Misbehaving judges are not unique to this side of the Atlantic. Judges all over the world have the occasional screw-up. It’s mighty unfortunate when the screw-up results in a man sitting in jail for a year and a half after he’s been acquitted:

A Spanish judge has been fined 103,000 euros ($162,000) and suspended for a year for allowing a man to spend 455 days in prison for a crime of which he was acquitted.

The Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia said in Wednesday’s ruling that Judge Adelina Entrena was guilty of grave negligence.

That’s a whole lot of coin. But maybe she can afford it, based on the bling on her finger in this photo.

Here’s the backstory:

[D]efendant Jose Campoy stood trial in December 2005 on charges of purse-snatching and was in preventive detention when Entrena issued an acquittal several days later. But she neglected to notify the jail, and it took 15 months for a clerk to detect the error.

Campoy had been notified by mail of his acquittal but has a long history of drug addiction and limited reading skills, the court ruling said.

Entrena blamed the oversight on a backlog of work and insufficient staffing at her courthouse in Motril in the southern province of Granada.

The English translation for the reason for her oversight is, “I forgot.”

Jose Campoy should use whatever money he gets out of this to take literacy classes. Then he should read Kafka’s The Trial.

Spanish Judge Fined Heavily for Letting Innocent Man Spend 15 Months in Jail [The Associated Press]