A Niagara Falls, New York judge threw 46 people into jail in 2005 after a cell phone went off in his courtroom.

The New York Commission on Judicial Conduct recommended the city court judge’s removal from the bench, reports Danny Hakim in the New York Times.

Specifically, on the morning of March 11, 2005, the judge, Robert M. Restaino, was presiding over a slate of domestic violence cases when he heard a phone ring in his courtroom. He told the roughly 70 people in the courtroom, according to the commission’s report, that “every single person is going to jail in this courtroom” unless the phone was turned over. …

The commission said that Judge Robert M. Restaino acted “without any semblance of a lawful basis,” behaved like a “petty tyrant” and said his conduct “transcended poor judgment.”

Technorati Tags: cell phones, courts, jail, New York, Niagra Falls, Robert M. Restaino

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