[Puppage]

It was the judge who said, "nope, you're not going to represent yourself anymore."

But, isn't that the same kind of instance? I mean, could a judge do that in the case of a trial by jury....suddenly decide that the juy's not doing it's job & decide to render the verdict himself?

In both cases it would be going against the legal wishes of the accused.

[Catspaw]

In this case, it WAS the wishes of the accused that he stop representing himself. To avoid a reversal at the court of appeals, the judge did the right thing:

VIRGINIA BEACH, Oct. 22--Accused sniper John Allen Muhammad, who stunned court personnel when he decided to represent himself in his capital murder trial, changed his mind this morning and decided to reenlist his experienced trial attorneys.

Following a 28-minute bench conference, Prince William County Circuit Court Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. told jurors, "Mr. Muhammad believes it is no longer in his best interest to represent himself in this trial."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64367-2003Oct22.html