A judge on the bench in the case of Bob Dean, an embattled nursing home owner facing charges after evacuating residents during Hurricane Ida led to several deaths, has been removed from the case following an inappropriate comment about an attorney with connections to Dean, The Advocate reports.

State District Judge Donald Foret with the 24th Judicial District Court in Jefferson Parish was questioned as to whether he would show bias in the slew of lawsuits against Dean, according to the Advocate. 

One of Dean's attorneys has a business relationship with Jason Baer, another local attorney. According to the Advocate, Baer crashed his vehicle on Foret's property in the past, and Dean's current attorney in the ongoing cruelty case represented Baer in the separate crash case.

The Advocate reports that, according to witnesses, Foret called Baer a "piece of s**t" from the bench in May.

An ad hoc ruling in May stated Foret could stay on the case, but that decision was reversed Monday.

The three-judge panel found that “the animus publicly displayed by Judge Foret in crude and expletive language towards a non-party, Mr. Baer, could cause a reasonable observer to wonder to whom such animus may be next directed, particularly anyone who had any type of relationship with Mr. Baer," according to The Advocate.