Mobile rings in court; Judge goes postal

Earlier this year I blogged about an incident involving a mobile phone with a lewd and lascivious 'moan tone' ringtone going off in the Ipswich Magistrates Court.  It seems that at least one Judge in the United States has a different attitude to ringing mobile phones, orgasmic or otherwise.

Judge Robert M. Restaino has been removed from office by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, because of an incident which would be funny if not for the egregious abuse of authority involved.  Quoting from the press release:

In a determination dated November 13, 2007, the Commission found that Judge Restaino engaged "an egregious and unprecedented abuse of judicial power" in March 2005 by committing 46 defendants into police custody after no one took responsibility for a ringing cell phone in the courtroom.

As found by the Commission, Judge Restaino, who was presiding in a domestic violence part, acted "without any semblance of a lawful basis," "out of pique and frustration." After questioning each defendant individually about the ringing phone, he reinstated bail or set additional bail for a total of 46 defendants, who were taken into custody and moved to holding cells. The 14 defendants who were unable to post bail were transported to the County Jail. Those defendants remained in custody for seven hours, until the judge released them after learning that the press was inquiring into his actions.

Stating that the judge's conduct "transcended poor judgment," the Commission found "no mitigating circumstances" for the judge's "shocking" behavior. The Commission concluded that the judge behaved like "a petty tyrant" whose behavior constituted "a gross deviation from the proper role of a judge."

The Sydney Morning Herald has an article on this event.