QandO: Contempt of Court

April 01, 2004

Contempt of Court
Posted by Jon Henke

Via Cam Edwards, a story that alternately makes me depressed, and fighting mad.

Up to his ears in legal documents, Phillip Dean is fed up with the judicial system.

"That's the kind of court system we've got in Jackson County, Alabama and I want everybody to know," Dean says.

So he put a sign in his front lawn saying "Our Court System Is a Joke."

A message landing him behind bars.

"I was in a cell about four foot wide and six foot long and nothing in it but a toilet," he explains.

Arrest orders signed by Judge Haralson claim Dean to be in direct contempt of court, even though the sign is on County Road 107, not in the county courthouse.

"The signs were so derogatory to the court they could not be ignored," Haralson responds in a local paper.

With Dean locked up, the signs were removed.

"Before they would let me go in front of Judge Haralson," Dean says. "They put leg shackles, they put handcuffs, they put chains from my legs up to my waist. they put a chain around my waist. they put chains from my waist up here and had my hands pulled up like this."

With an apology, Haralson released Dean after a day in jail,but the experience leaves Dean with unanswered questions.

"When it gets to where a man hadn't got any free speech in this world, what has he got?" he asks.

The Judge was right. Dean was in contempt of court. But Dean was right, too....the court was contemptible.

Apparently, it still is.

And Judge Haralson? A tyrant in a robe. The sort of fellow Thomas Jefferson said needed to occassionally "refresh the tree of liberty"....

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Comments

I am in a somewhat similar situation although in a different area. I was put in jail, for five hours, for contempt of court that occured five months prior when my then 16 year old son decided he didn't want to go back home to his mother. Ten days later he changed his mind but five months later I was haled in for contempt of court, convicted without a jury trial and imprisoned until I could pay the attorney fees and fine of five hundred. It is my understanding that contempt arrest is for the purpose of bringing someone BACK into compliance NOT for punishment. I was further unaware that the seven amendment of the Constitution guaranteing me the right to a jury trial can be so easily ignored. Any suggestions for research would be greatly appreciated.

Posted by: Lindsey Howell at April 27, 2004 08:12 PM