[karajorma]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/28/judge_debenched/

US judge debenched for jailing entire courtroom

A US judge who jailed an entire courtroom because no one would cough to being the owner of a ringing mobile phone has been removed from the bench by a commission on judicial conduct. Judge Robert Restaino, 48, was hearing a domestic violence case in Niagara Falls on 11 March 2005 when he heard the offending phone and "snapped", as the BBC puts it.

According to the commission's report, 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 unsuccessfully tried to find the device, Restaino ordered a short recess. When he returned to the bench, he asked the phone's owner to 'fess up. Receiving no reply, he "ordered that the entire courtroom audience of 46 people be taken into custody and set bail at $1,500".

Restaino said: "This troubles me more than any of you people can understand. This person, whoever he or she may be, doesn't have a whole lot of concern. Let's see how much concern they have when they are sitting in the back there with all the rest of you. "Ultimately, when you go back there to be booked, you've got to surrender what you got on you. One way or another, we're going to get our hands on something."

One of those present reportedly said: "This is not fair to the rest of us." Restaino replied: "I know it isn't."

The 46 prisoners were taken to to Niagara City jail, where they were "searched and packed into crowded cells". Fourteen unfortunates who couldn't stump bail were "later shackled and transported to another prison". Judge Restaino ordered their release only later that afternoon when reporters "began to ask questions about the ruling".

The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct yesterday recommended the removal of Judge Restaino for what its chairman described as "two hours of inexplicable madness". The commission said he had acted "without any semblance of a lawful basis" and had conducted himself like a "petty tyrant". The judge admitted to the commission that he'd known that he had no legal basis for his actions, which he classified as "improper and inexcusable". In mitigation, he told the panel he'd "been under stress in his personal life at the time of the incident".

The commission's administrator, Robert Tembekjian, was unmoved, saying there could be "no excuse" for the mass jailing, and that the fundamental rights of 46 people had been "deliberately and methodically violated". According to AP, the judge's lawyer said Restaino "would exercise his right to appeal the decision within 30 days", during which time he will remain in office.

[castor]

I think I'd rather have Judge Floro + dwarves in the courtroom than this guy

[WMCoolmon]

Man, I'd be pissed, too. Having someone completely flaunt accountability to avoid a little social pain in a courtroom, where the entire point is to hold people accountable for their actions, and assign very serious sentences, just seems rather hypocritical and/or apathetic. If you're gonna go watch someone else get fried for what they've done, it seems like you should be willing to at least hold yourself accountable for your own actions (esp when you don't have to face going to jail for a ringing cell phone, at least not usually, just suffer a little embarrassment).

I wouldn't be surprised if it was the judge's own cell phone though. Did they ever actually find it?

[Nuke]

i think all personal cell phones should be banned, im tired of soaking up everyones em radiation. you want to soak up som rads? detonate a nuke!

i think the judge is pretty cool.

[Polpolion]

Yes, let's destroy all cell phones, killing several dozen large companies and causing thousands of jobs to be lost in the involved industries. Who cares if they provide an efficient means of communication, and even save lives? To hell with simple global communication and lives! I don't care if your care crashed and your at the bottom of a ditch and you have a broken neck and your a war veteran with cancer and 14 great grand children: NO CELL PHONE!!!!

Man, I don't even have a cell phone, much less want one too much.

[Stealth]

that's unacceptable.  i hope he gets removed and never gets a job as a judge again.

unacceptable.

[IceFire]

Why stop a cell phones.  Lets just get rid of phones all together...all I ever get is telemarketers.

Smoke signals it is!

[Flipside]

I think he could have at least said 'Whoever owns that phone, if it rings again in my courtroom then you'll be arrested for contempt, do I make myself understood?'.

I agree that it was irresponsible for no-one to own up, I think it is that which probably made him over-react, but it is not good for a judge to set an ethos of jailing 45 innocent people just to punish one guilty one.

[Mefustae]

I agree that it was irresponsible for no-one to own up, I think it is that which probably made him over-react, but it is not good for a judge to set an ethos of jailing 45 innocent people just to punish one guilty one.

Sounds about par for the course for the US Justice System.

Oh yes, I went there.

[karajorma]

I think I'd rather have Judge Floro + dwarves in the courtroom than this guy

That was my first thought when I read the article

[TrashMan]

Hehe...the poor man snapped. It happens.
but they guy who's cellphone it was is also a jerk. Hell I always turn off my cellphone when  I to the church or some important meeting or something. At the very least I turn the sound off. It's just common decency.

[IceFire]

...but its possible that it slipped that persons mind.  Had the judge not gone and had a temper tantrum then that person probably could have safely turned it off without loosing too much face.  But once someone makes a threat like that...I imagine most of the people there would have been immobile and possibly in a state of disbelief.

[MP-Ryan]

Meh, he should have just ordered the courtroom cleared (except for those required to be there) until someone fessed up to the phone.

[TrashMan]

OFF WITH THEIR HEADS I SAY!

[Whitelight]

A cell phone shouldn`t be allowed in a courtroom, period... But, arresting everyone is not allowed eather.