Ga. Supremes Intervene After Judge Jails Asst. DA, Reports ‘Ruckus’ With Her Boss
The Georgia Supreme Court quickly intervened yesterday after a Fulton County judge sent an assistant district attorney to jail and then threatened her boss with contempt for a “ruckus” that began in a courtroom hallway.
The Supreme Court stayed the contempt order against the assistant district attorney, Linda Dunikoski, on Thursday evening, according to CBS News and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Judge Marvin Arrington had jailed Dunikoski earlier in the day after she told him she did not pay a $100 fine for an October contempt citation on the advice of her boss, District Attorney Paul Howard, according to the publications and the Fulton County Daily Report.
Arrington’s order spurred Howard to confront the judge in a courtroom hallway and then again in the judge’s office. Arrington described the incident as a “ruckus” and said Howard had “belligerently demanded” Dunikoski’s release, according to the Daily Report account. Arrington’s response: He ordered Howard to show cause why he should not be held in contempt.
“Frankly, Mr. Howard’s behavior and subsequent tirade made me fearful of my safety,” Arrington wrote.
Howard released a statement saying it was his right to orally object to the jailing of Dunikoski. “Her incarceration was demeaning, inappropriate and injudicious,” he said.
Dunikoski had already been released on a $100 signature bond before the Supreme Court ruled, a jail spokeswoman told the Journal-Constitution.
The original contempt citation against the assistant prosecutor stemmed from an Oct. 6 murder trial. Arrington says Dunikoski had repeatedly argued with his rulings. At one point she indicated to jurors that the judge had limited her questioning of the murder defendant, revealing a ruling made while jurors were not present.
Both Howard and Arrington have been in the news for past incidents, according to the Fulton County Daily Report. In 2006 a different judge ordered Howard handcuffed and removed from his courtroom after a dispute involving a rape acquittal. In 2005 Arrington recused himself from a case after a lawyer accused him of brandishing a baseball bat, an incident downplayed by other observers.
The blog Above the Law made Arrington its “judge of the day” for ordering white lawyers out of his courtroom while he delivered a lecture about responsibility to black defendants.
