Friday, November 23, 2012

Judge Martin McDonald Under Fire Again for Courtroom Behavior

Just weeks after being removed from a case in which he threatened to strangle a lawyer, senior Judge Martin McDonald is facing criticism in a different case, accused of treating a public defender derisively and sending a defendant back to prison improperly.

In the latest case, McDonald told public defender Carlos Wood during a Nov. 7 hearing, “You act like you don’t know what the heck’s going on here.” And when Wood raised an objection, McDonald said, “Your part of this hearing is over with. Thank you for coming by.”

Wood’s boss, chief Jefferson County public defender Dan Goyette, said in a statement that McDonald was out of line: “The sort of disrespectful remarks and attitude exhibited by the Court toward counsel and his client is disturbing, and it is disappointing that such inappropriate conduct is not being addressed by those in a position to rectify it.”

Full Article and Source:
Judge Martin McDonald Under Fire Again for Courtroom Behavior

4 comments:

Thelma said...

I think judges should have a psych exam before and after their first year on the bench.

Anonymous said...

Judges think they can act in what ever way they want, because no does anything about it when they act wrong. You should sit in Judge Patrick Caddell's court room in Pinellas county, Florida. He threatens people!, he gets his friends from the Pinellas Guardianship association to sit in an area together to intimidate people. He hires his friends and their family members to do jobs they are not qualified for. He throws wards money and lives around like they are not real people. He should be in jail! And you think he will retire, taxpayers have been paying him since 1986 and he cannot do anything else. And his salary is more than double from when he was hired. Stupid taxpayers!

StandUp said...

And have on-going psych exams, perhaps yearly.

Jenny said...

Rogue judges run amok in every state. It would behoove the judicial discipline committees to clean up the bench and restore some credibility to the legal profession but they must be either lazy or bought.