Judge suffers bite wounds in court battle
A Washington state judge suffered bite wounds, authorities said, after getting involved in a courtroom clash Thursday between a defendant and a prosecutor and a courtroom deputy.
According to video footage, defendant Roberto Diaz-Lara, 49, who had just been convicted in a Clark County Superior Court child-molestation trial, tried to strike deputy prosecutor Colin Hayes.
The video shows a man in gray street clothes coming around the far end of the defense table and walking rapidly toward the center of the courtroom as Judge Daniel Stahnke repeatedly tells him “Don’t!” The man appears to throw something he had been holding in his right hand at one of two men in dark suits at the prosecution table, and the targeted man backs away.
The aggressor was Diaz-Lara, who also used profanity as he can be seen pointing his outstretched arm at Hayes on the video, according to the Vancouver Columbian. A voice calls out “get him!” as Diaz-Lara backs up, off the screen, in the direction of the bench and a Clark County sheriff’s deputy rushes from the back of the courtroom to intervene.
The offscreen clash can now be heard but not seen. However, the other dark-suited man from the prosecution side of the table is visible as he runs around it toward the front of the courtroom, pauses as he appears to draw a weapon from his waistband and points it with both arms at the offscreen scrum.
The sheriff’s office said Stahnke at some point intervened and was injured. Court administrator Jeff Amram told the newspaper he didn’t witness the court battle but did later see the judge with a bite mark on his arm and on his cheek. An assistant to the judge said his injuries were minor.
Diaz-Lara now faces three new assault charges. The article doesn’t include any comment from him or his legal counsel.
