Judiciary
Judge ‘a Petty Tyrant’ for Jailing 46 Over Ringing Cell Phone
Posted Nov 28, 2007, 05:35 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A New York judge should be removed from the bench for acting like a “petty tyrant” when he jailed 46 people due to a ringing cell phone, a commission has recommended.
Judge Robert Restaino of Niagara Falls City Court "engaged in what can only be described as two hours of inexplicable madness” when he ordered the jailing, according to the opinion by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Restaino had reacted to a ringing phone in his courtroom during a slate of domestic violence cases in March 2005, the New York Times reports. He warned the roughly 70 people in his courtroom that everyone would be going to jail if the cell phone owner didn’t own up. Eventually, 46 people were jailed for part of the day.
The commission said the judge’s conduct “transcended poor judgment” and had no "semblance of a lawful basis.” Its recommendation goes to the Court of Appeals, the New York Law Journal reports.
Restaino plans to appeal, the Associated Press reports. He told the commission that he was under stress in his personal life at the time.
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