California federal judge under investigation after handcuffing defendant’s 13-year-old in court

A misconduct criticism has been filed towards a federal choose in California after the 13-year outdated daughter of a defendant was handcuffed in courtroom as she cried in an try and scare her, courtroom paperwork stated. 

U.S District Choose Roger Benitez, who sits on the bench in San Diego, was conducting a revocation of a supervised launch listening to on Feb. 13.

The defendant, who was ending a jail sentence for drug fees, knowledgeable the choose that he was making an attempt to go away town to maintain his daughter from individuals who might “lead her into the identical path I went down,” in response to courtroom transcripts filed by the defendant’s lawyer. 

“You bought cuffs?” Benitez, a senior choose, requested a U.S. Marshal, in response to courtroom paperwork. 

Benitez then ordered the 13-year-old to go away the spectator space, method the entrance of the courtroom and stand subsequent to her father’s lawyer, the transcripts state.

He ordered the marshall to cuff the teenagers’ arms behind her again and instructed her to take a seat in a jury field for a couple of minutes, the paperwork acknowledged. She cried repeatedly, in response to the courtroom paperwork. 

The choose launched her and had her uncuffed. He advised her she was “an awfully cute younger woman” however that if she didn’t steer clear of medication, she would “wind up in cuffs” and be “proper again there the place I put you a minute in the past,” the paperwork acknowledged. 

The incident sparked an inquiry by the chief choose for the Southern District of California, Dana Sabraw, who contacted the upper Ninth Circuit Courtroom in regards to the allegations on February 17. 

Chief choose of the Ninth Circuit, Mary Murguia, issued an order Tuesday confirming an investigation and saying she “recognized a misconduct criticism towards Choose Benitez.”

Benitez didn’t instantly return a request for remark Thursday. 

Mayra Lopez, who represented the defendant, acknowledged in her courtroom submitting that it was the primary time that the person’s daughter attended his hearings and that Benitez’s actions have been “psychologically damaging and dangerous.”

“Psychologists have discovered that shackling is ‘humiliating for younger folks’ who’re extra weak to lasting hurt from feeling humiliation and disgrace than adults” Lopez acknowledged.

Lopez didn’t instantly return a request for remark Thursday afternoon.

“She is confused and embarrassed, she’s solely 13,” stated Michele Mckenzie, who represents the teenager and her mom. 

“I don’t suppose there’s another strategy to learn that have aside from an try and disgrace her and humiliate her into some form of future motion,” she stated. “There’s so some ways, notably while you’re the one within the gown, to achieve out to a member of the general public, to achieve out to a member of the family, to achieve out to a baby and say, ‘ I need good issues for you,’ and that’s not the best way to do it. You’re exhibiting your energy by power. That’s  simply not acceptable.”

McKenzie stated that the choose ought to difficulty a public apology or obtain “public censure.” 

Benitez sentenced the lady’s father to 10 months in jail for violating phrases of his supervised launch, however the man was resentenced to a time period of time already served by a unique choose, in response to the San Diego Union Tribune. 

Benitez was nominated to the bench in 2004 by President George W. Bush. His nomination was overwhelmingly opposed by a committee of the American Bar Affiliation, which stated different judges and attorneys described him as being conceited, short-tempered and “altogether missing in folks expertise.”

Benitez garnered scrutiny in 2021 when he caught down California’s three-decade-old assault weapons ban and likened the AR-15 rifle, which has been wielded in a few of the deadliest mass shootings within the U.S. in recent times, to a Swiss Military knife that could possibly be used “for each dwelling and battle.”