Judge put grandpa in jail... (Lockhart, Caldwell: authority, charge, county)

[CptnRn]

I'm glad to hear that District Judge Jack Robison was reprimanded for improperly jailing a Caldwell County grandfather after a restroom confrontation in 2009.

Judge reprimanded for improperly jailing man

The reprimand, the commission's harshest form of rebuke, said Robison "exceeded the scope of his authority and failed to comply with the law" by jailing Don Bandelman for contempt of court without a hearing or advance notice of the charge.

The incident began when Bandelman, angered by a ruling in a child custody case involving his granddaughter, rushed into a public restroom in the Lockhart courthouse to call Robison a fool.

Robison responded by directing bailiffs to arrest Bandelman and ordered him jailed for 30 days. Bandelman, then 69, was released two days later, after the 3rd Court of Appeals asked Robison to explain his contempt ruling.

The judge was given a "private rebuke" from the commission, which means they did not even publish his name, simply noted on their website that "an unnamed district judge was reprimanded. However, the wording of the violation — "following a confrontation between the judge and the individual in a public restroom" — left little doubt about the judge's identity.

I hope Grandpa sues the judge and county so they take things like this more seriously in the future.

What do you think, shouldn't Grandpa have the right to express his opinion about the judges rulings to him, when they are not in court? How else are public officials to know what the public thinks about their actions?

[henry1]

Maybe the judge forget it the people who give him the power and it the people who will take it back from him ..