COURTROOM DISTURBANCE OCCURRED DURING DIVORCE PROCEEDINGS
LAS VEGAS – The highly emotional issues surrounding a difficult child custody matter sparked a fight yesterday in the courtroom of Family Court Judge Cheryl Moss. This resulted in the swift response of administrative and judicial bailiffs in the Family Court. Defendant Geoffrey Wells was subsequently charged with four counts of battery on a police officer.
The altercation began as Judge Moss referred to events in the emotional case and Wells began to show and verbalize his agitation. Bailiff Norm Adams asked Wells to stand after Judge Moss admonished him to sit still and listen, when Wells attacked Officer Adams.
“Our bailiffs performed professionally and admirably and were able to control the explosive situation in a few minutes. It was emotional, physical and intense, but our men and women did what they are trained to do and they did it well,†said Judge Moss.
The court released the event video to the media and will use it for future bailiff training. “It shows how quickly a situation can get out of hand and how quickly a court must respond to ensure it doesn’t spill out into the hallway,†said Presiding Judge T. Arthur Ritchie. “I am proud of the courage, swift actions and professionalism displayed by our deputy sheriffs. They were simply exceptional.â€Â
Four bailiffs were injured during the fight and were taken to University Medical Center for treatment. None of the bailiffs were seriously injured. Defendant Wells was taken by the Metropolitan Police to the Clark County Detention Center for booking on the battery charges.
January 13th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Agitated hearings can escalate like this because legal professionals and bailiffs have not been taught to DEescalate them. It is almost like they are antagonizing the situation to cause an explosion. That is probably not the case, but they don’t have enough people skills to manage a situation like this effectively without violence. The bailiff made a critical error- touching Mr. Wells after Mr. Wells clearly expressed his anger with the criticismof the hearing.
When a person is highly agitated as Mr. Wells had become, the situation could have been better handled with the Judge taking a break or simply rescheduling the hearing. These are simple anger management techniques that courts need to learn. However, Mr. Wells is clearly out of line in expressing his anger with violence. Perhaps his attorney should have requested a break.
Some of the Judges are just plain assholes. I know, I’ve been in front of at least two in family court. The Courts lose a lot of respect when they lose perspective of the people they are supposed to serve and treat them like objects. The people coming through family court are already dealing with multiple emotional issues and sometimes a person, such as a Judge, removed from the situation during a 15 minute hearing cannot or refuses to empathize with those emotions. When the courts learn to manage the emotions, at least acknowledge them, and then apply the law in equal standards then they will learn to deescalate most situations and have better outcomes for the cases they review.