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In Re: Contempt Order, Eric D. Petersen,
No. 05-4191 (10th Cir., March 31, 2006) (Published): Talk about a case of black-robe syndrome. A federal magistrate in Salt Lake City, Utah, had a "standing policy" that if an individual is late to court "zero to fifteen minutes, there's a $50 sanction that's payable to the Court." The Assistant U.S. Attorney, Petersen, handling a detention hearing, was five minutes late to court and was cited for criminal contempt and fined $50. The Circuit reversed the contempt order on various grounds strongly condemning the practice of the magistrate in question.
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Carl Don Myers v. State,
2007 OK CR 8 (March 8, 2007): Contempt: Former Oklahoma County District Judge Susan Caswell held Myers in contempt of court because he invoked his Fifth Amendment right to refuse to incriminate himself during the trial of a co-defendant. Judge Caswell held that Myers had waived his right against self-incrimination when he had testified previously at his own trial stemming from the same charges. The Court held that it is settled law that if an accused waives his privilege against self-incrimination by voluntarily testifying at his own trial, the waiver is limited to the particular proceeding in which he volunteers the testimony. In addition, the Court held that the weight of authority permits a witness whose conviction has not been finalized on direct appeal to invoke the privilege. Since Myers invoked his right against self-incrimination based on testimony in his own conviction and since his case was not final, his convictions for contempt are REVERSED and REMANDED with instructions to DISMISS.
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Autry v. State,
2007 OK CR 41 (November 2, 2007): Contempt: OKC attorney David Autry defended a client in a capital murder case in Oklahoma County and was held in contempt. I have been interested in this case for a long time and was disappointed in the Court's recitation of the facts. I believe them to be lacking and not telling the complete story. As I recall the facts, the crime was a sexual assault/murder but there was DNA found on the panties of the victim that did not match the client. For some inexplicable reason, Judge Tammy Bass-Jones (now Tammy Bass LeSure) ruled that such evidence was inadmissible. When the trial started, then-DA Wes Lane told the jury in opening statements that there was no evidence of anyone having committed the murder other than the client(!) This is when David told the jury about the DNA evidence in his opening statement and was held in contempt. The matter was transferred to then-judge Susan P. Caswell for hearing at which David was found guilty of direct contempt and fined $500 plus ordered to pay $13,147.50 as costs resulting from his conduct. In this published opinion, the Court affirmed the contempt citation and $500 fine, but vacated the assessment of costs. This opinion contains a good discussion of the topic of direct contempt, notably holding that such proceedings are sui generis and thus there is no right to the set of Due Process rights of a criminal defendant such as the beyond a reasonable doubt standard.
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Hogg v. State,
2008 OK CR 8 (February 13, 2008): Contempt: Vanessa Hogg was held in contempt of court by Judge Tammy Bass-Jones (Lesur) in Oklahoma County because she willfully refused to retain counsel in an underlying criminal case. VACATED and DISMISSED because the record was "sketchy" (shocking) and supported neither that Hogg's actions were willfully contemptuous nor that Judge Bass-Jones gave her a warning prior to holding her in contempt.
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