri instead.
He added the name Hawkins to his surname to honour his mother as it was her maiden name.
Judge Judy ran for 25 seasons, between 1996 and 2021, making him the longest serving television court show bailiff in history. Throughout their run, the show remained the number one Nielsen-rated court show.
Later in 2021, a streaming court spin-off of Judge Judy, entitled Judy Justice, aired. People quickly noticed that Bailiff Byrd was missing. Instead, Judith was accompanied by Sarah Rose Levy who serves as her legal analyst and in real life she’s actually Judith’s granddaughter. Whitney Kumar also serves as her stenographer and Kevin Rasco can be seen as her bailiff.
When asked why he wasn’t part of the new show, Petri told Entertainment Weekly in 2021: “My assumption is if you were going on to do something else, that you were at least going to ask me if I wanted to have the opportunity to audition for the role.”
When Judge Judy wrapped, he said he didn’t have time to ask Judith about the new show because his wife, who was a producer on the original show, had been diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumour and was undergoing treatment.
He continued: “It wasn't until July that I called the judge and asked, 'Hey, should I look for something else or am I included in the Judy Justice project?' She informed me I was not being asked to come along on the project.”
“I didn't inquire as to why, that's her choice. But she did inform me that fundamentally, I was priced out as the new bailiff on her new show. My salary would have been too much. I was curious: How would she know? She didn't ask me. She didn't give me an opportunity to have accepted a lower salary,” he added.
Responding to questions about why Bailiff Byrd wasn’t on the new show, Judith released a statement via a spokesperson. It read: “Byrd is terrific and we had a great 25-year run. This is a whole new program with a whole new cast and an exciting energy.”
It was announced in April 2022, that he would be holding the role of bailiff for another court show produced and created by Judith’s team called Tribunal Justice.
It was presided over by judges, Tanya Acker, Patricia DiMango and Judith’s son and former district attorney Adam Levy.
The show aired for one season in 2023, but it was announced that it would premiere in broadcast syndication in autumn 2026.
English (US) ·