Is Officer Byrd on Judge Judy an actor or a sworn officer?
—Don Whitehead, Sequim, Wash.
Petri Hawkins Byrd, who keeps order during the televised courtroom proceedings, is indeed a sworn officer. As a matter of fact, he was Judge Judy's court officer for a time when she presided over family court in New York, before getting her own TV show. When he heard his old boss was going on the air, he sent her a letter inquiring if she needed a bailiff. She did, and invited him to come aboard.
