Justice With Judge Mablean

Season 1 e.tv (*194) 12:30 Reality

There’s a new-ish law lady swinging her gavel on TV and just like those before her, Judge Mablean Ephriam is not to be messed with in her reality show Justice With Judge Mablean (2014-current). And it’s not make-believe entertainment either: she’s a real judge!

Mablean is a retired prosecuting 1

attorney from Los Angeles and this isn’t even her first TV role. Fans of Divorce Court (1957-current) would’ve seen her making judgements in 1999, 2000, 2005 and 2006 on the show.

And she is no stranger to petty 2

squabbles and physical altercations either. Before taking up a role on the law bar, the 68-year-old was a corrections officer at various women’s prisons within the Federal Bureau Of Prisons.

Her TV “role” has also opened 3

other career doors she’d never have thought possible. “If you told me growing up that I’d be on television, I’d have told you you’re lying. And if you’d told me that I’d be in movies, I’d have arrested you,” she laughs. She cameoed in Tyler Perry’s Madea movie franchise in 2005’s Diary Of A Mad Black Woman, Family Reunion (2006) and Madea Goes To Jail in 2009.

But don’t think that just because 4

she is a law expert that the judge hasn’t gotten into her own fights – she left Divorce Court after claiming that network FOX were “unwilling” to give her an increase that would put her on par with other TV judges’ salaries.

That doesn’t mean she’s closed the 5

door on returning to Divorce Court one day, adding that “viewers still stop me on the streets and ask when I’m coming back. Anything is possible…”