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A Detroit judge has been temporarily removed from the bench after he ordered a 15-year-old girl visiting his courtroom on a field trip to be handcuffed and put into jail clothes after he saw her sleeping.
District Court Judge Kenneth King became angry with the teenage girl when he spotted her asleep while visiting the courtroom with The Greening of Detroit on Tuesday, a local environmental nonprofit.
When the teenage girl talked back to him he ordered her to be formally reprimanded, WXYZ-TV reported.
“You fall asleep in my courtroom one more time, I’m gonna put you in back, understood?” the judge said, according to a video of his remarks.
Judge King then had the girl change into jail clothes and wear handcuffs. He also threatened her with juvenile detention, giving graphic details about the living conditions inside the detention center.
He defended his actions by claiming he “wanted to get through to her” and show her “how you are to conduct yourself inside of a courtroom.”
“I wanted this to look and feel very real to her, even though there’s probably no real chance of me putting her in jail. That was my own version of ‘Scared Straight,’” Judge King said, referring to a documentary about teen offenders in New Jersey.
“I’ll do whatever needs to be done to reach these kids and make sure that they don’t end up in front of me,” he added.
On Thursday it was announced that he had been removed from the bench temporarily for “necessary training”.
Judge King has served on the 36th District Court since 2006 when he was appointed by the former governor. He served as the chief justice briefly from 2012 until 2013 when he was removed after a financial mismanagement scandal.
The Greening of Detroit, a non-profit organization that focuses on environmental education and training, said the teenage girl was “traumatized.”
“Although the judge was trying to teach a lesson of respect, his methods were unacceptable,” chairperson Marissa Ebersole Wood said. “The group of students should have been simply asked to leave the courtroom if he thought they were disrespectful.”
Judge King was temporarily removed from hearing cases after a “swift and thorough” investigation, Chief Justice William McConico said in a statement obtained by The New York Times.
It is unclear how long Judge King will remain off his docket.
Judge King did not immediately respond to comment request from the Associated Press. But the judge told WXYZ that he spoke to the girl's parents and offered to be a mentor.
