I Guess We Don't Have It So Bad.
We have all had those days where nothing seems to go right. We have to fight with a prosecutor; they are being unreasonable. We have to fight with a judge that won't listen; his ears are cocked for cell phones that ring unexpectedly in his courtroom. And we have to fight with our clients who have unfortunate expectations and only want to hear that their cases will be thrown out for a Miranda violation like on t.v. I have even heard that one PDS had lawyer had a particularly bad day when a fight with a local judge landed her in the cellblock for a few hours. But at least our distinguished court has the good sense not to book the entire courtroom on a bad day.
That is exactly what happened in Niagara Falls, New York when Judge Robert Restiano heard a cell phone go off in his courtroom. Like all courtrooms, signs were posted to turn off cell phones and pagers, but the judge was having a bad day. When he heard the phone ring, he promptly threatened, "Everyone is going to jail." When no one came forward to confess possession of the offending phone, he ordered the marshals to round up the group—all forty-six of them—and take them into custody. Despite the "inexplicable madness," the group was taken to jail. Those that could not post bail were shackled and transported to another jail. Apparently, the good judge had the fine sense not to book the lawyers, but isn’t it possible that the ringing cell phone belonged to a lawyer? And, what were the marshals thinking when they acquiesced to such a blatantly illegal order?
It seems that we may have a new and novel defense from all this though. At a hearing on his removal from the bench, the Honorable Restaino claimed the defense of "stress in his personal life." I wonder if the stress of arbitrarily being jailed would suffice to meet his standards of "stress in [one’s] personal life." The judge is now appealing the State Commission on Judicial Conduct's decision to remove him.
An article on this from a recognized news source can be found at this link:
That is exactly what happened in Niagara Falls, New York when Judge Robert Restiano heard a cell phone go off in his courtroom. Like all courtrooms, signs were posted to turn off cell phones and pagers, but the judge was having a bad day. When he heard the phone ring, he promptly threatened, "Everyone is going to jail." When no one came forward to confess possession of the offending phone, he ordered the marshals to round up the group—all forty-six of them—and take them into custody. Despite the "inexplicable madness," the group was taken to jail. Those that could not post bail were shackled and transported to another jail. Apparently, the good judge had the fine sense not to book the lawyers, but isn’t it possible that the ringing cell phone belonged to a lawyer? And, what were the marshals thinking when they acquiesced to such a blatantly illegal order?
It seems that we may have a new and novel defense from all this though. At a hearing on his removal from the bench, the Honorable Restaino claimed the defense of "stress in his personal life." I wonder if the stress of arbitrarily being jailed would suffice to meet his standards of "stress in [one’s] personal life." The judge is now appealing the State Commission on Judicial Conduct's decision to remove him.
An article on this from a recognized news source can be found at this link: