You're Better Than That, Vol 2

A guy in Joliet, IL will have been in jail for 21 days by this Thursday for being a disruptive spectator in a courtroom. Now, the defendant claims that his cousin was only "yawning" when he was locked up on contempt charges. The prosecutor claims that it was a "...boisterous, deliberate attempt on the part of this individual to disrupt the proceedings." Let's say the truth is somewhere in between and maybe the needle points a little bit more to the prosecution's recollection of events. Twenty-one days?!?!?! That's three weeks!!!!

I get that we need order and structure in our court system, I really do. But, don't they have people they can call in an effin courthouse to remove someone who is being disruptive, and oh by the way not on trial for anything? Is that not possible? Even Judge Judy has a bailiff! There's a guy named Judge "Extreme" Akim on syndicated television that has an enforcer named Big Sugar Ray Phillips to keep order in his court. What the hell is this judge's deal?

Notice the statement from the prosecutor didn't mention anything like "After repeated warnings..."? Did the guy get told to sit down and shut up a few times, or was it more like, "Hey, you! The one that was boisterous just now, for the first time today. I have a zero tolerance policy for ballyhoo in my court! You're going to county, end of discussion."? Of course, we don't know any of these details, because it's a bare bones AP story, which leaves the door open for people like me to make their own inferences about it.

The man may get out on Thursday if "he apologizes and the judge accepts." Serious? He has to apologize to a judge that made him spend three weeks in jail? Like I said, I have respect for the law and the order of the courtroom. However, unless you threatened to kill somebody or exclaimed something really inflammatory, like "I think Tyler Perry needs to make more 'Madea' movies" or "I can't believe how 'fat' Kelly Clarkson is", I think three weeks is a sufficient punishment. In the spirit of stark contrast, let us not forget that NFL receiver Donte Stallworth just recently completed a 24 day prison sentence for DUI AND MANSLAUGHTER!!! After three weeks, I don't think this man (as disruptive as he may have been) needs to apologize to anyone.

So I say to you, Will County Judge Daniel Rozak...

You're better than that.

Nate

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090812/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_jailed_for_yawning