A Cincinnati magistrate judge chased down a black woman, forced her into a jury box and sentenced her to over a week in jail for yelling, leading to his resignation.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Magistrate Michael Bachman was caught on tape leaving his courtroom on Sept. 4 to confront a woman whose upset over not being granted a protective order inconvenienced him as he held another hearing reports the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Twenty-eight-year-old Kassandra Jackson went to the courthouse to file a civil protection order, often sought by domestic violence victims, but was told she missed the 8 a.m. deadline. Distressed, the mother of two began crying in the hallways. Jackson was believed to have confronted the court officials about missing the deadline when Bachman came out of his courtroom.
Security footage shows Bachman motioning to his courtroom and when it appeared Jackson was going down the wrong hallway, he grabbed her by the shoulder and neck and guides her back to his courtroom. The victim reportedly moved from where he instructed her to sit and deputies tackled her while a third person came to assist in restraining her. Deputies proceeded to strap her to a restraining chair in the holding area.
According to WLWT News 5, Bachman charged the woman with contempt of court and sentenced her to three days in jail. Bachman decided to add seven more days to the sentence following the struggle with deputies.
She would serve two days of the sentence until Common Pleas Court's presiding judge Kim Burke demanded her release. All other charges were also dismissed.
Attorney Jay Clark, who witnessed the incident, said he never saw anything like that in his 30 years of practice.
"I think also it should be a reminder of, I'll say restraint," Clark said. "You have to kind of set your temper and emotion aside and have that judicial temperament."
At the time of the outburst, reports state a hearing had been underway in a trial in which Bachman was presiding over.
Clark told the outlet he doesn't understand why the Bachman would further interrupt the hearing by confronting Jackson.
"Most of the time, the judge wants the disturbance gone so they can proceed with their docket," Clark said. "They don't want to interrupt the docket more by chasing somebody down the hall."
Bachman resigned on September 10.
"I resigned in order to save the court further consternation," Bachman said. "But had I known it was going to become public, I would have defended myself in the investigation."
Cincinatti.com reports this was not Bachman's first encounter with Jackson. He reportedly denied her request for an order of civil protection last year, which also yielded in a decision to sentence the woman to jail after she hit a wall. When reminded of their first interaction, of which Bachman claims he has no recollection according to Cincinnati.com, he showed little remorse for his attitude toward the mother.
"I suppose it shows … she is a person who has now shown on at least two occasions has no sense of decorum or respect for the courts," he told the outlet via text.
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