Judge's 'media whores' remark doesn't offend Adrian Peterson's lawyer, but DA wants recusal
A court appearance by Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson on Wednesday got sidelined by a prosecutor’s objection to a “media whores” comment by the judge.
Peterson was expected to plead not guilty to reckless or negligent injury charges for the switch beating of his 4-year-old son, but the plea in a Conroe, Texas, court was put on hold, report the Houston Chronicle, the Conroe Courier and KHOU. Instead, the hearing was dominated by District Attorney Brett Ligon’s objections to a prior comment by Judge Kelly Case.
Ligon demanded that Case apologize for calling Ligon and defense lawyer Rusty Hardin “media whores” at an unrelated hearing earlier this month. Case complied, saying the comment “was meant as a humorous joke and unfortunately humor is sometimes taken the wrong way,” according to the Chronicle account.
Ligon responded that there was “little humor” between Case and the DA’s office. At that point, Hardin offered, “Just for the record, I don’t take offense to it, your honor. … I’ve been called much worse.”
Prosecutors filed a recusal motion after the hearing that said the judge had referred to the lawyers as “camera whores.”
Case is a first-term judge who was elected in 2012 with Tea Party support, the Chronicle says. According to the Conroe Courier, an appeals court accepted five mandamus petitions by the prosecutor’s office contesting pretrial orders by Case.
The Courier quotes from the recusal motion. Case “continues to demonstrate an ongoing hostility to the law and to the District Attorney’s Office,” the recusal motion alleges. “The numerous rulings he has made contrary to the law, the ongoing public attacks upon the elected District Attorney in a personal and derogatory manner, and his apparent collusion with defense attorneys in prior and pending criminal matters show an ongoing prejudice and bias that the state cannot overcome.”
Peterson has said he was only disciplining his son and he received similar discipline as a child.
