Georgia judge tells defendant he ‘looked like a queer’ in bizarre courtroom exchange

[n2doc]

Patrick Saunders

A Superior Court judge in Rome last week told a defendant during a hearing that he “looked like a queer” and challenged him to masturbate in front of him in the courtroom after the defendant threatened to kill members of the judge’s family.

The incident occurred June 17 as defendant Denver Fenton Allen, who is accused of beating fellow inmate Stephen Rudolph Nalley to death last August, was trying to get a different public defender. Things turned ugly quick between Allen and Judge Bryant Durham Jr.

The AJC retrieved a transcript of the hearing. Here are the lowlights:

During the hearing, Allen told Durham he would murder his whole family. “I’ll cut your children up into pieces,” Allen said. “I’ll knock their brains out with a (expletive) hammer and feed them to you. … The babies will be going, ‘Daddy, daddy, help me.’”

When Durham told Allen he didn’t have any children, Allen said, “Then I’ll get your nieces, your nephews, your sisters.”

Durham said he had none of those either and told Allen he’d “be in jail so long you won’t have a chance.”

more

http://thegavoice.com/georgia-judge-tells-defendant-looked-like-queer-bizarre-courtroom-exchange/

I can sort of understand the Judge losing it, but keeping your cool is a requirement of the job.

[Initech]

1. OMG this is a real life Idiocracy!

[Laurian]

2. I was stunned when I read this in the AJC yesterday.

The defendant is obviously mentally ill. What's the judge's excuse? To engage the defendant like that was inexcusable. He could have and should have used his power to manage the courtroom in a dignified manner.

No winners in this sorry spectacle.

[Person 2713]

3. Now we know what the judge considered an insult

[yuiyoshida]

4. I read it and thought..

I would like to see the video tape on that...