{"id":165425,"date":"2026-10-21T10:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T18:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/10\/21\/florida-bar-puts-employee-on-leave-over-racist-violent-messages-to-college-football-player\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T10:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T18:22:09","slug":"florida-bar-puts-employee-on-leave-over-racist-violent-messages-to-college-football-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/10\/21\/florida-bar-puts-employee-on-leave-over-racist-violent-messages-to-college-football-player\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Bar Puts Employee On Leave Over Racist, Violent Messages To College Football Player"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Florida Bar spends a chunk of its time dealing with other people\u2019s ethical lapses. This week, it\u2019s dealing<\/a> with one from its own payroll.<\/p>\n

The Bar said Tuesday it has placed Kade McLendon, a computer technician who has worked there for about two years, on administrative leave while it investigates a string of Instagram messages allegedly sent from his account to Miami Hurricanes defensive lineman Damon Wilson II. The messages came after Miami\u2019s 43-35 thrilling double-overtime win over Florida State on Saturday, and they were not garden-variety rivalry trash talk. According to the screenshots Wilson posted Sunday, they included repeated use of the n-word, a line about Wilson belonging at the back of the bus, and threats of sexual violence against Wilson and his family. \u201cI am going to rape, beat and kill ur family,\u201d reads one.<\/p>\n

Wilson, who is Black and in his first season at Miami after stints at Georgia and Missouri, captioned the screenshots \u201cGlimpse into the life of a black student athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bar\u2019s response came in two installments. On Monday, it said it was \u201caware of messages that were possibly sent from an employee\u2019s social media account that contained inappropriate content, and we have started an internal investigation into this matter.\u201d By Tuesday, \u201cpossibly\u201d and \u201cinappropriate\u201d had been retired:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe messages in question are not only ethically and morally reprehensible but also violate our internal social media policy for employees.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Good to know there\u2019s a policy.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press tried and failed to reach McLendon on Tuesday, and his social media accounts have since been taken offline. Wilson\u2019s teammates, meanwhile, closed ranks. \u201cThat\u2019s my brother and I embrace him,\u201d Miami offensive lineman Ryan Rodriguez said Tuesday. \u201cIt\u2019s more than a game. That\u2019s my brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bar hasn\u2019t said what discipline, if any, comes once the investigation wraps, but the statement doesn\u2019t leave much room for equivocation. <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Florida Bar Puts Employee On Leave Over Racist, Violent Messages To College Football Player<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

The Florida Bar spends a chunk of its time dealing with other people\u2019s ethical lapses. This week, it\u2019s dealing<\/a> with one from its own payroll.<\/p>\n

The Bar said Tuesday it has placed Kade McLendon, a computer technician who has worked there for about two years, on administrative leave while it investigates a string of Instagram messages allegedly sent from his account to Miami Hurricanes defensive lineman Damon Wilson II. The messages came after Miami\u2019s 43-35 thrilling double-overtime win over Florida State on Saturday, and they were not garden-variety rivalry trash talk. According to the screenshots Wilson posted Sunday, they included repeated use of the n-word, a line about Wilson belonging at the back of the bus, and threats of sexual violence against Wilson and his family. \u201cI am going to rape, beat and kill ur family,\u201d reads one.<\/p>\n

Wilson, who is Black and in his first season at Miami after stints at Georgia and Missouri, captioned the screenshots \u201cGlimpse into the life of a black student athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bar\u2019s response came in two installments. On Monday, it said it was \u201caware of messages that were possibly sent from an employee\u2019s social media account that contained inappropriate content, and we have started an internal investigation into this matter.\u201d By Tuesday, \u201cpossibly\u201d and \u201cinappropriate\u201d had been retired:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe messages in question are not only ethically and morally reprehensible but also violate our internal social media policy for employees.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Good to know there\u2019s a policy.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press tried and failed to reach McLendon on Tuesday, and his social media accounts have since been taken offline. Wilson\u2019s teammates, meanwhile, closed ranks. \u201cThat\u2019s my brother and I embrace him,\u201d Miami offensive lineman Ryan Rodriguez said Tuesday. \u201cIt\u2019s more than a game. That\u2019s my brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bar hasn\u2019t said what discipline, if any, comes once the investigation wraps, but the statement doesn\u2019t leave much room for equivocation. <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Florida Bar spends a chunk of its time dealing with other people\u2019s ethical lapses. This week, it\u2019s dealing with one from its own payroll. The Bar said Tuesday it has placed Kade McLendon, a computer technician who has worked there for about two years, on administrative leave while it investigates a string of Instagram […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":165409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}