He got served.
The incensed Detroit judge who slapped handcuffs on a 15-year-old girl and threatened to throw her in prison after she nodded off during a field trip to his courtroom has been suspended and will undergo training, officials said.
Judge Kenneth King’s docket was temporarily suspended by the chief judge of the 36th District Court in Detroit after he was filmed berating the teenager who visited the court on a legal education trip with nonprofit group Greening of Detroit, The Detroit News reported.
King will undergo training to “address the underlying issues that contributed to this incident” after the livestreamed freakout, Chief Judge William McConico said in a statement Thursday.
The judge snapped when he spotted the girl falling asleep, footage shows. He woke her up and began scolding her about respect and how to act in a courtroom.
“You fall asleep in my courtroom one more time, I’m gonna put you in back, understood?” he fumed.
“One thing you’ll learn about my courtroom is I’m not a toy, I’m not to be played with.”
When the teen apparently talked back to him, King ordered a court officer to slap handcuffs on her and make her wear a jumpsuit.
He then threatened to send the teen to a juvenile detention center, which he described as dangerous and full of “mentally ill kids.”
“The last time I was there, I had a kid who was actually sticking a spoon up their rectum and spreading feces on the wall,” he shockingly said.
Feeling democratic, he then asked other students to vote on whether she should be sent to the detention center. She was ultimately cut loose.
The girl and her mother have not had a permanent home to sleep recently — which her mother told WXYZ-TV is likely why she began dozing off.
McConico said he cannot remove King from the bench, however, the State Court Administrative Office has approved the temporary suspension of King’s docket and training mandate.
King initially defended the unusual punishment, saying he was trying to teach the girl a lesson about the legal system. He said he did not think he was overly strict.
“It wasn’t so much, in fact, that she had fallen asleep because I have attorneys that fall asleep sometimes, so that’s not too big of a deal. It was her whole attitude and her whole disposition that disturbed me,” he told WXYZ-TV.
