Opinion ID: 1239340
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: ---------

Text: BE IT REMEMBERED that on this 6th day of December, 1971, at Courtroom B, City and County Bldg., Cheyenne, Laramie County, Wyoming, before the Honorable John F. Raper, Presiding Judge, the matter of Contempt Proceedings against Freddie Townes came on for hearing, whereupon the following proceedings were had, to-wit: THE COURT: This is a proceeding in contempt and filed in the case of Betty Lou Townes vs. William B. Townes in Docket Number 62-462, and it is here only because that is the case in which the occasion arose. Will you step forward, Mr. Townes? MR. MANKUS: Your Honor, I wonder if I might make a motion? THE COURT: Not at this time. You can make your motion when I am through. MR. MANKUS: Thank you, your Honor. THE COURT: Stand over in front of the table and you with him, Mr. Mankus. You are Fred Townes, are you? THE DEFENDANT: Yes, sir. THE COURT: And you are present in court with your attorney, Mr. Mankus? THE DEFENDANT: Yes, sir. THE COURT: Now you have been cited before the Court, Mr. Townes, for a direct criminal contempt committed in the presence of this court on last Tuesday, November the 30th, 1971 shortly around or before 5:00 p.m., and I will relate to you what the Court considers to be your contempt. I was the presiding judge in a proceeding that involved a dispute between your father and your mother, Betty Lou Townes, over some allegedly unpaid child support. After the evidence was closed and the statements of counsel had been concluded, I proceeded to announce the Court's decision and while this was being done apparently something that I said displeased you considerably. And so you stomped out of this courtroom and you slammed the courtroom door, obviously all in anger and in a very disrespectful fashion. As a matter of fact, that door practically shook on its hinges. When I finished my decision the court was recessed and I departed by the east door of this Courtroom B, and it is on the west end of the Third Floor of the courthouse. This is the courtroom in which these proceedings took place. I am holding these proceedings here today so that everyone present is going to know exactly what the picture was at that time. As I went out of the courtroom out of the  it would be the east door of Courtroom B, you were standing down by the doors of Courtroom A which is the next courtroom just east of here and about 15 or 20 feet from this door and I observed you there. And as soon as I had departed the courtroom you headed toward this courtroom and you were in a tremendous hurry, you were moving quickly and you practically broke into a run to get back into this courtroom. Now the door to my chambers is directly across from the west door of this courtroom and that door is the one that is used for ingress and egress to and from the courtroom by the litigants and attorneys and the public. And as I passed through the small hall from the outside door to the inside door of my chambers, I turned to see what you were going to do because I was suspicious of what you might do because of your conduct in the courtroom. And so I turned and I can see directly into this courtroom from that small hallway. I can see the end of this table which is on the north side of this courtroom. Your father was occupying the chair which I can describe for the record as being the north chair on the west side of counsel table and it's the table that is closest to the door. Having just gone out, everyone in the courtroom was still standing and your father was standing there with his back toward the courtroom door. Now I witnessed all of this that I am telling you about myself. So it was conduct that took place in my presence. So I could and I did see you jump on your father's back and start beating him with your fists and in literally a crazy sort of violence, and from where I was standing I also noticed that you picked up the courtroom chair  a courtroom chair  and that chair is still in the courtroom at the end of the table that I have described  and you brought it down on top of him, and apparently it glanced off of him, went across the room and the leg was broken. And if you care to look at the broken leg it is there. The one leg was splintered and the caster on it was bent and it had to be repaired. Now when you jumped on him you did so without any warning whatsoever, and this Court would describe that as being a cowardly act on your part to say the very least. Now Lamont Miller, the Reporter for this Court, came into the hall, and I had by that time moved into the hall and could see what was going on in here so I requested him to run downstairs and notify whoever was in the Sheriff's office to get up here and bring this tumult that was taking place in this courtroom to an end. And the Sheriff and his deputies came immediately. And there were a total of four of them finally in the courtroom. And I should note that this courtroom is at the west end of the hall and the steps go directly from that end of the hall down to the Sheriff's office so there is only a short flight of stairs there. Now I observed personally the tremendous effort and the struggle that was required in order to bring you under control and to hand cuff you and literally drag you out of this courtroom and