Court Opinion

ID: 9654314
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:14:46.582775+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:29:38.136885
License: Public Domain

PEDEN, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
We have not been furnished a copy of the affidavit of contempt filed by the complainant, Mrs. Patsy Ray Stringer. Therefore, when the Relator was ordered sworn as a witness (over his attorney’s invoking of the privilege against self-incrimination) we cannot say the trial judge was on notice that the proceeding was one in criminal contempt; that is, one whose primary purpose was to vindicate public authority rather than to obtain compliance with the court’s prior order.
Once the trial judge decided to issue a punitive order of commitment rather than a coercive one, the punishment indicates that the contempt was criminal, as distinguished from civil, in nature. I would presume that at this point in the non-jury hearing the trial judge disregarded all inadmissible testimony. There is sufficient testimony from other witnesses as to the Relator’s actions to support the trial judge’s order.
I would not declare the commitment order void.