I am not at all a Sarah defender, but I got curious about Sarah's claim that she's never missed a court date when the jail officer said she had refused court three times. I don't remember hearing in the media that she was refusing to go to court and it seems like this is something that would have been reported.
I went back and found the video where the he reads her the court dates that she missed. He says they are September 15, 2023, October 16, 2023, and January 28, 2021.
Judge rules on Sarah Boone's request to be unshackled at trial
Then I looked up Sarah's case on the Orange County court website to see what happened on those dates.
Orange County Clerk of Courts Records Search
September 15, 2023
09/15/2023 | HEARING - CANCELED-Cancelled Status Hearing - Wooten, Wayne C |
Just a few days before, on September 8, a hearing was held and she was granted a new attorney after her previous attorney withdrew in August. It makes sense the September 15 status hearing was cancelled since the new attorney had just been appointed.
October 16, 2023
10/30/2023 | HEARING - Trial - Wooten, Wayne C (Actual: Wooten, Wayne C) | | |
10/02/2023 | HEARING - Trial - Wooten, Wayne C | | |
In October, there was nothing scheduled on October 16, 2023. The closest were two other dates in October marked as trial dates (which obviously didn't happen).
January 28, 2021
2/23/2021 | Pre-Trial Conference - Wooten, Wayne C (Actual: Wooten, Wayne C) | | | | |
11/9/2020 | Trial - O'Kane, Julie H | | | | |
Again, Sarah didn't have anything scheduled for January 28, 2021. She had a trial scheduled that didn't happen in November 2020 and then a pre-trial conference on February 23, 2021.
I also looked at all of the articles about this case on CourtTV's website and there weren't any articles about Sarah having court (or missing court) on these dates.
Sarah Boone News Updates | Court TV
For the first one listed in September, it sounds like the hearing was cancelled likely because she had a brand new attorney. The other two in October and January I'm not sure about. Maybe she was refusing to meet with her attorney and this was marked as a court refusal? What do you all think?