downstairs and into the county jail. Now the reason for you having to be dragged down there was because you were thrashing around and resisting and fighting every inch of the way. Now the Court is informed that again in the Sheriff's office when the hand cuffs were removed you broke away and once more had to be subdued. Now I observed your father in the hall. He was leaning up against the stair rail and was in a state of collapse from this completely unwarranted attack upon him. And I also personally observed some contusions about his head. The Court has since been informed that he has suffered a hairline fracture of the jaw and was unable to work last week and in all likelihood will be unable to work this week. Now I looked around this courtroom after this struggle that took place in here. The tables and the chairs were in a terrible state of disarray. The one chair was damaged, splintered and the caster bent; and the corner of the pillar right behind you there and directly in front of me is chipped from this table on the north side of the courtroom having been jammed into it. Now most of this struggle took place right over here on the north side of the courtroom. Now I want you and if there are any news representatives present, I want them likewise to understand that at no time during this attack that you made on your father and while the Sheriff and his deputies were bringing you into submission did I enter this courtroom. This has been inaccurately reported in the news media. The attorneys from what the Court could observe and I was right at the door here, were doing their best to do what they could but it was just an impossible situation. Now if the men of the Sheriff's office had not been so quickly available then it might have been necessary for court personnel to become involved because you were completely wild and out of control. And I did not assist in hauling you off to the Sheriff's jail either. But I did direct as you were being taken from the courtroom that you be held in jail for contempt in the presence of the Court. Now I doubt very much whether you heard that, but that was the time when I did direct your being jailed. Now because of your conduct being like that of some sort of person obsessed, and you acted so much like a person with a deranged mind, and because of the testimony of your mother during the hearing that during the past summer you had shown some indication of mental disturbance, I got in touch with the County Attorney and requested that proceedings for mental examination be initiated. Now the report of the court appointed psychiatrist shows that you are accountable for your actions. So the Court is at liberty now to proceed against you for this criminal contempt which I have just described. Now some time has been spent here outlining to you the circumstances of your offense and every word of it is being taken down. It is going to be transcribed and it is going to be made a part of the Order that the Court is going to make in this case. And I certify in your presence as I would certify in the order that I saw and that I heard the conduct constituting this contempt and that it was committed in the actual presence of the Court. I should explain to you the nature of proceedings for direct criminal contempt. You were forthwith jailed because such a contempt in the presence of the Court may be dealt with summarily by a court. A contempt of court is a situation  in the situation that we have here it is not a matter between your mother and your father as litigants who were appearing in the case that the Court was hearing. But it is an offense against the State of Wyoming and it is not an offense against the presiding judge; and when I say the presiding judge, I mean me. It is not a  it is not a contempt against a judge personally. This is a matter between the State of Wyoming and you. These contempts are punishable because of the necessity of maintaining dignity and respect towards courts and their decisions. The proceeding is to punish a public wrong done by misbehavior and disrespect toward the judicial system itself. Litigants are entitled to come before courts with a freedom from threat and personal harm when they do come into the courtroom here. Now these can't very well be called the halls of justice if persons having every right in the world to be here and use these facilities and while actually engaged in court business must do so with a fear that they are in danger of being physically beaten by the dissatisfaction of some person who is interested in the outcome of the case before the court. This is neither the time nor the place for anyone to spit out his venom and seek some sort of a physical vengeance against someone who supposedly has done you some harm. The administration of justice includes more than those moments when the judge is in the courtroom and actually presiding. It is completely contrary to any concept of law and order that there be any disruption of the peace and the dignity of the State of Wyoming in this courthouse either immediately before, during or after a trial, hearing or a proceeding such as was taking place here last week. Now, Mr. Townes, with this explanation is there any reason why the Court should not fix a definite punishment for a direct criminal contempt of court committed in its presence?