Family sues judge who ordered teen to be handcuffed after she fell asleep
Latoreya Till, left, the mother of a 15-year-old girl who fell asleep in the Detroit courtroom of 36th District Court Judge Kenneth King, while on an Aug. 13 field trip, is suing the judge according to her attorney James Harrington, center, as they speak at a press conference in Southfield, Michigan, Wednesday, Aug. 21. (Kara Berg/The Detroit News via the Associated Press)
The mother of a teenage girl sued the Detroit judge who detained and handcuffed her daughter after she fell asleep during a field trip to his courtroom.
Latoreya Hill’s lawsuit says Judge Kenneth J. King—who has been temporarily suspended from hearing cases on Michigan’s 36th District Court—engaged in extrajudicial acts on Aug. 13, when a group of teenagers visited his courtroom.
King ordered that the 15-year-old be put in handcuffs and a jail uniform, and he yelled at her for falling asleep, according to a statement from the Greening of Detroit, the nonprofit that had organized the field trip.
The complaint filed Wednesday accused King of malicious prosecution, unlawful arrest and incarceration, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false arrest and imprisonment, unlawful seizure and detention, and invasion of privacy.
It detailed that King “berated the minor on a live platform, ordered her jailed, caused her to be handcuffed, demanded that she take off her clothes and change into jail garb, imprisoned her for hours, and then conducted a fake trial with her classmates (and possibly his internet followers) as her jurors and his audience.”
King did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday afternoon.
Gary Felty, an attorney at Fieger Law, the Michigan-based firm that has taken on the case, said King had no judicial immunity in the incident because “court was not in session when the judge violated the teenager’s rights.”
In Michigan, a judge is immune to liability “for injuries to persons or damages to property if he or she is acting within the scope of his or her judicial, legislative, or executive authority.”
Hill is focused on her daughter’s best interests, Felty said, while the teenager feels “absolutely humiliated and upset.”
The lawyer noted that King was allegedly broadcasting the teenagers’ field trip on the court’s YouTube channel, allowing viewers to observe and comment.
“She was humiliated in front of her peers as well as a wider internet audience,” Felty said, adding that she is a good student with dreams of becoming a cardiothoracic surgeon. “Who knows how many people saw her be portrayed as a juvenile delinquent.”
The Washington Post is not naming the girl because she is a minor who has not been charged with a crime.
After an internal investigation, King has been temporarily removed from the docket, Chief Judge William McConico said in a statement Thursday.
King has also been ordered to receive “necessary training,” McConico said, because his actions do not reflect the court’s commitment to providing access to justice in “an environment free from intimidation or disrespect.” McConico noted that he does not have the authority to permanently remove a judge from the bench.
Wayne State University, where King was scheduled to teach two fall courses, reassigned his classes because of the suspension, university spokesman Bill Roose said in an email.
The children, who were enrolled in a three-week program at the Greening, went to the court to learn about the legal system, watch a real trial play out and speak to a judge, according to WXYZ, which first reported about the detainment last week.
The attorneys whom the students were meant to watch were not yet in the courtroom when King saw the teenager doze off.
“You fall asleep in my courtroom one more time, I’m going to put you in the back, understood?” King reportedly said, apparently referring to a holding cell.
The judge then asked the girl to step outside to get a drink of water or go to the restroom, Felty said. When she returned, King instructed a court officer to arrest her.
“She was first detained in a room facing the court from where she could hear the judge call cases,” Felty said. Then, he said, a female corrections officer handcuffed her, moved her into another room and asked her to change her clothes.
The complaint said she was then asked to put on a jail jumpsuit and made to wait for two hours, separated from the rest of her group.
After she was called back to the courtroom, Felty said, King “conducts what can only be described as mock trial of the girl. He humiliates and degrades her for the benefit of the other students and, possibly, his internet followers.”
King’s courtroom sessions are generally streamed on YouTube, Felty said, but he should turn off the live feed when court is not in session.
Hill declined the Washington Post’s request for comment, but she told WXYZ that her daughter was tired during the field trip because their family does not have a permanent home. She said King belittled her daughter “in front of the whole world and her friends, to make her feel even more worse about our situation.”
“The fact that he was talking about ‘you go home and get in your bed’, how do you know my baby got a home, how do you know my baby got a bed, her own bed she could sleep in, she don’t have that right now, so she was tired,” Hill told the station.
The judge defended his decision in an interview with WXYZ.
“It was her whole attitude and her whole disposition that disturbed me,” he said, noting that the punishment wasn’t just for falling asleep. “I’ll do whatever needs to be done to reach these kids and make sure that they don’t end up in front of me.”
King said he wanted the situation to look and feel real to her, “even though there’s probably no real chance of me putting her in jail.”
See also:
Teen on field trip ends up in handcuffs and jail garb because judge didn’t want to be ‘played with’
Daniel Wu contributed to this report.
