Now here's a judge that is waaay over the line.
The New York Times
July 2, 2005
For Potential Juror, 'Honest' Response to Judge Backfires
By ANDREW JACOBS
It may have been an inelegant description, but Stephen Caruso said he thought he was just being honest on Thursday afternoon when a judge asked if he could be fair and impartial toward a defendant on trial for kidnapping. No, Mr. Caruso said during the voir dire portion of jury selection. "I have been held up three times at gunpoint," he said according to transcripts, adding, "I am already looking at him; I think he is a scumbag."
Judge William A. Wetzel of Manhattan Criminal Court did not appreciate Mr. Caruso's candor, though, and ordered him held in contempt of court. "That is an insult not only to him, but to the other people in the room and me," Judge Wetzel said, before ordering Mr. Caruso to come back the next day.
But when Mr. Caruso returned with a lawyer yesterday and apologized for his choice of words, Judge Wetzel was not inclined to forgiveness. "I've interviewed upwards of 15,000 jurors and I have never experienced such an inappropriately vulgar, contemptuous occurrence," he said. He then told Mr. Caruso, 27, a financial planner from the Upper East Side, to return to court on July 18 and face the prospect of a $1,000 fine or up to 30 days in jail.
Mr. Caruso seemed shaken by the experience and said he never intended to insult anyone. "I'm a little disillusioned with the whole legal process right now," he said afterward. "I feel like I'm being punished for being honest."
In addition to being the victim of two armed robberies while he was a college student in New Orleans, Mr. Caruso, 27, said he was riding a public bus there when it was held up by a gunman.
The trial, which involves a man accused of pushing someone into a car at gunpoint, "just brought up a lot of emotions and memories," he said, explaining his unfortunate choice of words.
After yesterday's hearing, his lawyer, Norman Steiner, said he thought Judge Wetzel was misapplying the criminal contempt statute. The law, Mr. Steiner said, is intended to penalize people who intentionally disrupt a courtroom by, for example, chanting or throwing things during a proceeding. "This isn't contempt," he said. "This is an angry judge."
Randolph N. Jonakait, a professor at New York Law School and the author of "The American Jury System," agreed.
The purpose of voir dire, a French term meaning "to speak the truth," is to find out whether potential jurors may be biased. He said he had never heard of a juror being held in contempt for using candid, although, crude language. "It's hard enough to get people to voice their opinions honestly in front of other jurors," he said. "When a judge intimidates prospective jurors from speaking their mind, I think it harms the jury system." |
