The Scream

The Ohio Supreme Court has suspended a former magistrate for six months, rejecting the Board on Professional Conduct’s proposed stay of the suspension

In a December 5, 2019 complaint, relator, disciplinary counsel, alleged that Bachman engaged in judicial misconduct in conjunction with an incident involving a woman who had disrupted a trial in his courtroom by screaming in the hallway. Bachman left the bench to locate the woman, brought her into his courtroom, summarily held her in direct contempt of court, and when she protested his actions, increased her three-day jail sentence to ten days.

The alleged contemnor came to the courthouse seeking a civil protection order and was told by the clerk’s office to return on the following day.

She went to the courtroom in the hope of being heard that day and had a conversation with the magistrate’s law clerk.

She exited the courtroom and 

K.J. then screamed so loudly that it was heard in the courtroom and captured on the audio system that was recording the proceedings. Bachman immediately said, “Okay, time-out” and stopped the trial. He then left the bench and exited the courtroom.

He directed her to return 

She complied and began to walk back to the courtroom with Bachman following her. When K.J. turned toward the main entrance of the courtroom, Bachman placed his hand between her neck and her shoulder and redirected her to a side entrance. With his hand still firmly between her neck and her shoulder, Bachman directed her into the courtroom and into the jury box.

Her “trial” followed

K.J. became upset, started crying, and yelled, “No! No!” Bachman stated, “Don’t make it worse ma’am.” After K.J. resisted the deputies and screamed several times, Bachman said, “Ten days.” While the deputies wrestled with K.J., she yelled, “Why every time I come here to get help, you always send me to jail? You didn’t even hear what it was that I had to say and now I got to go to jail for three days.” Bachman, replied, “Now it’s ten, ma’am.” As deputies dragged K.J. from the courtroom at Bachman’s direction, Bachman addressed one of the deputies to congratulate him on an award that the deputy had received; according to Bachman, he was attempting to “inject some humanity” into the situation. Later that day, Bachman signed an order finding K.J. in direct contempt of court.

The court presiding judge viewed a video of the incident and ordered K.J. released after two days.

He resigned from the bench in the wake of the incident.

The court here called the video “revealing and disturbing”

The next 20 minutes of the video are difficult to watch. While K.J. resists being arrested and pleads with Bachman to explain why she is being jailed for three days, she is physically subdued by two deputies, threatened with being tased, and ultimately dragged from the jury box by several deputies. Bachman’s only response is to increase her jail sentence to ten days. Not only is the chain of events set in motion by Bachman’s misconduct physically and emotionally harmful to K.J., the incident exposed the sheriff’s deputies and other court personnel to harm from a violent and unnecessary arrest on full display in front of a courtroom full of people who have no other choice but to sit silently and witness such a disturbing sight. Bachman then congratulates a deputy on an award the deputy had recently received and resumes the proceeding as if nothing out of the ordinary has just transpired. Meanwhile, the video footage shows, while K.J. continues protesting her arrest, she is dragged, yanked, pinned to a wall, and handcuffed to a chair. Before the video ends, over 20 deputies and members of the court staff are involved in jailing K.J.—all because of a scream of frustration in the hallway that lasted one second.

The court on sanction found he lacked insight into his wrongful conduct

Sending someone to jail is not the adult equivalent to sending a child to his or her room for a time-out.

…the board recommends that we impose a sanction of a six-month suspension stayed in its entirety. However, we find that a stayed suspension is not commensurate with the judicial misconduct in this case. When a judicial officer’s misconduct causes harm in the form of incarceration, that abuse of the public trust warrants an actual suspension from the practice of law

(Mike Frisch)