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To: DMaA who wrote (16587)	7/9/1998 3:56:00 PM
From: Moonray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22053

Man zapped with 50,000 volts for talking in court Posted at 11:55 a.m. PDT Thursday, July 9, 1998 LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - All he did was talk too much, but that was enough for a judge in Los Angeles to order a defendant zapped with a 50,000-volt jolt of electricity, it was reported Thursday. The Los Angeles Times said it was the first activation ever in Los Angeles of a prisoner's electronic security belt. Ronald Hawkins, defending himself at a sentencing hearing, continually interrupted municipal Judge Joan Comparet-Cassani and so she ordered the bailiff to use his remote control to administer an eight-second electric shock, the paper said. People in the courtroom said Hawkins grimaced and stiffened as the electricity surged through his body. He was wearing the security belt, which is known as a REACT belt, because he had acted violently while in jail on two previous occasions. But Deputy Public Defender Jacques Cain, who was present in court waiting to represent another defendant when the incident occurred last week, said he was shocked at the use of the belt for such a trivial reason. ''If the guy was fighting with the bailiffs, I can understand using the belt to restrain him, but that was absolutely not the case. To physically punish a defendant for speaking out of turn seems ... outrageous,'' he told the Times. Comparet-Cassani was not available for comment Thursday. She told the newspaper that a code of judicial ethics prevented her from discussing the case while it was still pending. The hearing was held over to July 29 after Hawkins, 48, said he needed more time to recover from the jolt. According to court transcripts the judge warned Hawkins she would have him zapped. ''You are wearing a very bad instrument, and if you want to feel it, you can, but stop interrupting me,'' she said. ''You are going to electrocute me for talking?'' Hawkins asked. ''No sir, but they will zap you if you keep doing it,'' the judge replied. After Hawkins had interrupted Comparet-Cassani twice more, the judge told him: ''One more time, one more time, go ahead.'' ''That is unconstitutional,'' Hawkins replied before the judge ordered he receive the full 50,000-volt force of the law. Hawkins was convicted of petty theft, a misdemeanor, but ashe had two previous felony convictions he was eligible to be sentenced to a much longer time in jail under California's ''three strikes'' law. o~~~ O