I’ve been told that ego stands for “easing God out.” The video of a Detroit judge’s dehumanizing treatment of a teenage girl who dozed off in his courtroom while on a field trip to the courthouse is confirmation of this truth.
Judge Kenneth King, the presiding criminal division judge in Michigan’s 36th District Court, yelled at a 15-year-old student who was visiting his courtroom with a nonprofit group and then sent her to the court’s jail cell, where she was made to disrobe and change into a jail jumpsuit and sit alone. As if that were not already excessively punitive, King continued the teenager’s humiliation by ordering her back into the courtroom as she wore handcuffs. He made her plead for leniency. He had her peers, some of whom were unable to muffle their laughter, vote on her fate.
King continued the teenager’s humiliation by ordering her back into the courtroom as she wore handcuffs.
King, who has since been removed from his docket and ordered to undergo mandatory training, defended his actions when it became known what he’d done to the girl. “That’s not something that normally happens,” he told Detroit’s WXYZ-TV. “But I felt compelled to do it because I didn’t like the child’s attitude.” Calling his actions “my own version of ‘Scared Straight,’” he told the TV station, “I haven’t been disrespected like that in a very long time.”
But the most glaring disrespect exhibited that day was from the judge himself. He not only disrespected the teenager he had before him, but he also disrespected the judiciary. In fact, watching what that judge did to that young person — which would have been out of order even if she were a defendant, not merely a student on a summer field trip — made me furious as a member of the legal profession, a retired jurist, a mother and a human being.
Last week, the teenager’s family sued King, accusing him of violating her civil rights. “This is a very troubling case,” one of the family’s lawyers said. “We had a member of our bench denigrate, humiliate, intimidate and essentially incarcerate a 15-year-old kid.”
That attorney is right. It is troubling. Visiting a courtroom should have been an opportunity to spark a desire in this young Black woman to, say, become a Supreme Court justice like Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Instead, because of King, she had a devastating encounter with a judge wrongly flaunting his authority that will only deepen her distrust, and the public’s distrust, in our justice system.
True authority does not try hard. People who understand their authority know they don’t have to speak harshly to command respect. Authority is communicated through professionalism and fairness. Unfortunately, the judge in this case was more interested in asserting his dominance over this young person than in fostering an environment of learning, understanding and respect in his courtroom.
The judge was more interested in asserting his dominance over this young person than in fostering an environment of learning, understanding and respect.
There was no way the judge was going to look good by turning her into an inmate because she had fallen asleep. But he looked even worse after details of her circumstances were revealed.
Latoreya Till, the teen’s mother, told NBC News that they have no permanent housing and that they had arrived late at the home where they were staying the night before the teenager’s field trip. In an interview with WXYZ-TV, she said, “The fact that he was talking about ‘You go home and get in your bed,’ how do you know my baby got a home? How do you know my baby got a bed, her own bed she could sleep in? She don’t have that right now, so she was tired.”
People often fall asleep in court because of medication, a medical condition, the temperature in the courtroom, or not understanding the court proceedings. His ego made him assume she fell asleep to disrespect him.
I know that being a judge is hard. I served for nearly 10 years in the municipal court in Newark, New Jersey. When I took my oath, I committed myself to treating every person who entered my courtroom with dignity, respect and fairness. This commitment is fundamental to the justice system’s purpose, to ensuring justice for all.
This belief is grounded in a concept known as procedural justice or procedural fairness. Put simply, when people believe they are treated with dignity, respect and fairness by the justice system, the outcomes are overwhelmingly positive. Compliance with court orders increases. The public trusts the justice system more. And crime goes down.
The principles of procedural justice require judges, attorneys and other justice system actors to ensure that people are given a voice, understand the process, and are treated with neutrality and respect. Crucially, and somewhat counterintuitively, this is as important as whether someone wins or loses in court. In other words, when a person feels like they have been treated decently, they are usually willing to accept the outcome of the case, even if it goes against them.
What King did goes against every principle of procedural justice.
What King did goes against every principle of procedural justice. Thankfully, few judges engage in such behavior. Still, this should serve as a stark reminder for those with authority of the dangers of ego. King had an obligation to remember that he wore a robe and not a crown.
The judge’s behavior didn’t just harm one student; it harmed every person in the courtroom that day by negatively shaping their perception (or confirming their existing negative beliefs) about the justice system. Courtroom observers should leave with a greater respect for the judicial process. Clearly, those in King’s courtroom that day did not.
A judge’s authority is not a weapon to be hurled at the weak. A judge’s authority must be used to protect, uplift and embody the principles of procedural justice. As the teenager’s mother put it, he was “supposed to show love and sympathy and implement the law, and he didn’t do none of that.”
Leave a Reply