Posts tagged as:

contempt

“Judge sentences man to 6 months in jail for yawning”

by Walter Olson on August 14, 2009

A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said the yawn, by a cousin of a drug defendant at his plea, was “a loud and boisterous attempt to disrupt the proceedings”. The Chicago Tribune says the judge in question, Circuit Judge Daniel Rozak of Will County, resorts to contempt findings unusually often. The judge later released Clifton Williams after he had served 21 days. [Chicago Tribune, ABA Journal, Solove/Concurring Opinions]

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July 21 roundup

by Walter Olson on July 21, 2009

  • “Plaintiffs’ Attorneys to Get $800,000 in Preliminary Settlement, Class Members Receive Zero” [Calif. Civil Justice covering Bluetooth settlement in which Ted was objector; earlier here and here]
  • “Lawyer Jailed for Contempt Is Freed After 14 Years” [Lowering the Bar, earlier]
  • Money makes the signals go ’round: another probe of red-light cameras yields few surprises [Chicago Tribune, Chicago Bungalow, Bainbridge on Washington, D.C.]
  • Previously little-known company surfaces in E.D. Tex. to claim Apple, many other companies violate its patent for touchpads [AppleInsider via @JohnLobert]
  • Child endangerment saga of mom who left kids at Montana mall is now a national story [ABC News; earlier post with many comments; Free Range Kids and more]
  • Meet Obama Administration “special adviser on ‘green’ jobs” Van Jones ["Dunphy", McCarthy at NRO "Corner"]
  • Irrationality of furloughs at University of Wisconsin should provide yet another ground to question New Deal-era Fair Labor Standards Act [Coyote]
  • Australia’s internet blacklist is so secret you can’t even find out what sites are on it [Popehat - language] Oz to block online video games unsuitable for those under 15 [BoingBoing]

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Christmas In Jail

by SSFC on December 25, 2008

While there are unpleasant stereotypes about Philadelphia lawyers, H. Beatty Chadwick, an attorney from the Philadelphia main line, has a lesson for all with his Gollum-like stubbornness.  Today he’s spending his 14th consecutive Christmas in jail on a contempt citation for allegedly hiding assets from his ex-wife.

After a hearing yesterday, Delaware County Court President Judge Joseph P. Cronin Jr. turned down Chadwick’s latest request for Christmas furlough, declaring him “a significant risk of flight.”

Had the court let him out for Christmas, Chadwick could have cut off his electronic-monitoring bracelet and used his money and contacts to fly off in a helicopter, his ex-wife’s attorney, Albert Momjian, said.

“He is a devious person,” Momjian contended.

Chadwick’s lawyer, Michael J. Malloy, who said he had worked for Chadwick free of charge for the last few years, said the idea of a helicopter’s waiting to whisk his client off was ludicrous.

“At this point, everything about this case is irrational,” Malloy said in an interview.

Oh I’d say that point was passed many years ago.  By now Chadwick has spent more time locked up for his contempt than any American in history.  While I don’t sympathize with Chadwick (who now suffers cancer) if he’s really hiding the money from the court and his ex, surely at some point his indefinite detention becomes a due process violation.  Unlike most who serve life sentences, Chadwick has never been adjudicated a criminal, and debtors’ prisons were abolished centuries ago.

Via WSJ Law Blog, but first spotted at A Public Defender.

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