Teen girl sues Detroit judge who detained her after she fell asleep in courtroom

MicroWave@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 1018 points – Teen girl sues Detroit judge who detained her after she fell asleep in courtroom
freep.com

The teen girl without a permanent home who was forced to don jail garb, wear handcuffs and ask for mercy after falling asleep in a courtroom is suing the Detroit judge who had her taken into custody.

Eva Goodman, 15, and her mother filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan against 36th District Judge Kenneth King. They allege he violated the teen's civil rights, arguing King acted outside the scope of his judicial authority when he detained her, yelled at her and threatened her with jail time.

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That judge should clearly have been removed from the bench, instead of just being asked to attend some sort of behavior class with pay. The usual slap on the wrist with a feather for the privileged.
He clearly lacks a sense of scope, and limitation to his powers. And apparently has extreme views on punishment for nothing burgers that aren't even illegal. He also has a complete lack of empathy and understanding how strongly punishment can influence a person, especially a young person, and especially a person being punished harshly despite doing no harm.
He is completely unfit to be a judge.

I hope the girl wins her lawsuit, and the judge will receive some true punishment through that.

... and his past cases need to be reviewed. Is someone serving 10x the usual jail sentence for some infraction because of this judge? Probably.

Whenever I hear about a shitty judge, DA, or cop that’s where my mind jumps immediately. Once one of these people have their judgment or integrity called into question, every case they had any involvement in should also be questioned.

Fuck that would be nice to have a review department who's sole purpose is to go over the past history once something is triggered like this. Could even supply it by not buying so many hand-me-downs from the military to further fuel the MIC (military industrial complex), which I've never once heard a conservative discussion bringing up the cost/effectiveness of a tank in a small county. I guess a better tag-line would've been "Funds for Justice" during the protests.

Donald Trump fell asleep in his own trial, nothing

Teen girl fell asleep as an observer in a trial, jail

she was asleep while black though

isn't the judge African American, too ?

that doesn't change much. black cops also can be racist against black people. they're part of a racist structure.

Some of the most virulently racist people I've met have been African American. Even against other African Americans.

This is a stupid comment to make. Yes, black people can be racist against black people. No, they are not "the most racist." Look at Elon Musk and his family's emerald mines. THAT'S the most racist people we know - the prison owners, the people destabilizing Africa and other countries, the people enslaving other races for profit. Just because that racism is socially acceptable here because it affords those people luxury, doesn't make them "less racist." You just don't pick up on it because you're used to it.

She was on a field trip and not scheduled to be in court. He just reached out into the crowd and just sent her to jail because his feelings were hurt.

Judges are always soft bitches when people don't treat them better than the average person for wearing fucking bathrobes in public.

Guess what judges, you're a naked loser underneath those robes, just like the rest of us, you sad soft pieces of shit.

This girl is also temporarily homeless, which is why she was so tired. Adds a whole extra level to this...

From one of the linked articles:

"Eva Goodman, 15, attended King's court earlier this week with a nonprofit on a field trip."

I'm guessing that non-profit is done exposing kids to courtrooms now even as simple observers.

If that judge is so concerned about her sleep then he can buy her a house. She'll sleep much better having a bedroom.

But he already offered to "Mentor" her personally while being interviewed after the incident, what more do you want from this guy?! /s

Let me show u how to be a terrible person and criminalize ppl for having hard circumstances 🤢

Oh he will

You mean we will, right? I'm sure he's protected the same way cops are so taxes will be used to pay for judge's mistakes while he continues to be a piece of shit without any repercussions.

If you don't like paying for the mistakes of law enforcement, legislate punishment on law enforcement that makes mistakes!

When it's a judge you have to vote them out (usually), and since they were voted in you have to punish the taxpayer for making such a boneheaded mistake.

It's a taxpayer votes in this chuckle fucker again and maybe we need to punish them that much harder.

The government has the money to spare otherwise they would stop fucking up so goddamn always.

Yep. Settlement payouts need to go through the roof until the apathetic or unaware take notice of what they are doing to their tax bill. It's the US after all, so impacting peoples' money is of course the only way we'll get any reform.

Or maybe, now hear me out, make powerful pos pay for their own lawsuits.

One of those things has a chance of happening, the other does not. In theory I agree with you. In the case of police, QI will prevent that most of the time for civil suits. In the case of judges, they are judges...

Or maybe settlements should come from police budgets and pension accounts, cuz u know they did the damage...

