'Judge Judy' bailiff Petri Hawkins Byrd said he wasn't asked to present the judge with her Lifetime Achievement Award: 'When you talk about slight, that gives you an idea'

• Petri Hawkins Byrd told Insider he wasn't asked to present the judge with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.
• "So that gives you an idea of, you know, when you talk about slight, that gives you an idea," he said.
• Byrd revealed last month that he wasn't asked to join Sheindlin's new IMDb TV show "Judy Justice."

Judge Judy Sheindlin's longtime bailiff, Petri Hawkins Byrd, told Insider in a recent interview that show staffers were surprised he wasn't asked to present the judge with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Daytime Emmys in 2019.

Byrd didn't even sit with Sheindlin during the ceremony, he said. Instead, while Sheindlin and her executive producer, Randy Douthit, sat about five or six rows back from the stage, he was seated 15 or 20 rows back with the producers. Amy Poehler ultimately presented the award.

"So that gives you an idea of, when you talk about slight, that gives you an idea," he told Insider.

According to Sheindlin, it was Poehler who had called the Television Academy and asked if she could present the judge with the award. "She is a huge fan," Sheindlin told Insider in a statement.

But according to Byrd, he ran into Poehler a few months later, and she was equally confused by his exclusion at the ceremony. (While handing out the award, Poehler commented, "I wish Byrd your bailiff could hand you this award the way he hands you photos in court, not making eye contact with the queen he has sworn to protect.")

The revelation of this apparent snub follows last month's news that Byrd wasn't asked to join the judge at her new venture, "Judy Justice," which launched on Monday on IMDb TV.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Byrd said he didn't know Sheindlin was producing a new show until she announced it during an appearance last year on "The Ellen Degeneres Show."

"I've never slighted her - I've always thought of her as a friend. And she's said it before that we're friends," Byrd told Insider. "I'm like, then I guess I'd have to ask you to define your definition of friend. It might be a little different from mine."

Byrd spoke with Insider as part of a broader investigation into "Judge Judy." Interviews with 16 former employees and a review of thousands of pages of court records revealed multiple claims of sexual harassment going back to the early 2000s, as well as allegations of drinking during work hours.

Read Insider's full investigation here: 'Judge Judy' was plagued by sexual harassment claims, drinking on the job, and racism, former employees say. They worry the new $25 million Amazon streaming show will be more of the same.