Courts

Man Attends Zoom Court Hearing From His Victim's Home, Gets Arrested

Eagle-eyed prosecutor noticed something strange.

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(Image via iStock)

The list of Zoom foibles is legion at this point. Whether it’s shoveling food in your piehole while on camera, responding to a judge with “sneaky bitch,”  having sex on camera during a hearing, or sharing your racist views with the world when you thought you were no longer recording, a lot has gone wrong for lawyers trying to go about their jobs in a virtual world. Well, here’s a story where the lawyer, a prosecutor, gets it very right.

Coby James Harris of Sturgis, Michigan, is facing charges he assaulted his girlfriend, Mary Lindsey. He was out on bond on March 2nd, when both Harris and Lindsey appeared virtually at a court hearing. It should be noted at this point that a condition of Harris’s release was that he not have contact with Lindsey.

During the course of the hearing Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Deborah Davis noticed something was amiss, and she expressed those concerns to Judge Jeffrey Middleton, as reported by KIRO 7:

“Your Honor,” Davis said. “I have reason to believe that the defendant is in the same apartment as the complaining witness right now, and I am extremely scared for her safety. The fact that she’s looking off to the side and he’s moving around, I want some confirmation that she is safe before we continue.”

The judge wanted to know where Lindsey was:

“Ms. Lindsey, where are you right now?” Middleton asked.

“Um, I’m at a house,” she responded. “It’s my house.”

Middleton demanded to know the address, which she gave him.

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Judge Middleton then asked Harris where he was located, but he provided a different address — one he could not corroborate:

He declined, however, to take his cellphone outside and snap a photo of the house number, telling the judge his battery was low and that the phone was plugged into a wall charger.

In a dramatic turn, police officers were sent to Lindsey’s home to check on her status:

“Ms. Lindsey, would you go answer the door?” Middleton asked.

“Take your phone with you so that we know you’re OK,” Davis told her.

Lindsey could be seen walking to the door and answering it, at which point her connection to the call dropped.

Harris, who kept looking off-screen, also vanished from the call.

When Lindsey’s connection to the hearing was reestablished, Harris could be seen in handcuffs.

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“Your Honor, me and Mary both don’t want the no-contact (order). I ask that that be dropped,” Harris said. “I’m sorry I lied to you. I knew the cops were outside. I don’t know why I…”

Middleton interrupted Harris.

“Mr. Harris, my advice is, don’t say anything else. Take the cigarette out of your mouth,” the judge said. “The hearing is adjourned. Your bond is canceled.

“If you have $10 million, you can’t bond out. In addition, the prosecutor’s probably also going to charge you with obstruction of justice.”

Middleton said that even if both Harris and Lindsey want the bond conditions lifted, prosecutors do not.

“We’re serious as a heart attack,” the judge said.

The judge noted the… unique circumstances that led to the revocation of Harris’s bond:

“This is an issue we didn’t have when we were having live court,” the judge said. “That’s the first time I ever had anybody sitting in the next room potentially intimidating a witness to assault.”

And a special shoutout to Davis, who noticed something was wrong in the first place.

headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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