Background: Edward J. Schwartz U.S. Courthouse in San Diego, Calif. Inset: U.S. District Judge Robert Benitez (via U.S. Courts.)
U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez argued he was just trying to teach the 13-year-old daughter of a criminal defendant a tough lesson when he shackled her in his California courtroom and then had her led to the jury box by a marshal as she cried. But in a rare rebuke, an appeals court called that conduct “abusive” and “harassing” and stripped him of taking any on new criminal cases for three years.
“The Judicial Counsel finds two features of this conduct impermissible. First, the shackling of a spectator at a hearing who is not engaged in threatening or disorderly behavior exceeds the authority of a district judge. Second, creating a spectacle out of a minor child in the courtroom chills the desire of friends, family members, and members of the public to support loved ones at sentencing,” the 11-member panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judicial Council wrote in the May 1 order .