Judge dishes out ‘Simpsons’ style punishment
— A northeast Ohio attorney who left the defense table in front of a jury to protest a judge’s order earlier this month got a Bart Simpson-esque dose of punishment Thursday when the judge ordered him to write out 25 times that he will not engage in discourteous and disruptive conduct.
Common Pleas Court Judge Nancy Fuerst found Anthony Baker in contempt for what she called “reprehensible” behavior during the final day in the trial of a former East Cleveland police officer who was ultimately convicted of assaulting his wife.
Fuerst also slapped the Lorain-based attorney with a $500 fine.
Fuerst made Baker write out two sentences, not on a chalkboard as in the opening montage in “The Simpsons,” but on a piece of paper with a pen:
The sentences included citations to specific rules of professional conduct for lawyers.
Baker said in an interview Friday that he came to Thursday’s hearing expecting to serve time in jail. He brought no briefcase or laptop, and even left his house keys behind.
“She’s right, I was wrong,” Baker said. “I should have not taken that stand. I’m grateful for the penalty that I did get.”
But Baker said he stood by his reasoning for what he did.
“I was totally wrong in how I protested,” he said. “I don’t think I was wrong in what I was fighting for.”
His defendant, Denayne Davidson-Dixon, broke multiple bones in his wife’s face after an argument broke out at their home last summer, and he was charged with felonious assault and domestic violence. Davidson-Dixon was fired from his job with East Cleveland police and served about 18 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to assaulting a man he arrested in a case that was featured on the popular podcast “Serial.”
At the end of the trial, Baker asked Fuerst to instruct the jury on Ohio’s self-defense laws before closing arguments and jury deliberations, according to a copy of a court transcript. Baker argued that Davidson-Dixon defended himself after his wife struck him, and that denying jurors the ability to hear laws on self-defense when considering the felonious assault would amount to an unfair trial and a certain conviction. Fuerst denied the motion, but agreed to allow the jury to consider the lesser-included charge of aggravated assault.
Baker disagreed with the ruling, and decided to stage a protest, he told cleveland. com Friday. He repeatedly sought to stop the trial from proceeding after Fuerst’s ruling. He told the judge he “physically” could not continue, and suggested that he would go sit in the back of the courtroom.
Fuerst, who noted that she had told Baker previously she had planned to deny his request, refused to delay the proceedings and accused Baker of playing games.
“This isn’t a game,” he said. “This is his life.”
Fuerst ordered Baker to sit down at the defense table and be quiet, then ordered the jury back into the courtroom, the transcript shows. She began reading the instructions but stopped after just a few sentences because Baker — in front of the jury — got up from the defense table during the jury instructions, left his client sitting there and walked into the holding cell where jailed inmates are kept as they await court hearings, according to the transcript.
She asked deputies to “bring the attorney back out here,” and then stopped the proceedings and dismissed the jury for a lunch break.
She called Baker in and accused him of throwing a tantrum and acting unprofessionally several times throughout the trial and told him she would be deal with “a contempt issue” after the trial was over.
Jurors found Davidson-Dixon guilty of aggravated assault and domestic violence. Fuerst sentenced him to 18 months in prison for the attack, and an additional four months for violating the terms of his parole on his previous conviction.
Thursday’s contempt hearing lasted less than two minutes.