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  • Posted by khalling 11 years, 8 months ago
    wow. we are going to see more and more of this. Challenge their authority...see what happens.
    he should be charged with Assault and Battery-what if it had been the defender who threw the first punch?
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  • Posted by $ winterwind 11 years, 8 months ago
    It looks as though a bailiff [a person in a dark uniform] follows them off towards the right of the picture. I want to know what he did.
    I also wonder about the folks waiting their turns in the courtroom. NOT ONE OF THEM did anything but chat - it certainly sounds like somebody's getting beaten up outside the door and nobody says "Bailiff?" and where was the prosecutor? He has some standing in this situation.
    Who, and what, was applauded?
    and why does the film end here?
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  • Posted by $ 11 years, 8 months ago
    Judge Murphy was temporarily suspended with pay late yesterday. He is being placed on leave and being told to take anger management classes.
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  • Posted by sfdi1947 11 years, 8 months ago
    Did it ever occur to anyone that lots of local courts are like that, and that lots of attorneys will flaunt the rules of decorum.
    A municipal judge's principle duty has nothing to do with the law these days, they are just black robed tax collectors. All the real law is practiced at the superior and appelet court levels. If that attorney had a problem with that judge, the rules suggest taking your sentence and appealing.
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  • Posted by $ Susanne 11 years, 8 months ago
    Of course the Bailiff will "see nothing"... after all, they have to work in that courtroom, sure beats jailhouse duty (especially if your up i years and not as physically fit as a 22 year old), and no better and faster way to get
    "reassigned" than to piss off a judge.

    Welcome to the real world. The judge will walk on this one - by taking it to an area that was known not to have surveillance (rare in a courthouse) there was no separate corroborating witness to the crime. Although the threat itself is prosecutable, if only they had the integrity to uphold the law.
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  • Posted by DougJ 11 years, 8 months ago
    There used to be a legal concept of Mutual Combat and there probably still is in some southern states. That is two people mutually agree to fight then neither can claim the other assaulted them. In Florida the state attorney will charge the one who doesn't get to his office first and fill out a complaint.
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  • Posted by Abaco 11 years, 8 months ago
    Hmm...nobody ever invites me to fight. I still lace up the gloves two or three times a week and I'm 6', 225#. Maybe that has something to do with it.

    I f*%^ing hate bullies. A bully in a robe...that's rich. Might as well be a priest. Why not put a crown on his head too?
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    • Posted by Hiraghm 11 years, 8 months ago
      Irony:

      Mariska Hargitay does PSAs for "NoMore", an anti-bullying campaign (also anti-rape, anti-abuse, anti-common-sense, etc)

      Mariska Hargitay plays a cop on Law and Order: SVU, who routinely bullies suspects, witnesses, and informants...
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      • Posted by Abaco 11 years, 8 months ago
        Yeah. Hollywood. They also make a bunch of shows and movies that are shoot-em-ups. Go figure.

        I used to routinely beat the hell out of bullies...which is also ironic, I guess.
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  • Posted by Maphesdus 11 years, 8 months ago
    South America, take it away!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiTM2HQ0...
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    • Posted by DaveM49 11 years, 8 months ago
      I would like to see the rest of the video. It ends quite abruptly. From what I have read and seen, the Public Defender left the courtroom, giving each of his clients an automatic civil rights case. The judge returned to the bench after the "altercation"....and did what? At least one defendant was appearing without representation at that point.

      The incident began when the Public Defender (in a rather rare example of one doing his job) refused to waive his client's right to a speedy trial. He properly asked the judge for a ruling. The judge never issued one and instead began attacking the attorney. As noted above: where was the prosecutor? He or she could have spoken up at any time. "We have no objection, Your Honor", would have settled the matter--assuming the judge had indeed issued a ruling, which he did not.

      It's impossible to say what the Public Defender was thinking. He may have been trying to defuse the situation, or he may have simply accepted the judge's thrown-down gauntlet (he appears to say "let's go" before he leaves the room). Whatever altercation followed (and I think we can safely safe from the sound that more than words were exchanged) took place in an area where there are no cameras. I do hope both men had photos taken of any bruises or other injuries.

      According to at least one television report, the deputies/bailiffs who separated the men "saw nothing". Which I strongly suspect is how this will all go down, as far as any criminal charges are concerned.

      That said, the canons of the Florida State Bar Association contain a number of standards for professional conduct and appropriate courtroom behavior. I hope they will be enforced. The Public Defender acted in an unprofessional manner when he left the courtroom while court was in session. The judge did so by acting in abusive behavior, leaving the courtroom without adjourning or recessing, and I strongly suspect by assaulting the Public Defender. Once a judge steps off the bench without following protocol, he is no longer presiding over a courtroom. He is, however, bound by all professional standards which apply to his profession--at all times.

      Every defendant in that courtroom should be released or given a change of venue. NONE will get a fair hearing from that judge. Indeed, they may be unable to get a fair hearing anywhere in Florida.

      What, indeed, would Judge Narragansett do?
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      • Posted by DaveM49 11 years, 8 months ago
        I will add that in my home area some years ago, a judge was presiding over a case in which a juvenile on probation was accused of kicking her probation officer. He ordered the probation officer to kick the defendant. The probation officer refused. So the judge came down off the bench and kicked the defendant.

        No criminal charges resulted, though the judge was "censured" by the Bar Association and retired not long after. The defendant's family filed a civil rights lawsuit which got quite a bit of ink....and quite suddenly dropped out of sight with no word of any form of resolution. What went on behind the scenes, no one knows.

        I would like to think that this sort of conduct is a rare exception to the general rule. But we do not have cameras in courtrooms in Minnesota, so in cases like this....we have only the word of witnesses. Witnesses have a way of suddenly clamming up in this neck of the woods. And people have a way of turning up dead in abandoned mine pits now and then. I'm not saying there is a connection, but it is general knowledge here that at least one fellow who was fished out of a pit was murdered by police. No investigation was ever conducted.
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