The mother of a 15-year-old girl is suing Detroit Judge Kenneth J. King after he handcuffed and detained her for falling asleep while on a field trip to his courtroom, reports The Washington Post. The complaint accuses Judge King of "malicious prosecution, unlawful arrest and incarceration, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false arrest and imprisonment, unlawful seizure and detention, and invasion of privacy."
From the complaint:
[King] berated the minor on a live platform, ordered her jailed, caused her to be handcuffed, demanded that she take off her clothes and change into jail garb, imprisoned her for hours, and then conducted a fake trial with her classmates (and possibly his internet followers) as her jurors and his audience."
The Post interviewed Gary Felty, who is representing the girl's mother. Felty said that when the judge noticed the girl sleeping before the court was in session, he warned her "You fall asleep in my courtroom one more time, I'm going to put you in the back, understood?" [Apparently referring to a holding cell.] The judge then told her to go out in the hall and drink some water or use the restroom. When she returned, he asked the court officer to arrest her.
"She was first detained in a room facing the court from where she could hear the judge call cases," Felty said. Then, he said, a female corrections officer handcuffed her, moved her into another room and asked her to change her clothes.
The complaint said she was then asked to put on a jail jumpsuit and made to wait for two hours, separated from the rest of her group.
After she was called back to the courtroom, Felty said, King "conducts what can only be described as mock trial of the girl. He humiliates and degrades her for the benefit of the other students and, possibly, his internet followers."
In a radio interview, the girl's mother said her daughter was tired because they didn't have permanent housing. "The fact that he was talking about 'you go home and get in your bed', how do you know my baby got a home, how do you know my baby got a bed, her own bed she could sleep in, she don't have that right now, so she was tired," she told the station.
Judge King isn't apologizing for his actions (which you can see in this video). In a radio interview he said, "It was her whole attitude and her whole disposition that disturbed me. I'll do whatever needs to be done to reach these kids and make sure that they don't end up in front of me."
Chief Judge William McConico has temporarily removed Judge King from the docket, and Wayne State University has removed him from teaching two courses this fall.
Previously:
• Man curses at judge who responds with 93 days in jail leading to long tit-for-tat of 'f-yous' and jail time (video)
• Judge who accepted private-prison bribes to send black kids to jail sentenced to 28 years
• Illinois judge fired for misconduct after circumventing law to reverse rape conviction
• 'WASTED,' Mark Judge's memoir of teen drinking with Brett Kavanaugh, free at the Internet Archive
