New York City Mayor Eric Adams has made five new picks for the city’s judiciary, including noted cosplayer Dale Fong-Fredrick.
The New York Post reports Fong-Fredrick, 51, is known among fellow fantasy Middle Agers as Sir Jibril al-Dakhil, the fictional “son of a Moorish baron and a mother born of Spanish royalty” who’s rumored “to competitively dance the pole in disguise,” according to the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA) website.
Fong-Fredrick, describes himself as the first openly gay knight in the group’s East Kingdom, which includes the Northeast U.S. and Canada. According to his bio, Fong-Fredrick is “one of less than a dozen African-American knights.”
“You can be a knight in name only. You can play the game, jump through the hoops, dot your i’s and cross your t’s, get your belt, get your chain and say: Whoa, I can hit people with a stick, I’m a knight!” Fong-Fredrick said during a one-hour Zoom conference where SCA leaders dressed in full costume according to the Post.
“Or you can look at the virtues, the philosophy of what it means to be a knight, what it means to be virtuous, what it means to speak up for people who can’t speak for themselves, what it means to deliver the king’s justice.”
The other four judges Adams tapped to serve New York City include Sara Litman, an attorney in the Brooklyn Supreme Court and Michael Ryan, a Brooklyn prosecutor. The three will replace judges whose terms expire this year but Adams refused to reappoint.
Additionally, the New York mayor is also replacing two family court judges he also declined to reappoint, which a city juridical called “highly unusual.”
“It is quite unusual in a year to have even one judge who is not reappointed,” the source told the Post. “It is quite unusual. From time to time, a particular person may not be up to the job anymore. But 5 people in one year, you’d have to go back at least a decade or more to find something similar.”
In a statement released by City Hall, Adams said “My administration is selecting judges that we believe have the highest fidelity to the law, that will not unduly delay cases, and that will make their decisions with the safety of New Yorkers in mind. “That’s what this group represents, and that will be my North Star going forward.”