Posted on 10/01/2007 8:11:50 AM PDT by Cagey
NEW YORK - A Family Court judge whose alleged courtroom tirades included calling one man a "pig" and another "dysfunctional" has agreed to step down at the end of the year.
Judge Marian Shelton will finish out her 10-year term and agreed not to seek reappointment. A monitoring agency called the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, said Thursday it would not seek sanctions against her under the deal.
Shelton, 52, appointed in 1998 by then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani, reportedly has offers to star on television in a role similar to that of "Judge Judy" Sheindlin.
The Commission on Judicial Conduct said it had started investigating her courtroom behaviour but stopped when she agreed to leave.
It said Shelton admitted violating court rules in one case involving a woman who called the judge a vulgar name in court on Dec. 10, 2004. Shelton told the woman she was in contempt of court and ordered a court officer to handcuff her.
The judge told her "Shut up," "Shut your mouth" and "Be quiet" and had her put in a holding cell. After several minutes in the cell, the woman said she would apologize if given the chance. She was taken into the courtroom and apologized.
Shelton told her, "You will never enter my courtroom again for any reason," and the contempt charge was purged, the commission said.
Shelton's lawyer, Dean Yuzek, issued a statement noting Shelton's achievements as a judge.
"Judge Shelton is proud of her record as a judge who has handled 40,000 cases against a handful of appellate reversals," Yuzek said. He said Shelton made "a real and useful difference" in the lives of hundreds of people.
Other allegations against Shelton included:
-Calling a litigant "dysfunctional," telling him, "You don't have a home or a job. You don't have an education."
-Telling a Caribbean man before her that he looked "bizarre ... like someone I would not give my pet mouse to," and saying to the man, who had multicoloured bands in his hair, "Take those stupid things out of your hair when you come back into my courtroom."
-Telling a man he wasn't allowed to see his child "because you're a pig."
It sounds like this judge has called a few as she “see’s them”. I like that in a judge.
She's been involved in over 40,000 cases and these are the ugliest examples of misbehavior on the bench? I think you have a weak case for her "firing'.
As to calling the guy a pig, there aren’t enough facts given to determine if that was a proper conclusion. The ‘dysfunctional’ comment seems justified. the comment to the Jamacian doesn’t seem out of line, either.
“this guy” is a woman. Did you read the article?
Hey, I like this judge.
I love this Judge! Can’t wait to see her on TV. She makes Judge Judy look like Mr. Rogers.
So what?
I don’t even blame her for telling the person to return without the hair ornaments. The dignity of the court is a two way street. Why can’t people see that?
I find this number to be hard to swallow. So she hasn't yet finished off her 10 year appointment, so lets say that she was done with her 10 years, if she had 1 case a day, 250 days a year (can't count weekends or holidays), for 10 years, that is only 2,500 cases. So she'd have to either handle 16 cases a day (1 every 1/2 hour), every day, for ten years without a day off, or have to be 160 years old. I just don't buy it, remember that something like 76% of all numbers are made up off the top of someone's head.
LOL!!!
Nothing that she said, at least as cited here, seems out of line or inappropriate.
Is this a ManBearPig moment?
:)
Me too. Bump
And how exactly did she not act like one?
A defendent swore at her, and she held them in contempt. Because she called someone a pig? Please.... If that what you think is a judge acting out of line, I question how much time you’ve spent around judges.
I’ve seen judges go on diatribes about the unfairness of mandatory sentences, even cried as they were forced to hand down sentences required by law because they were activist nutjobs.... If these few incidents cited in this article are all the complaints they are against her, then this is sad commentary indeed.
You are not guaranteed to NOT be offended when you stand before a judge to face your sentence.
LOL! I have to start watching South Park.
non-biased? When rendering a judgement? Do you see the complete ignorance of what you are saying???
A judges job is to JUDGE... DISCRIMINATE... or in other words, come to conclusions based on evidence. A judge definately should be biased by the end of a trial when rendering their verdict.
They should not be when a trial starts, but by the time its over they absolutely should be biased one way or another based on the case before them, otherwise they are incompetent boobs. You can’t render a decision where one side is the victor if you have no bias at the end!
A judge damned sure better have a bias by the end of a case, or they can’t do their job.
If you have evidence of this judge acting biased during the trials in question fine, but if you can’t stand that someone got offended and smacked down by a judge at the verdict/ruling stage, then you need help.
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