definitely my privilege pleasure to appear here today it has been and remains my pleasure to represent karen hudson and susan heard throughout this rather unusual proceeding a little bit of background in the situation th side and you've got the people that are interested in the environment you know the treatment of animals of the other so these are somewhat hot button issues going back to april first of twenty ugly fourteen  karen hudson her husband both of whom are present this morning and another lady susan turner came down to wash the truck so to speak and they did not the week before was jury selection which took two or three days i understand i well no commotion no interruption the poor was not in session at this point and opening statements started that's why that morning and the opening statement was given by one of the plaintiff's attorneys took most of the morning to digress for a second one of the requirements of direct criminal contempt as the person would have acted whether it was conformationally or willfully karen hudson who was ultimately held in contempt that afternoon that morning had to excuse herself from the courtroom as a spectator to use the restroom and i don't know if any of you have had the opportunity recently to be down in the scott county courthouse is probably contemporary with abraham lincoln or maybe it was built during his era but it is an old charming courthouse but if you walk through the floor on the second floor where the court room is or on the floor boards of the stairs it creaks it makes a lot of noise makes a guy my size a little bit nervous thinking i'm going to bang the first floor quicker than i want however karen went to use the restroom and so on to not disturb the proceedings but she left the building so not to make all sorts of noise walking through the floors because it was noisy she never came back till after the lunch break that day so again she was trying to be respectful of the proceedings after launch one of the defense attorneys having heard the plaintiff's opening statement said to the judge judge i was told by an unknown person that somebody had distributed literature in his court well the judge said wait a second we're going to have some activist in here and that's not right we're not going to let that happen we're going to investigate he gathered everybody together to judge this i don't know who this person was i haven't seen anything there was no disturbance and the judge started the inquiry this is not correct criminal contempt judge sherry did not see anything occur in the play defense attorney steven cochran from here in springfield did not see anything or heard the inquiry had to be made and investigation had to be made as a case a red indicated if the if the incident occurred within the ocular periphery of that rush or the judge could take a few to show notice of what occurred that may be right for correct criminal contempt otherwise know to criticize judge perry which is what i'm doing which i normally don't criticize tourist i have all the respect in the world were tourists as my father was one but i will tell you i think judge jury made the wrong c i wasn't bob in this case at that time i was brought in later i filed a motion to vacate shortly after that i went down to shock county to argue the motion of course i'm arguing to the judge and i was frankly based upon my preparation and reading that day i was very concerned of who i was going to come across was just the dictator of the county was just the potentate are you going to take my head off much like i thought he did to my clients and i was frankly rather nervous that day i get down there and i meet the most they mean both charming welcoming drug there is we had a very good discussion i presented the case he said he took it under advisement waited about fourteen months i got a one line response same motions denied this in your motion to reconsider you laid out pretty clearly what you thought were the mistakes in terms of direct persons interact i did and i will tell you that and i think this is especially relevant before the fourth district appellate court i think the the best case there is it's never been written on the issue of contempt is the best case by your just a statement that has been it should be in a law school book to tell you the truth and i rely on that it's still good law every case that i come across how it courts frown on direct criminal contempt it's an extraordinary remedy in this case i think it was the heat of the moment i think it was the pressure of the case where the judge attorneys involved in an ongoing jury trial he admits right there he did not see it he had to investigate he had to learn it steve cochran the defense attorney who brought it to the judge's attention did not see it did not know it  oftentimes we see in a courtroom the term double hearsay this would almost be that situation it's once removed from even an attorney seeing it twice removed from the court actually being able to take you to show notice and there was if something  d that day that was improper karen hudson ensues and turner were not given notice of what the appropriate decorum was you know if you stand before a court and you do something that is so flagrant like use an expletive or do something else specifically that's obvious but in courtroom decorum for example about what you can wear where you should sit what you can bring with you things like that typically a person should be given notice before they're held accountable for direct criminal contempt i think i mentioned in my brief even that particular morning karen hudson and susan her in again i believe susan was brought in by guilt by association and that said but they asked other people to remove the stickers or rub pins where they were supporting a certain cause because they knew that was inappropriate in the court so there was no intent there was no willfulness in the situation and i would be happy to answer any questions but i think in this situation we've established this is not correct criminal contempt i don't believe it's contempt i would ask the court to outright reverse this vacate the findings of contempt there's nothing to remain at this point if it is considered indirect criminal contempt that would be something to be separately prosecuted in which parents susan would be entitled to all of their constitutional rights both under the state and federal constitutions they'd be entitled to due process and much as if this was initiated a separate j independent direct indicted case or what have you so for these reasons i believe it's justified to have the orders and judgments of contempt make it thank you for