Just a quick follow-up to a post last week about a Pennsylvania litigant recently released after spending 14 years in jail related to an indirect civil contempt finding, from the Chicago Tribune regarding a Will County judge who seems he can’t get enough of this contempt stuff.
Clifton Williams arrived at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet and sat in the fourth-floor courtroom where his cousin was pleading guilty to a felony drug charge. As Circuit Judge Daniel Rozak handed down the cousin’s sentence — 2 years’ probation — Williams, 33, stretched and let out a very ill-timed yawn. Williams’ sentence? Six months in jail — the maximum penalty for criminal contempt without a jury trial. The Richton Park man was locked up July 23 and will serve at least 21 days.
I had a knock-down-drag-out hearing the same day I read this article and after 45 minutes of testimony the judge starts to give his ruling and my client keeps interrupting the judge as he was speaking. My client was fortunate we had a patient judge.
**Update, the yawner was released August 13, 2009.
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I was once sitting in a Texas State Court when a guy walked in with a cowboy hat on aggressively chewing gum. The bailiff got him to remove his hat. The judge got tired of the smacking, stopped what he was doing and told the person, who was observing sentencing hearing, to take the gum out of his mouth in the courtroom. The guy then stood up and shouted that he had “A Constitutional right to chew gum”. He got three days in jail for contempt. I just wanted to get the hell out of the courtroom before I got appointed to represent him.
Any litigant (or observer) found guilty of contempt had at least 1 clear chance to apologize before being taken through the back door (that pun not intended). Just like folks in civil contempt, they have the keys to the jailhouse door, also, as a later apology will always free them, as it did this guy.
Bob,
I don’t agree with you. After a trial for indirect criminal contempt you have a right of allocution at sentencing time. In none of the other 3 types of contempt (indirect civil, direct civil, and direct criminal) do you have such a right.
PO
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