Judge Sued After Putting Teen in Handcuffs During Court Field Trip

A Detroit judge was sued on Wednesday after ordering a teenage girl into jail clothes and handcuffs during a field trip to his courtroom earlier this month.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of 15-year-old Eva Goodman, accuses Judge Kenneth King of false arrest, unlawful detention and intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to the Associated Press (AP).
The lawsuit stems from an incident on August 13 at Detroit’s 36th District Court, where Goodman was visiting as part of a field trip organized by The Greening of Detroit, a local nonprofit.
According to WXYZ, a local ABC affiliate that had video footage of inside the courtroom, the incident began when King was talking to the group of visitors and noticed Goodman falling asleep.
“You fall asleep in my courtroom one more time, I’m gonna put you in back, understood?” King told the girl.
He then had the teen removed from the courtroom. King told WXYZ in a subsequent interview that this, however, didn’t stop her “attitude,” so he then made her put on a jail uniform and handcuffs and even threatened to put her in a juvenile detention facility, making other students on the trip vote if she should be sent away. King did not send her to a detention facility.
“That’s not something that normally happens. But I felt compelled to do it because I didn’t like the child’s attitude,” King told WXYZ. “I haven’t been disrespected like that in a very long time.”
Newsweek reached out to Detroit’s 36th District Court via online form on Wednesday for comment.
Meanwhile, the lawsuit, which seeks more than $75,000 in damages, claims King’s actions were “extreme and outrageous” and were intended to instill fear and cause severe emotional distress.
In addition, attorneys Gary Felty Jr. and James Harrington said in the lawsuit that King “acted as producer, broadcaster, complaining witness, arresting officer, finder of fact, judge and disciplinarian.”
Goodman’s mother, Latoreya Till, has also condemned the judge, calling him a “big bully,” the AP reported.
Till previously told the Detroit Free Press last week that her daughter was probably tired because the family doesn’t have a permanent residence.
“My daughter is hurt. She is feeling scared. She didn’t want to go to work. She feels like as if her peers went against her. She was real nervous and intimidated,” Till said.
However, King has continued to defend his actions, stating that he wanted to give the teen a “real” experience, though he admitted there was little chance she would actually be jailed.
“I wanted this to look and feel very real to her,” King told a local TV station.
The lawsuit is only the latest fallout of the incident as King was removed from his duties last week following an internal investigation by the 36th District Court that found that King failed to meet the court’s standards.
In addition, King was ordered to undergo “necessary training to address the underlying issues that contributed to this incident,” according to 36th District Court Chief Judge William McConico.
“The 36th District Court, known as ‘the people’s court,’ remains deeply committed to providing access to justice in an environment free from intimidation or disrespect. The actions of Judge King on August 13th do not reflect this commitment,” McConico said in a statement last week.