Judge Joe Brown has come under social media fire after publicly speaking out against a sexual assault allegation made by actress Sheryl Lee Ralph last week. He’s received some side eyes due to the fact that Lee Ralph never named him as her alleged assailant. Brown posted a tweet on March 24 threatening legal action for her words that she never said pertained to him. 

The 75-year-old magistrate wrote,

“There’re false rumors being spread that I mistreated a certain lady [about] 25 yrs ago. I categorically deny both the accusations & acquaintance with the lady. Those rumors started with certain identified parties & spread. They ought to ‘Cease & Desist’ or contemplate a Defamation Action.” Brown continued in a second tweet to speculate about why Lee Ralph, 66, would be referring to him.

“Perhaps her Congressman husband has an interest in the matter ??? (As things pertain to defeating his party’s crippling grip on the area …),”

People in the comments under his tweets pointed out how odd it was that Brown would speak out when Lee Ralph never named anyone at all when opening up about the incident. Brown got defensive in the comments, replying to users who pointed out how suspicious it was.

The aforementioned incident, as previously reported by Sis2Sis, came during an episode of the Way Up with Angela Yee podcast on March 20. Ralph Lee described, “[I was] at a very public place. I was suited. I had my suit on. I was handling my business for the television show I was on at that time. He and I were on the same network. This man walked in, grabbed me by the back of my neck, turned me around and rammed his nasty-ass tongue down my throat. And everybody at the network saw it.”

The Abbott Elementary star said that a “famous TV judge” sexually assaulted her while she was starring in Moesha and that she wanted to file a police report, but her coworkers told her not to.