Judge Says ADHD Caused Him To Wrongly Send People To Jail

[matcom]

:eyes:

<snip>

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. -- A Seminole County judge claims he has a mental disorder and that's what caused him to send 11 people to jail for being late to his court.

Judge John Sloop now only hears civil cases instead of criminal Sloop's attorney says he's fine now, thanks to medication, medication he was not on back in December.

Sloop went for a full psychiatric evaluation after the incident in the courtroom back in December, according to Sloop's attorney.

Eleven people, including Ron Parilla, were sent to the wrong courtroom for a traffic hearing. Sloop signed arrest warrants for all of them, not knowing why they were missing. But even after a deputy informed the judge about the mix up, Sloop went to lunch and heard other cases before ordering everyone be freed.

Parilla spent seven hours in jail even after that order.

'It was horrific, horrific knowing you were going to jail for no reason," Parilla said.

Now Sloop's attorney says the reason this happened was the judge's then-undiagnosed attention deficit disorder.

"His decision making and analysis of the situation had been effected by this," said Sloop's attorney, Mark Lubet. "He had 100 other things on his mind and he didn't prioritize them in the way they should have been prioritized."

After the evaluation, the 56-year-old started taking medication and his attorney says now his decision-making is fine.

http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/4419050/detail.html

[Bronco69]

1. Perhaps "the judge" needs to spend a few hours in the pokey

himself.

[LynneSin]

2. ooh, great another nomination for Bush to make

I wonder where they'll send this guy?

[RebelOne]

3. Oh boy, if I were one of those 11 people, I'd be getting a lawyer

and suing for false arrest.