I have to agree the judge is not doing a good job controlling the courtroom. She’s way too “nice” to defense counsel. Too soft spoken and not commanding enough. Also rambles and doesn’t get to the point. And explains herself unnecessarily.
She tried to act like everyone was emotional today at the end of the day when it was just defense counsel. Prosecutor MacDonald had to correct the record saying that “if we’re arguing it doesn’t mean we’re all being emotional or inappropriate” something to that effect. I like that she made clear that SHE was not being emotional. So far the defense is the only emotional wreck.
Instead of just admonishing defense for making that inappropriate comment, the judge tried to make a big scene out of the whole thing and tried to say EVERYONE is emotional. ‘Everyone go home and calm down.’
It was just so out of touch with the moment. JMO
Here we go.
Well worth the read everyone.
Judge Matthews's courtroom.
'Jokes in courtroom'
'The judge said Smith is the one who asked for it to be admitted. She tried to wrap up the conversation, but McDonald said they had “a couple more things” they wanted to address.
“One thing I think is important: I ask this court to instruct counsel to show the appropriate decorum in this particular case,” Keast said. “The jokes, indicating, ‘I’m going to kill myself’ in the joking manner. ‘I’m drinking five bottles of wine.’”
“It’s just, there are parents who had their children murdered in this courtroom,” McDonald said. “We are the people who communicate with them after we leave here.”
The jokes the prosecutors are referencing were made by Smith during Friday’s proceedings.
At one point, Matthews stopped Smith during cross examination and asked her to disassemble a tall stack of papers before it falls over, calling it the “Leaning Tower of Pisa.”
The judge told Smith she doesn’t want her to have to spend the whole weekend re-organizing all her documents, saying she should instead drink a glass of wine in her sweatpants.
“I’m going to drink five bottles of wine,” Smith joked.
Later in the cross examination, Smith was in the middle of a line of questioning, but confusion and logistical issues kept coming up, as her pieces of evidence were not in order. She also needed to show a redacted piece of evidence that could only be shown by the prosecution. So Keast clicked through some of the messages for her.
At one point, Smith said, “I’m going to kill myself,” and asked for a few minutes to get her exhibits organized. She was clearly frustrated that the disorganization of the exhibits was keeping her from making her point.'
Argument escalates
cont:
Tempers flared at the end of the second day of Jennifer Crumbley’s trial, as the defense and prosecutors got into a shouting match about jokes in the courtroom and the “parading” of evidence.
www.clickondetroit.com