Judge Jails Everyone
Stress is one thing, but jailing an entire courtroom because of it is something entirely different.
Judge Robert Restaino, of Niagara Falls, New York jailed 46 people on Tuesday after no one would admit to having a cell phone that began ringing during his court session.
Raul Felder, chairman of state Commission on Judicial Conduct, wrote in the decision to remove the judge that the man ’snapped’ and ‘engaged in what can only be described as two hours of inexplicable madness’ during the 2005 session.
Judge Restaino was hearing domestic violence cases when the phone rang. “Every single person is going to jail in this courtroom unless I get that instrument now. If anybody believes I’m kidding, ask some of the folks that have been here for a while. You are all going.”
When no one came forward, the judge ordered the group into custody and they were taken by police to the city jail, where they were searched and packed into crowded cells. Fourteen people who could not post bail were shackled and bused to the Niagara County Jail, a 30-minute drive away.
Later in the afternoon, after being told reporters were calling, the judge ordered the defendants released.
