Free Republic

ELKHART -- A 23-year-old man facing jail time for a probation violation assaulted a 74-year-old bailiff before escaping from the Elkhart County Courts Building on Wednesday, according to authorities. Aaron Macon appeared Wednesday afternoon in Superior Court 6 regarding a probation violation on a felony charge of marijuana possession. Judge David Bonfiglio found Macon had violated his probation by failing a drug test and told the defendant to sit and wait for a court security officer to take him into custody, Bonfiglio said. "We always make them sit in the jury box until the officer comes up," he said. Macon...

Ex-TV Bailiff Rusty Burrell Dies Fri Apr 19, 9:38 PM ET LOS ANGELES (AP) - Rusty Burrell, a retired sheriff's deputy who later served as bailiff on the reality television show "The People's Court," died Monday at his home in Rosemead. He was 76. Burrell, who spent 25 of his 31 years in law enforcement in the court system, was suffering from lung cancer, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. The white-haired lawman was a real-life bailiff during a number of high profile trials, including cult-killer Charles Manson and Patty Hearst, the newspaper heiress kidnapped by radicals who was later...