Judge tosses contempt finding against public defender who was handcuffed for 'insolent behavior'
A Nevada judge has overturned a contempt finding against a Las Vegas public defender who was handcuffed in court for interrupting a judge.
District Judge Gloria Sturman of Clark Clark County said the public defender, Zohra Bakhtary, was not allowed to speak in her defense and was denied due process, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.
The justice of the peace who had ordered Bakhtary handcuffed wrote that she had displayed “disorderly, contemptuous or insolent behavior” by repeatedly interrupting him.
Bakhtary tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the incident has not changed her “passion and devotion to continue to represent the indigent.” Bakhtary said she wanted to become a lawyer after moving to the United States as a teen from Afghanistan.
“It was my dream to live and work in a country that embraces people’s civil and constitutional rights,” she said. “That is precisely why I chose to work as a public defender. I have a great deal of respect for this country’s criminal justice system and an accused’s right to effective assistance of counsel.”