Small men try to take respect by force instead of earning it.

One of our orderlies said he thought I was a dick until he realized I only have one social personality and everybody gets the exact same treatment whether it's my bosses boss or my homeless psych patient with charges. I have pretty much 0 grasp on social cues, but I will absolutely wipe your ass if I can see that you genuinely need it. It was one of the better compliments I've ever gotten and honestly I think one of the biggest reasons I get along with most of my patients better than people who can't understand that mindset.

From sh.itjust.works…

We have NCD, what do you fucken expect.

I don’t know what NCD means (neuro-cog disorder?)

I was making a vague shit joke.

Also, genocide!

Non-credible defense aka psychotic military shit posting.

Okay shit that is way worse… you guys need to calm down…

Also (to get banned) genocide!

Its not really genocidal most of the time, and when it is its omnicidal. Its just about thirty layers removed from anything that may have once made sense, combone that with atleast some understanding of military equiptment, procurement, and history and ya end up with some weird shit also Mike Sparks. Seriously one of the longer lasting memes was about palettization being superior.

3 more...
3 more...

This summarised so perfectly because his word really just amount to this.

3 more...

But... But he also offered to mentor her. He said it in a really creepy tone.

"HI I've shown terrible reasoning and judgment skills, let me teach you about the world."

I'm glad she is suing him. It was insane how he doubled down on his actions. There are too many Judges who either racist or insane assholes without any empathy.

Judges have immunity. So the lawsuit won’t go anywhere.

It’s amazing how immunity people in power have

Judges have immunity when acting in their official duties.

If court were in session, that could be a real possibility. But it wasn't, the girl was there for a fieldtrip.

Kinda like police immunity. They can shoot you and your dog, but if they aren't on duty, they don't have that qualified immunity.

Those officers should be fired, too. I do security for a living, and I would 100% have not detained her.

And you would've 100% lost your job in the lovely free market of the US. I'm not sure what the laws surrounding 'contempt' are in the US, but I'd guess that's what he's charged her with and it's a pretty grey area, so you as a court room bailiff, are not going to be 'investigating' and taking moral stands at work, she likely was the 10th person they've arrested and half of them don't even know why the were radioed to come in and 'assist with an arrest'

The judge is a straight cunt though

I would gladly go to my union over this and get my paid time off until I'm returned to duty.

Well yeah you think you would as you sit there on you moral high horse but as I said, half of them probably don't even know why she's being arrested. You come into a room and see her flailing around, fighting your colleagues and you're going to start asking questions and making phone calls?

Doubt it.

Even in-between cases, there are bailiffs in the courtroom, so at least a 1 if them knew she did nothing. But go ahead and continue talking about stuff you clearly don't know about.

I don't think that comment had the impact you thought it did.

Good luck to you with your abysmal employment laws!

This a-hole judge should be removed from the bench and fired for this. Or at least forced to undergo the same treatment.

Has this judge even been to court before? If you're not there to sue or be sued(or tried) or to watch someone for a specific reason, then court is boring as hell. Instead of punishing someone who fell asleep, congratulate those who stayed awake - that's far more worthy of notice.

it's time for judges to get a fucking wakeup call. the amount of authority they have in a courtroom feels like the leftover vestiges of the English monarchy that are supposed to technically exist but not actually be exercised

They need to be reminded that their authority is a thinly veiled concession. We make toward public order and if they forget and start to think it's about them and "their honour" then they need to feel the savage fury commensurate with unseen suffering they hand out on the daily.

It is about them and their honour.

However, their honour isn't how they're percieved and treated by others, it's how they themselves act. They're the first ones who should show honour and dignity towards their defendants, clerks, etc.

Angry fits like this one just show the judge got corrupted by power and should either be given time to reflect or disbarred.

Court when rich white guy sleeps: he's just tried, no big deal

Court when young black women sleeps: ARREST THAT MFR

Not sure this applies here. The judge is black. Anyway, still possible though.

Black people can be racist toward black people as well.

Though I think this was just a standard power trip, and the unhoused black girl was just an appealing defenseless target unlike the weirdo-in-chief.

Could be overcompensating to avoid looking like he was playing favorites with his own race. Which is still racism, just different motivation for it.

Hope he loses the suit.

I don't think they'll pierce his immunity with this one sadly. Judges get absolute immunity that's very hard to bypass vs executive branch officer qualified immunity.