Opinion ID: 1519826
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Matter of contempts of court

Text: a) Judge Ross. Mr. Howard represented one Tyrone Horton and he entered an insanity plea on his behalf. According to Mr. Howard, the State's Attorney's office would not negotiate a plea bargain unless Horton submitted to a psychiatric examination. The accused then wrote Judge Ross to the effect that he did not wish to enter the insanity plea and Judge Ross ordered a re-arraignment for October 27, 1971. Mr. Howard did not appear at the scheduled time and had to be located and sent for, finally arriving almost an hour and a half late. Judge Ross found him in contempt and fined him $100.00. Mr. Howard says that his trial schedule was extremely heavy at the time and that he had mistakenly thought the arraignment was set for October 28, 1971. b) Judge Rasin. The facts as set forth in the petition are not disputed. A hearing was scheduled before Judge Rasin, Mr. Howard failed to appear, he was cited for contempt, he failed to answer the show cause order, and was ultimately fined $250.00 by Judge Rasin. His explanation is that he did not realize he was in contempt because the case involved what he thought would be testimony before a Master. He did not realize that in Kent County there is no Master and such testimony is before the Court. He was in another court on another matter. c) Judge Jones. Again, there is no real dispute as to the circumstances of this contempt. Mr. Howard failed to show up on the appointed trial date and could not be reached when the Court tried to track him down. His excuse before Judge Jones was that he did not believe he represented the particular defendant and that he was trying a case in Washington at the time. Judge Jones found, after hearing Mr. Howard's explanation, that you have been completely candid with me and yet that doesn't erase the inconvenience and not only inconvenience, but really the hindering of the administration of justice because these people did come here to testify (Petitioner's Exhibit No. 20, page 12), and she fined him $50.00.