Judge Threatens Teen on Field Trip With Jail Time

Strange Detroit incident was caught on video
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 15, 2024 1:35 AM CDT

A 15-year-old girl on a field trip to a Detroit courthouse ended up handcuffed, wearing a jail jumpsuit, and being threatened with time behind bars by a judge who thought she was being disrespectful. The teen was participating in a three-week program run by the Greening of Detroit, a nonprofit that also took the kids on field trips including kayaking and bird-watching, WXYZ reports. On Tuesday at the courtroom, the teen was apparently dozing off while the judge addressed the group. "You fall asleep in my courtroom one more time, I'm gonna put you in back, understood," Judge Kenneth King told the girl. He later accused her of "disrespect," the Detroit Free Press reports.

Video of the incident shows the teen, who had apparently been led away, later being led back into the courtroom by court staff—in the green jumpsuit and handcuffs. The judge said he was tempted to put her in jail to teach her a lesson, then held a "hearing" of sorts, with a public defender "representing" the teen and the other kids in the group voting on whether the judge should send her to the juvenile detention facility or let her go. He ultimately allowed her to leave, though he insists to WXYZ that he "probably" could have actually sent her to jail had he wanted to. The nonprofit says the teen was "traumatized" by the encounter, but the judge is sticking by his decision: "That was my own version of Scared Straight." (More Detroit stories.)

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