Posted on 10/15/2022 12:44:25 AM PDT by knighthawk
A North Carolina father-of-one spent 24 hours in jail for refusing to wear a mask as ordered by a judge despite no state or county mandates in place.
Gregory Hahn, 47, a US Navy veteran, was among several of 98 jury duty candidates called to Harnett County court who showed up not wearing a mask because there were no such rules or warnings in place, WRAL reports.
Despite the fact that masks aren't required in the building, Judge Winston Charles Gilchrist mandated that everyone in his courtroom wear a mask.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
The judge is garbage. But I wonder about the court officers who took that juror and placed him in a cell. Officers are not obliged to follow unlawful orders.
Would those officers have obeyed if the judge, say, wanted to throw a juror in jail for wearing tennis shoes? Sadly, probably so.
Judges generally have too much power. I realize a judicial process must have order but appointing every judge with the power to impose his or her own little rules, unique and inconsistent, is silly.
I read recently of a woman called as a witness in 1935. She showed up in court wearing very modest slacks and a jacket. The judge wouldn’t let her testify up wearing slacks. She was jailed for contempt until she agreed to wear a dress. She returned to court wearing an extravagant evening gown.
Give some people the ability to be a tyrant and tyranny will follow.
> It’s not his court. It’s the people’s court. <
Right. Teachers don’t own their classrooms. Cops don’t own their streets. They just work there, and must follow established rules like anyone else.
Some goes with judges, and perhaps even more so because of the immense power judges have.
> Give some people the ability to be a tyrant and tyranny will follow. <
Excellent comment. Probably one of the top ten truisms about human nature.
I think this sort of thing is going to start happening with much greater frequency, especially if there is no red wave in November. Oh, not the jail for mask thing specifically. Just the vicious arbitrary punishment for being conservative. Speak out at a town council or school board meeting? Visit from police, and possibly jail. Write an angry letter to the editor? IRS audit. Get involved in a heated political discussion on Facebook? Arrest. Too many Trump signs in your yard? Jail. I bet that poor guy in North Carolina was thinking, ‘this can’t be happening. This can’t be America’. Now he knows.
Had I been there, I’d like to think I too would have pulled off that #!?! mask and said, ‘hey Judge, you can take me, too’. But I don’t know. Tyranny is coming. Real tyranny, which will make this North Carolina judge look like a Sunday school teacher.
“Sorry.
His court; his rules.”
It doesn’t work that way. Like I said above, I’ve been involved in removing three judges from the bench for misconduct. Several more I have had reprimanded by higher courts.
I highly respect the judicial system and do not take judicial misconduct lightly. I have several judges as friends and would never abuse the system.
It’s not about an ego pissing contest or getting even. It’s about fairness. Nothing gets my blood boiling faster than a crooked or inept judge. I understand that judges can have a bad day, or must sometimes step close to being a tyrant to bring attorneys into line, but judges are accountable too.
Judges live in glass houses. In every case I was involved in, there were bigger problems discovered as a result of my triggering an investigation.
“I would sue him in civil court”
Suing a judge is like suing an attorney. There is an unspoken code that you don’t do that. Any attorney in their jurisdiction would be reluctant to take the case.
I learn everything I can about a judge if I must appear in their courtroom. The church they attend, previous employment, areas of legal expertise, spouses employment, how many children, law school, undergraduate degrees... and I try to understand their “good old boys” connections.
Even so, I’ve had surprises. I’m retired now and away from it. My focus has been in developing strategy, including the psychological analysis of parties involved.
Indeed, the Judge is a King in his Courtroom. What happens after is different, but, while in the judge’s room, the judge rules.
Then have them removed from the courtroom.
Stripping somebody of their liberty and putting them behind bars is a crime.
Jury duty can be quite an hardship on a person, especially a high profile case. I don’t blame anyone who would want to avoid that.
Why are masks required? The pandemic is over—the president said so.
When I lived in Florida I got called for jury duty seven times while most of the people in my neighborhood were never called. I won’t go into the details here because it’s long and convoluted, but Florida’s method of going through potential jury pools is absolutely lunatic. And after talking to the state and the county I’m convinced none of those idiots even know how it works.
When we sold our home and moved to another state we had to transfer our driver’s licenses and car titles. Well over a year after we moved my wife got a jury notice sent to our Kentucky address, NOT forwarded. It demanded that she come to Florida for jury duty.
After being called seven times I had my belly full of the whole damn system. I have other complaints about the system that I will not go into here. In Kentucky I can decline jury duty because I am over 70. And that’s just what I’m going to do if called.
Brings back memories of the movie “Alice’s Restaurant” in which Arlo Guthrie is thrown in jail for littering.
I did a three week stint doing jury duty a few years back. There was not enough parking, so I had to park in a sketchy dangerous neighborhood. They had us stay in a room for hours sitting in chairs. I was mainly angry about the parking situation. If you are going to force me to be there, provide safe parking. After that, I ignore summons for jury duty. When summons are sent via postcard by regular mail, they cannot prove you have received it, so it goes in the trash. Currently, the area where the court is has gotten really bad. I have $1000 deductible on my auto insurance, and would have to pay a lot of money if my catalytic converter is stolen.I will not go there.
Really good point! That judge just made it easy for the lawyers to see who they want on the jury! Or not want.
Power-tripping POS. What he did was wrong and he needs to be removed.
Let me share with all of you my story of an insane dictatorial judge.
Back in 1972 my parents were getting a rather ugly divorce in Seminole County Florida. My older brother and I were legal adults and we lived in different counties. My younger brother was a minor and lived with my mother.
A judge by the name of Dominic Salfie (I am not 100% sure of the spelling of his last name after all these years) was hearing their divorce. He demanded that along with my parents my brothers and I were required to get a psychiatric evaluation for the court.
I told my father’s lawyer that he could tell the judge to kiss my ass and I dared him to send a sheriff across county lines to get me. The judge did not do that.
This judge was so bad that lawyers from outside Seminole County would not take cases in Seminole County if they thought it was going to end up in his courtroom. Eventually it got so bad that the county, in order to get rid of him, kicked him up the ladder. So he could screw people at a higher level.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.