They say he’s the one who’s out of order.
A Detroit judge got so angry when a teenager on a field trip fell asleep in his courtroom and gave him “attitude” that he placed her in handcuffs and a jail uniform — then threatened to toss her behind bars, according to stunning video footage.
The 16-year-old girl was on a legal education trip with a local nonprofit Tuesday when she dozed off near the bench where 36th District Court Judge Kenneth King was presiding, according to 7 News Detroit.
The sight of the snoozing student irked the judge, who woke the girl and began scolding her — launching into a lecture about “respect” and proper courtroom behavior, the footage shows.
“You fall asleep in my courtroom one more time, I’m gonna put you in back, understood?” he snapped. “One thing you’ll learn about my courtroom is I’m not a toy, I’m not to be played with.”
When the teen — who had been visiting as part of a program with the nonprofit the Greening of Detroit — apparently sassed him, he ordered a court official to slap handcuffs and prison duds on her.
The fuming judge then threatened to send the teen to a juvenile detention center, which he described in frightening detail.
“The thing about the juvenile detention facility is a lot of the people that are there are not just bad kids. You have a lot of mentally ill kids there,” he told the girl. “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.”
In an unusual move, he then asked other students to vote on whether she should be sent to the detention center — and ultimately ended up setting her free.
Greening of Detroit, which offers a three-week program in which students can watch a real trial play out, said the teen was “traumatized” by the incident.
“We have spoken to the student and her parents and the young lady was traumatized by the judge’s unnecessary disciplinary treatment and scolding,” the group said. “Although the judge was trying to teach a lesson of respect, his methods were unacceptable.”
Other critics, including a legal expert, called the move bizarrely harsh.
“[It was] just totally inappropriate. There were so many other ways in which to have helped that young girl learn,” said Larry Dubin, a former attorney and law professor at University of Detroit Mercy. “I have never seen anything quite like what I saw that took place in the courtroom.”
But King defended the move, saying he was trying to teach the girl a lesson about the legal system.
“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 the station.
“I wanted to get through to her, show how serious this is and how you are to conduct yourself inside of a courtroom.”
“That’s not something that normally happens. But I felt compelled to do it because I didn’t like the child’s attitude,” King added. “I haven’t been disrespected like that in a very long time.”
He said the punishment was unusual but not overly strict.
“Was I really going to do that? Probably not. Could I have? Probably so. But that’s not what I want to do to a kid who’s there on a field trip,” King said. “Do I think I was heavy-handed in what I did? No, I don’t.”
