Cell phone lives up to its name as judge jails 46

November 28, 2007 - 10:06AM
A US judge has been removed from the bench for jailing 46 people
after none would admit to having a mobile phone that began ringing
during his court session.

Judge Robert Restaino "snapped" and "engaged in what can only be
 described as two hours of inexplicable madness" during the 2005 session,
 Raoul Felder, chairman of the New York state Commission on
Judicial Conduct, wrote in the decision to remove the judge today.


Restaino, who became a judge in 2002, was hearing domestic violence cases
 in Niagara Falls, New York when a phone rang.

"Everyone is going to jail," the judge said. "Every single person is gong 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 county Jail, a 30-minute drive away.

Later in the afternoon, after being told reporters were calling,
the judge ordered the defendants released.

The judge told the state panel he was under stress in his personal life.


Let that be a lesson to you, don't piss off a judge
because if he says your going to jail guess were your going.