Official News page 10

REAL LIFE NEWS: YOU'RE ALL JAILED!

by Hazed

It's always fun to read about judges going mad and issuing really strange edicts or sentences - I guess it's because they are meant to be the prime representative of the law, so when they go off the rails it's even more startling. But not so much fun if you happen to be one of those they target with their bizarre rulings.

A US judge recently jailed the entire courtroom for contempt, because no-one would own up to being the owner of a ringing mobile. Such tactics might work at school, when a teacher gives a detention to the whole class because a naughty boy/girl won't own up to some misdemeanour, but in the adult world it's not really appropriate. And sure enough, the judge in question has been removed from the bench.

Judge Robert Restaino was hearing a domestic violence case in Niagra Falls a few years ago when the offending phone started to ring. He told the courtroom, "Every single person is going to jail in this courtroom unless I get that instrument now. If anybody believes I'm kidding, ask some of the folks that have been here for a while. You are all going."

After security officers failed to find the device, Restaino ordered a short recess, after which he asked the phone's owner to come forward. When nobody did, he "ordered that the entire courtroom audience of 46 people be taken into custody and set bail at $1,500". Presumably that's each, not between them all!

The prisoners were all taken to Niagara City jail to be processed. Those that couldn't stump up the bail payment were shackled and transported to another prison - 14 of them, poor things. The wayward judge only ordered their release when reporters began to ask questions about the ruling later that afternoon.

The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct recently recommended that Restaino be removed - and it took them two and a half years to decide his behavior was "two hours of inexplicable madness". It would have taken most people about two and a half minutes.

More details here.

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