This ones for merryman - Court Room Violence

[Doc Tinker]

merryman,



I saw a program on court room violence and spectator/victim reactions in the court room, last night, and I was wondering if you ever experienced a situation where you were personally concerned for your well being.



Has anyone else witnessed a ruckus in court?



Doc

 

[merryman]

I never had any real violence in my courtroom, but have had a few escape attempts-- when guys not considered violent had their cuffs or chains removed for their appearence. It sort of disrupts things for a few minutes when a guy tries to go out a window. I generally had a small defence item handy, just in case.



Allways had lots of threats, but they seldom occured in the courtroom. The good ones were the 2AM phone calls with threats to "get" me. I developed a stock response, "Come on dog s****, my big dog, my . 44 and I will be waiting for you. "

Saw a study out of calif. that the Judges, lawyers etc who were most likely to be "got" were the timid, "easy" looking ones.

I never fit that image.

There were a couple threats that had me being very carefull for awhile. On one we (me cooperating with local law enforcement) were trying to make an attempted murder charge on a guy, but he beat us to the punch----got doped up and took an 18 wheeler head on---he lost, permantly. I could quit looking my car over real carefully before getting in, and went back to sleeping all night.



Vaughn

 

[Bigsaint]

My courtroom experience is limited to small, country town, but, like Merryman states, I believe it's all in the Judge. Our current Judge is top notch, there is no doubt that he rules the courtroom. No one enters with a hat on, everyone is quite and no one disrespects the magistrate... or else contempt charges will rule. All prisoners brought in are kept in handcuffs at the very minimum, whether they are there for a trial or first appearance. Flight risk's also sport leg irons, the Judge leaves this option up to us and always respects our opinion.



On the other hand, we have had more than our share of less than imposing Judges, let the crowd rule the courtroom. This was a receipe for disaster, IMHO. Also, we ALWAYS escort our Judge back to his vehicle at the end of the court calendar, seems that there are usually at least a few 'malingers' hanging out when we take the walk.



Scott W.

 

[Bill Lins]

Originally posted by merryman

he beat us to the punch----got doped up and took an 18 wheeler head on---he lost, permantly.

Vaughn [/B]

Good for him- in Texas, we call that "Doin' the right thang!"

 

[merryman]

Wow, an escort to the car!

Never thought of that.

I served in a fairly small community (6 Judges), but as the first stop on I-5 for those heading north out of Calif, we had our share of the L. A. area rejects, including a branch of Hell's angels who set up a meth lab in our area, so we did deal with some heavies now and then.

I think it would have spoiled the image I sought to establish, to have an escort though.



Vaughn