Texas Lawyer Jailed After Courthouse Ruckus with Deputy; Accounts Differ re Who Was the Aggressor
A Texas attorney has been released from jail on $1,500 bond after being charged with a misdemeanor on accusations he instigated a ruckus with a Harris County sheriff’s deputy outside a courtroom.
However, Gregory T. Josefsberg, 39, told the Houston Chronicle that it wasn’t he but the deputy who started the trouble in the 247th Family District Court yesterday.
As he was speaking to a client and her daughter in a hallway containing around 100 people, Josefsberg said, the deputy, who was working as a bailiff, came out of the courtroom and shouted at the group to move away. When he asked the deputy where he was supposed to go, the attorney said, “He grabbed me and started pushing me down the hallway and against the wall, and he threw me down on the floor.
“I was in complete shock that this guy was just beating the crap out of me,” Josefsberg continued. “This person was assaulting me like an animal.”
The sheriff’s deputy, however, said it was Josefsberg who was the aggressor, according to spokeswoman Christina Garza of the sheriff’s office. She told the newspaper that Deputy M. Thierry asked Josefsberg and two other attorneys in the hallway outside the court to lower their voices or move farther away to avoid disrupting court. Then, a few minutes later, Thierry again asked Josefsberg to quiet down.
“Attorney Josefsberg became upset with our deputy, and the deputy proceeded to escort him down the hallway,” Garza said. “That’s when Josefsberg became belligerent toward the deputy and threw himself on the floor.”
Josefsberg has been charged with interfering with the duties of a public servant.
