Ex-judge will have to pay fine for ordering shocking of talkative defendant
A former Maryland judge was fined $5,000 and ordered to take anger management classes on Thursday for ordering a defendant in his courtroom to be jolted with an electric shock.
Former Judge Robert Nalley of Charles County was also sentenced to a year of probation, the Associated Press reports. Nalley, 72, told the judge he was “chagrined to be standing here” and he had made an “error in judgment.”
Nalley was sentenced after pleading guilty in February to a federal misdemeanor charge of deprivation of rights under color of law.
Nalley had ordered the defendant shocked with a Stun-Cuff in July 2014 after the defendant ignored two orders to stop reading from a prepared statement questioning Nalley’s authority.
A video of the incident was played in court on Thursday, according to the AP account. Prosecutor Kristi O’Malley said Nalley “very quickly grew impatient,” though the defendant didn’t raise his voice and even addressed the judge as “sir.”
“Our Constitution does not allow a violation of rights based on annoyance,” O’Malley said.
The man Nalley had ordered shocked, Saamir Jhaled Khaleel Kingali, told the judge that the shocking was a “very dehumanizing experience.” He left the courtroom before Nalley’s sentencing and said afterward that “there was no justice here today.”
Nalley was previously in the news in July 2010 when he was suspended without pay for five days for letting the air out of the tires of a car parked in a restricted area near the courthouse. Nalley had said the parking spot was for him.
