Judge Detains Five Over Ringing Phones

A judge detained and questioned a row of spectators when a cell phone rang for a third time in her courtroom, later ordering two people to serve community service for contempt of court.

When no one admitted having the ringing phones Wednesday, Lake County Criminal Court Judge Diane Boswell told all five people in the row to sit in chairs reserved for jail inmates. They stayed there for more than an hour until the morning court call ended.

Boswell found three people in contempt of court because they initially refused to say who had the ringing phones. . . .

"The next time you come to court, don't bring your cell phone," Boswell said. "And when the court asks a question, answer the question."

That sounds a little over-the-top to me. My bet is that Judge Boswell gets censured and apologizes. Details here from the AP via Forbes.

Comments

[805]

No way. The Judge will NOT be censured. In Fed. Dist. Court in LA, if your cell phone rings in court, it is a $500 fine - payable on the spot. It is posted in the hallways, and enforced vigorously by several judges.

[Suz]

I hope the judge stands her ground.

I can't see where she would deserve censure.

"When the court asks a question, answer the question." D'uh. That should be obvious to anybody as a basic tenet of courtroom behavior.

She's not a public school teacher who has to put up with any kind of crap a bunch of sullen students want to pull off, hampered by bureaucratic rules in how she can respond to them. She's a judge, it's not kindergarten but a courtroom, and those people are adults.

Wilfully disobeying the judge in open court = contempt of court. That's not a license for a judge to abuse people, but this judge didn't abuse anybody.

If the uncooperative spectators thought they were in some wishy-washy feel good public classroom where they could make the teacher impotently mad and then laugh about it all the way home, they received a valuable civics lesson.