Detroit judge handcuffs teen who fell asleep in his courtroom during field trip

A Detroit judge thought he was making an example of 15-year-old Eva Goodman by threatening her with jail time for falling asleep in his courtroom.

Turns out, she doesn’t have a permanent home, the Detroit Free Press reported.

The teenager, who was on a field trip to the court this week, ended up in jail clothes and handcuffs because 36th District Court Judge Kenneth King said he didn’t like her attitude, the Associated Press reported.

“You fall asleep in my courtroom one more time, I’m gonna put you in back, understood?” the judge said, according to video of his remarks, the AP said.

King on Thursday was removed temporarily from his docket and ordered to undergo training, the court’s chief judge told the Free Press.

Goodman was visiting the courtroom through The Greening of Detroit, a nonprofit environmental group that aims to improve the “green infrastructure” of the city, the Free Press reported.

While speaking to the teens, King noticed Goodman sleeping, the Free Press said. Video of King’s courtroom showed he yelled at her to wake up. Minutes later, he saw her sleeping again and ordered her to be taken into custody, according to the Free Press.

“I wanted this to look and feel very real to her, even though there’s probably no real chance of me putting her in jail. That was my own version of ‘Scared Straight,’” King said in defense of his actions, referring to a documentary about teen offenders in New Jersey, the AP reported.

King asked other kids in the courtroom on Tuesday whether the Goodman should be taken to juvenile detention, WXYZ-TV reported.

“It was her whole attitude and her whole disposition that disturbed me,” the judge told WXYZ. “I wanted to get through to her, show how serious this is and how you are to conduct yourself inside of a courtroom.”

He also threatened her with time in juvenile detention before releasing her, the AP said.

“I’ll do whatever needs to be done to reach these kids and make sure that they don’t end up in front of me,” the judge said, according to the AP.

Goodman’s mother, however, spoke out Thursday to the Detroit Free Press, explaining why her daughter was likely tired — as her family currently doesn’t have a permanent home.

Latoreya Till said after the experience, her daughter is afraid, according to the Free Press.

“My daughter is hurt. She is feeling scared. She didn’t want to go to work. She feels like as if her peers went against her. She was real nervous and intimidated,” Till said.

The Free Press said that video shows Goodman remained out of King’s courtroom for roughly two hours before he brought her back — after being handcuffed and told to put on a green jail jumpsuit.

Marissa Ebersole Wood, chairperson of The Greening of Detroit, said King’s actions were “unacceptable,” according to the Free Press.

“The group of students should have been simply asked to leave the courtroom if he thought they were disrespectful,” she said in a statement provided Wednesday by a public relations specialist, the Free Press reported.

King’s action led to criticism from Free Press columnist Darren Nichols.

“Falling asleep on a field trip is not acceptable, yet the punishment doesn’t fit the crime, particularly when the judge doesn’t know what’s going on in her home or her life,” Nichols wrote. “Using his platform as a judge, King could have helped a Detroit family. Instead, he embarrassed Eva more.”