Pornography, Rank Stupidity, Rape, Texas

How to Destroy Your Career As a Court Employee: Watch Porn During a Rape Trial and/or Fall Asleep on the Bench

At any job, there are various levels of misconduct that an employee can usually get away with or at least occasionally pull off without repercussions. Then there are things you cannot do. Period. Things that any competent employee should simply know are unacceptable. Included in this category of utterly verboten workplace activities are watching porn during a rape trial when you're the on-duty court clerk. The list would also include falling asleep during a youth justice hearing -- when you're the judge running the proceeding....

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At any job, there are various levels of misconduct that an employee can usually get away with or at least occasionally pull off without repercussions. Like, maybe you could get away with wearing jeans even if it’s not casual Friday. You might show up a few minutes late when your boss isn’t around, or you might check Facebook. I steal cars and blog while racing down East 14th after my east coast coworkers go home. You are not supposed to do it, but hey, it happens.

Then there are things you cannot do. Period. Things that any competent employee should simply know are unacceptable.

Included in this category of utterly verboten workplace activities are watching porn during a rape trial when you’re the on-duty court clerk. The list would also include falling asleep during a youth justice hearing — when you’re the judge running the proceeding.

But some people never learn. And then they lose their jobs. And we write about it (gavel bang: Adjunct Law Prof Blog) and show you video of the sleeping judge in court…

First, we have the details on the clerk, courtesy of Greedy Associates:

A veteran London court clerk was caught looking at some racy images — during a rape trial.

The 54-year-old clerk, Debasish Majumder, had worked at the court for years. He claimed he only looked at the pornography because he was “bored.”…

Majumder was found out when the judge saw him viewing the dirty photos. After all, the judge was sitting right behind him during the trial, which took place in December of last year.

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How jaded you have to be to get bored during a rape victim’s testimony? The testimony would be unpleasant, maybe. Disturbing, probably. But boring? Seriously?

Things continue to get worse for Mr. Majumder. He admitted to watching porn at work on the reg. And police found child pornography on his home computer following the in court incident. Now he faces more serious criminal charges.

Maybe there’s a cultural divide. After all, this happened in England, where they have naked photos in mainstream newspapers. Maybe he just thought it was like looking at the news.

Meanwhile, on the homefront a Texas judge — more specifically a “special education hearing officer” — was forced to resign last week after he fell asleep in the middle of “testimony critical to a disabled teenager’s future.” From My Fox Houston:

In Texas, when the parents of special needs children disagree with the way their public school is educating their kid and efforts at compromise fail, there is often only one recourse to settle the dispute. It’s called “Due Process”, an educational court proceeding in which a state-appointed hearing officer listens to the issues and serves as judge and jury.

Larry Craddock was presiding at just such a hearing when he was captured on cell phone camera snoozing through testimony. Attorney Silver estimates Craddock slept through a quarter of the proceedings.

“We dropped water bottles. We tried coughing, we tried jumbling our books to help stir him awake, but it wasn’t working,” said parent Donna Harvey.

Parents who engage in a “due process hearing” often expend tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees fighting school districts with much deeper pockets.

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Way to go, Larry. Next time, think of the children. It’s not like education is important or anything.

Of course, pics or it didn’t happen. Even better, we have video:

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/video/videoplayer.swf?dppversion=11212

We get it. Sometimes work is boring. Sometimes we arrive at work sleep deprived and hung over. But do your damn job. If you want to take naps and look at naked women all day, move to Spain. I hear they pay people for that there.

Bored Court Clerk Watched Porn During Rape Trial [Greedy Associates]
Sleeping Special Education Judge Resigns under Fire [My Fox Houston]
Gavel Bang: Adjunct Law Prof Blog

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