Criminal Contempt? Lock her up!
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This is an old story, but I just came across it.
Judge Qiana Lillard’s no-nonsense approach is getting attention far beyond her Michigan courtroom. The Wayne County Circuit Court judge kicked two people out of the room for laughing during a deadly DUI sentencing on Friday.
When Lillard heard giggles from the family of Amanda Kosal, 25, who, according to NBC affiliate WDIV in Michigan admitted she was drunk when she struck an SUV head-on, killing 31-year-old Jerome Zirker and severely injuring his fiancée, 31-year-old Brittany Johnson, this past summer, she couldn’t just sit back and listen.
Instead, the judge paused the victim’s family as they read impact statements to scold the man and woman involved.
“Whoever can sit here at a tragic moment like this and laugh and smile when somebody has lost a family member ... in the entire time that Mr. Zirker’s sister was speaking, that clown -- and that’s what I am going to call him, a clown -- was sitting there smiling and laughing,” said Lillard.
“And you can go, too,” the judge added, pointing to Kosal’s mother, Donna. “Because if you don’t know how to act, you can go to jail. So leave.”
Lillard continued to lecture the courtroom, and told others who dared to “laugh and smirk” they could join the woman in jail.
“Your disruptive and disrespectful behavior disrupted today’s proceedings and you, ma’am, are going to the Wayne County Jail for 93 days,” said Lillard, as the woman whispered something back under her breath.
Amanda Kosal was sentenced to 3 to 15 years in prison for the deadly drunk driving crash that killed Zirker, a father of five, reports WDIV. Her mother, Donna, appeared back in court Friday in front of Lillard. She apologized and her sentence was reportedly reduced to one day in jail, time served.
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Good for her
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Agree.
