A Detroit judge who was temporarily removed after ordering a teenager into jail clothes and handcuffs during a field trip is back on the bench.
A Detroit judge who was temporarily removed after ordering a teenager into jail clothes and handcuffs during a field trip is back on the bench but assigned to speeding tickets and other relatively minor offenses.
Judge Kenneth King lost courtroom duties in August and was ordered into social-emotional training by the chief judge at 36th District Court. Instead of handling key hearings in major felonies, he returned this week to the court’s traffic division.
“We appreciate his efforts in preparing for this role, and wish him success as he transitions into this new responsibility,” Judge William McConico said in a written statement.
I'm glad they took action, and still found work he's less likely to screw up. The courts are backed up everywhere, so the public gets the best possible result.
He was just doing what those in the system are paid to do, inflicting trauma on the poor and minorities. How was he supposed to know it wasn't ok to handcuff an unhoused child and threaten them with imprisonment in a humiliating spectacle in front of their peers/on stream for sleeping?
AKA it's going to be a big god-damned mess to actually get rid of you, so here's the lowest-level work we have for your job description. Good luck in your own case and with re-election, asshole.
Honestly, the fact that there were any professional consequences at all is a bit of a relief. Anybody with half a brain and an ounce of empathy could tell he pulled an ego-driven schoolyard-bully move and deserves to be punished, but with nothing "officially official" being done to the girl, it was always going to be hard to turn it into a removal from an elected position.