PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "County prosecutor Derek DeVine later that day told Repp at a hearing that he was unaware of any legal authority that would allow a judge to jail a spectator who refused to take a drug test. DeVine later moved to vacate Repp’s contempt finding, arguing it violated the state and federal constitution. Orta was then released."
STORY: "Judge who jailed spectator who refused drug test has ‘absolute’ immunity, appeals court rules," by Reporter Jake Zukerman, published by Cleveland.com, one September 5, 2023. (Jake Zuckerman covers state politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.)
GIST: "A Seneca County judge's 2020 jailing of a court spectator for refusing to take a drug test he demanded from the bench cost him his law license for one year."
But an appeals court last week said he can’t be held liable if he were sued for any alleged civil rights violation against the woman, who has been neither accused nor convicted of any drug offense.
A federal district court was correct in finding Municipal Judge Mark Repp possessed “absolute judicial immunity” when he baselessly accused Alexzandria Orta of being high while sitting in his courtroom, a three-judge panel with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday. She sat watching her boyfriend’s hearing when Repp ordered the drug test and 10-day jail sentence for contempt when she refused.
An appeals court reversed the charge against her the next day, after county prosecutors and her defense attorney argued it violated the state and federal constitutions. Orta later sued Repp in federal court.
Repp’s judicial conduct prompted the Ohio Supreme Court to suspend his law license for a year and issue a written opinion describing his conduct as selfish, dishonest, arrogant, unwarranted and intolerable.
But according to the Sixth Circuit, Repp performed a “traditional judicial act” when he held Orta in contempt and he “did not act in the complete absence of jurisdiction.” Thus, Repp is entitled to judicial immunity that shields judges from civil rights claims, the court found.
“Professional penalties may not provide full comfort or vindication to Orta,” the judges wrote. “But she and the rest of society benefit when judges can decide the law without apprehension of personal consequences, even if unfairness and injustice may result on occasion.”
Attorneys representing both Repp and Orta didn’t respond to phone calls.
What happened
In March 2020, Orta left her boyfriend’s two young daughters in the car with their grandmother and sat in the back row of Repp’s courtroom to observe the arraignment and probation-violation hearing of the girls’ father, who had been arrested one day prior for violating the terms of probation by failing to appear at a county drug court program and other offenses.
During unrelated hearings, Repp accused Orta of drug use. Orta did not have a case pending before Repp, was not on probation, had never been charged with or convicted of a drug related offense, and made no disturbance in the courtroom, disciplinary records show.
“Oh, before we get started. I think [Orta] is under the influence,” Repp said from the bench. “I want her drug tested.”
A bailiff took Orta to the probation department for a drug test. Orta texted the girls’ grandmother, saying she was afraid to leave for fear of arrest.
She asked her sister to pick up the kids.
She asked for a lawyer, but was told by court staff that she’s not eligible for court-appointed counsel because she hadn’t (yet) been charged with a crime.
She refused to take the test.
“Well, you come into my courtroom, I think you’re high, you’re in trouble,” Repp said.
He sentenced her to 10 days in jail. Upon her entrance, she was required to take a pregnancy test and undergo two full-body scans, one of which was reviewed by a male officer.
When she grew scared and worried about her children and offered to take a drug test, a jail officer told her she already “had her chance,” according to legal disciplinary records.
Orta retained an attorney who the next morning submitted a filing questioning the viability of her detention. But according to the Supreme Court’s disciplinary review, “for reasons not explained in the record, the petition was never docketed.”
Tiffin’s city council ousted Repp from the bench in June 2022, local media reported. He ran for his old seat again this year, but lost in a Republican primary."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.cleveland.com/open/2023/09/judge-who-jailed-spectator-who-refused-drug-test-has-absolute-immunity-appeals-court-rules.html
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.
Lawyer Radha Natarajan;
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
------------------------------------------------------------------
YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-1234880143/
—————————————————————————
