(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Hey, remember the judge who ruled that the words "rape", "sexual assault", "victim", and "assailant", among others, were totally banned from a rape trial? As in, the jury weren't allowed to hear the accusation?

The victim's suing him.

Comments

[dreamshade.livejournal.com]

...Can you do that? I understand the original thing was kinda stupid, but can you sue a judge for making a procedure during your trial?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

If she believes the judge deliberately subverted her chance at gaining justice for personal reasons, or did so through gross incompetence, and in doing so caused her inconvenience, expense, and anguish?

Yes.

Yes she can.

She might not win, mind, and she might not even get to court if she doesn't have something to show that this was more than the judge making his own best judgement on the spot. If she does have more, however, it might actually work.

[dreamshade.livejournal.com]

"The federal court complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Lincoln, Neb., claims Lancaster County District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront violated the accuser's First Amendment right to free speech by barring her from saying words including "rape," "victim" and "assailant" during the trial of Pamir Safi."

The whole basis just seems peculiar to me. Are there any similar cases in which a judge was sued for, ah, "restricting free speech" during a trial?

[matgb]

That's the bit that's bothering me—there are a lot of things inadmisable in a trial, putting free speech as a complete right in a trial would open a huge can of worms I'd have thought.

OTOH, trainwreck...

[post-ecdysis.livejournal.com]

IANAL, but I suspect that you can read "suing the judge" as "appealing the decision", except that you probably can't really appeal a decision in a mistrial. I further suspect that she is looking to the federal court to slap some sense into the judge rather than seeking damages.

[tezoar.livejournal.com]

Irony: if the judge presiding over the suing banned the words 'stupid dumb fuck judge should keep *on* his medication'