Left: A teen is seen in Detroit Judge Kenneth King’s courtroom (WDIV/YouTube). Right: Judge Kenneth King (36th District Court/YouTube).
The Michigan judge who put a teen in handcuffs because she fell asleep in his courtroom during a field trip is back on the bench — but instead of sitting in judgment over criminals and lawsuits, he’ll be handling traffic tickets.
Detroit 36th District Judge Kenneth King made headlines in August when he ordered a 15-year-old girl into a jail uniform and handcuffs after noticing she was dozing off while he was speaking to the kids, whose visit was sponsored by a local environmental nonprofit. At the time, the judge told local ABC affiliate WXYZ that the teen’s attitude is what ultimately set him off.
“It wasn’t so much, in fact, that she had fallen asleep because I have attorneys that fall asleep sometimes, so that’s not too big of a deal. It was her whole attitude and her whole disposition that disturbed me,” King told the station at the time. “I wanted to get through to her, show how serious this is and how you are to conduct yourself inside of a courtroom.”
The judge made the girl wear a prison uniform and had her put in handcuffs. The interaction occurred on courtroom cameras, which were streaming online at the time.
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“That was my own version of ‘Scared Straight,’” King also said, referring to the controversial program from the 1970s and 80s in which kids toured prisons and heard from inmates in an effort to deter them from committing crimes.
King was pulled from his criminal case docket almost immediately. He has since completed a training program originally meant for early childhood educators, the Detroit Free Press reported.
“We appreciate his efforts in preparing for this role, and wish him success as he transitions into this new responsibility,” Chief Judge William McConico said in a written statement, the Free Press reported. King has been filling in for a judge who is on vacation, McConico said, and will assume his own docket starting on Monday.
The teen’s mother told the Detroit Free Press that her daughter was tired because their family did not have permanent housing at the time.
“We have to bounce around currently because we don’t have a permanent address,” she told the newspaper. “And so, that particular night, we got in kind of late. And usually, when she goes to work, she’s up and planting trees or being active.”
The teen’s family has since filed a federal lawsuit alleging malicious prosecution, unlawful arrest and incarceration, intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, false arrest and false imprisonment.
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