JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A circuit judge created a firestorm at the courthouse when he let go his longtime assistant battling cancer just days before Christmas.

What shocks Christine Birch's co-workers as much as her being fired is the way she was notified: by mail.

"It appalls me, it disgusts me," said Donna Vail, a fellow judicial assistant and friend of Birch. "For the past five years, she has been fighting for her life. She has been fighting to keep her job, to take care of her children, to be faithful to Judge Bowden, and this is what's happened."

Birch, 54, Circuit Judge Aaron Bowden's judicial assistant for 17 years, took medical leave in August after being diagnosed with cancer. She got a letter Dec. 14 from Bowden telling her she'd been let go.

In an e-mail, Bowden said he feared Birch's long-term illness would leave him without an assistant because of a state-imposed hiring freeze.

"As much as I love Chris, I made the decision that I had to have a full time assistant accountable to me," Bowden wrote.

As to why she was fired by mail, Bowden wrote, "She has not answered my phone calls, nor has she acknowledged my voice mail requests to call me."

When Chief Judge Donald Moran learned that Birch was dismissed, he hired her as a floating judicial assistant, but the position pays $750 per month less and she has to pay her own insurance premiums.