FeedJudge Detains Five Over Ringing Phones
August 26, 2006 in Overset
Speaking of people with more power than common sense“
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.
Cynthia Cannon of Gary agreed to pay a $100 fine after admitting that her phone was one of those that went off. The judge ordered her to do community service, but Cannon declined, saying she can’t work or sit for long periods of time due to a disability.
There are some people who never, ever, should be placed in a position that gives them the power to lock people away on their word alone. ake County Criminal Court Judge Diane Boswell is one of those people.
A cell phone went off. They tend to do that. The solution is to ask the offender to turn it off. It is not to hold five people under arrest because they offended yoru sensibilities.
Get over yourself.
August 26th, 2006 at 6:40 am
Inconsiderate cell phone users….’anging is too good for ‘em!!!!
August 26th, 2006 at 6:53 am
Meanwhile in Peoria, my wife had to wait three and a half hours in traffic court to show someone her license and have a ticket dismissed. She had even shown up early in anticipation of the horrendous wait. It’s hypocritical for a judge to value his or her time so much more than that of the citizens over which they preside.
August 26th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
I’ve seen this happen many, many times in courthouses in the last few years. Your one and only warning is when you walk in and see the sign posted on the courtroom door.
Many courthouses now are prohibitting cell phones from being brought in the building at all. All federal courts are like that and know the 9th Judicial Circuit in IL has barred them beginning Sept. 1
I heard a story about a WJBC reporter that was kicked out of the courtroom and had to appear before the judge with her lawyer because her phone went off during the Maurice Lagrone, Jr. trial in McLean County.
August 28th, 2006 at 10:30 am
“A cell phone went off. They tend to do that. The solution is to ask the offender to turn it off. It is not to hold five people under arrest because they offended yoru sensibilities.”
Cell phones should not be in the courthouse at all; they CERTAINLY ought never be on. In the federal courthouse in Peoria you can’t take them in; in the Peoria court, they generally let you take them in but not turn them on. Lawyers and other court officially and employees are often allowed a little more latitude in carrying them (but not having them on).
Illinois 9th C, as Ryan noted above, ban them completely:
————
MONMOUTH - Chief Judge Ronald Tenold of the 9th Judicial Circuit is banning cell phones and other recording devices from his courtrooms.
The executive order bans cell phones and equipment capable of recording from courtrooms in his jurisdiction, which includes the counties of Fulton, Hancock, Henderson, Knox, McDonough and Warren.
The order was issued in response to everything from cell phone ringing during court to people taking pictures of potential jurors.
The ban takes effect Sept. 1.
————-
Cell phones have been verboten in most court rooms since the advent of camera phones and the advent of some perps, perps’ “crews,” or even shady defense lawyers taking pictures of jurors and witnesses as an intimidation tactic. It’s only a matter of time until a cell phone camera is used to arrange a hit on a particular witness or juror, or to ease the attempted bribing of jurors in a high-cost corporate civil suit.
The woman is frankly lucky she was only cited for contempt. (Particularly when she wasn’t bright enough to turn it off after the first time, whether it was her phone that rang or not. That’s the international signal for “check to see your own phone is off!”) In the federal courthouse, a ringing cell phone will get you some quality time with the bomb squad and the FBI counter-terrorism task force. In other courts, she may have gotten obstruction of justice. If she were taking the bar exam, she’d be expelled from the exam and not allowed to return.
Which leads me to my complaint about cell phones: it should not be so FRIGGIN IMPOSSIBLE to get a non-camera cell phone. I can’t TAKE the camera ones into court; I don’t WANT a camera phone, and no matter how much you try to upsell me, I am still not going to buy a phone I can’t carry with me and can’t use and will have confiscated the first time I forget it’s in my purse. Sell me the ONE MODEL you carry that doesn’t take pictures and works like shit, and tell corporate to start making non-camera phones that DON’T SUCK!