Judge Holds Himself In Contempt For Ringing Cellphone

At least the judge had a sense of humor about his comical situation.

Most attorneys know that depending on the court they’re in, they either need to turn their cellphone off (but many just keep it on silent) or keep their cellphone at home due to courtroom technological restrictions. If an attorney or a client is unlucky enough to have his cellphone start ringing in court, he may well be punished.

One jurist in Ohio, Judge Rocky Coss of the Highland County Court of Common Pleas, has a warning posted on his courtroom door to that effect. It reads “Turn off cellphones,” and those who forget to do so will be held in contempt and fined $25 if their phone begins to ring while he’s on the bench. On the bright side, at least it’s a cheap fine if you get caught.

Earlier this week, much to the amusement of his bailiff and the lawyers in his courtroom, Judge Coss had to bite the bullet and give himself a judicial spanking after his cellphone started shrieking with the sound of bagpipes to the tune of “Scotland the Brave.”

WCPO Cincinnati has the details on what happened next in Judge Coss’s courtroom:

The judge said he inadvertently placed the phone in his shirt pocket and forgot about it until his wife called.

“In the almost seven years I’ve been judge, I’ve always made sure I left my cell phone in my office,” Coss said.

After he turned off his phone, he quickly apologized and fined himself the $25 he charges anyone else.

“I don’t see how I can hold someone else in contempt and fine them for disrupting the precedings when I do the same thing and not fine myself,” he said.

The next day, Judge Coss was able to laugh at the error of his ways. “Looking back on it, it’s funny. Everywhere I go, people ask, ‘Hey, Rocky, you got your cell phone on?'” He knew attorneys were trying to hold in their laughter, but this good-natured judge has a sense of humor: “If I would have been in their place, I would have been guffawing.”

Attorneys, not all judges are willing to laugh with you, so please make sure you keep your cellphones holstered while in court — and try not to have as offensive a ringtone as Judge Coss’s. No one wants to hear bagpipes echoing off the walls of a courtroom.

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Phone rings, Judge Rocky Coss holds himself in contempt [WCPO]
Judge fines himself for ringing cellphone [ABA Journal]

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