- LOS ANGELES -- All he did was talk too much, but that was enough for a judge
in Los Angeles to order a defendant zapped with a 50,000-volt jolt of electricity,
it was reported Thursday.
-
- The Los Angeles Times said it was the
first activation ever in Los Angeles of a prisoner's electronic security
belt.
-
- Ronald Hawkins, defending himself at
a sentencing hearing, continually interrupted municipal Judge Joan Comparet-Cassani
and so she ordered the bailiff to use his remote control to administer
an eight-second electric shock, the paper said.
-
- People in the courtroom said Hawkins
grimaced and stiffened as the electricity surged through his body. He was
wearing the security belt, which is known as a REACT belt, because he had
acted violently while in jail on two previous occasions.
-
- But Deputy Public Defender Jacques Cain,
who was present in court waiting to represent another defendant when the
incident occurred last week, said he was shocked at the use of the belt
for such a trivial reason.
-
- "If the guy was fighting with the
bailiffs, I can understand using the belt to restrain him, but that was
absolutely not the case. To physically punish a defendant for speaking
out of turn seems ... outrageous,'' he told the Times.
-
- Comparet-Cassani was not available for
comment Thursday. She told the newspaper that a code of judicial ethics
prevented her from discussing the case while it was still pending.
-
- The hearing was held over to July 29
after Hawkins, 48, said he needed more time to recover from the jolt.
-
- According to court transcripts the judge
warned Hawkins she would have him zapped. "You are wearing a very
bad instrument, and if you want to feel it, you can, but stop interrupting
me,'' she said.
-
- "You are going to electrocute me
for talking?'' Hawkins asked. "No sir, but they will zap you if you
keep doing it,'' the judge replied.
-
- After Hawkins had interrupted Comparet-Cassani
twice more, the judge told him: "One more time, one more time, go
ahead.''
-
- "That is unconstitutional,'' Hawkins
replied before the judge ordered he receive the full 50,000-volt force
of the law.
-
- Hawkins was convicted of petty theft,
a misdemeanor, but as he had two previous felony convictions he was eligible
to be sentenced to a much longer time in jail under California's ''three
strikes'' law.
|
Sightings HomePage