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Abovethelaw.com (Free subscription) | 08/22/2008
Judges who hold people in contempt, or even jail them, for letting their cellphones go off in court -- e.g., Robert Restaino , Diane Boswell -- may be overreacting. The same can't be said for Judge Janet Booth, of Garrard County, Kentucky. Judge Booth just sent a woman to jail , for three days, for wearing short shorts to court. This was completely justified. Short shorts do not belong in court. Nor...
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Law Blog (Free subscription) | 06/06/2008
An admiring and supportive bar couldn’t keep the dress-wearing judge on the bench, and neither will it prevent the ouster of Judge Robert Restaino (pictured). Yesterday, New York’s highest court upheld the recommended removal of Restaino, a domestic violence court judge in Niagara Falls, for the cell-phone inspired tirade that ended with Restaino (Buffalo law) [...]
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Law Blog (Free subscription) | 02/20/2008
Back in November, we wrote about the cell-phone-inspired tirade of Niagara Falls City Court judge Robert Restaino (pictured). In March 2005 Judge Restaino, while presiding over domestic-violence cases, heard a phone ring in his courtroom. Reportedly, he told those present that every single person is going to jail in this courtroom unless the phone was turned [...]
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QuizLaw Legal Blog (Free subscription) | 12/03/2007
I mentioned this story in a Daily Memo last week, but it really deserves a full-blown entry. So last Tuesday, Judge Robert Restaino was removed from the bench because of a bit of an outburst. Back in 2005, Judge Restaino…
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Workers Comp Insider (Free subscription) | 11/30/2007
Judge Robert Restaino of Niagra Falls NY has given new meaning to the concept of "judicial restraint." On March 11, 2005, the judge was presiding over a roomful of domestic-violence cases when he heard a cell phone ring. He told the roughly 70 people in the courtroom that “every single person is going to jail in this courtroom” unless the...
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Hindu (Free subscription) | 11/30/2007
United States judge Robert Restaino was hearing a session of domestic violence offenders in a court in Niagara Falls City in upstate New York when proceedings were interrupted by the rings of a cell phone. “Everyone is going ...
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PR-Inside.com Entertainment News (Free subscription) | 11/29/2007
A US judge jailed 46 people after none of them would confess to their mobile phone ringing during his court session. Judge Robert Restaino, from New York, was hearing domestic violence cases when the phone rang. He said: "Everyone is going to jail. Every single person is gong to jail in this courtroom unless I get that [...]
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BuffaloPundit (Free subscription) | 11/29/2007
The State Commission on Judicial Conduct decided to remove Restaino from the bench as punishment for a 2005 incident when the judge jailed his entire courtroom because no one would fess up to a ringing cellphone. Read the whole decision . I've been before Restaino only one time, on a civil matter, but I found him to be quite cordial, and he conducted his courtroom in a reasonable and respectful matter....
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Anorak News (Free subscription) | 11/28/2007
JUDGE Robert Restaino “snapped”. Hours spent in the wainscoted walls of a fuggy American courtroom have finally got to him. He experienced “two hours of inexplicable madness”. Mr Restaino (not Restraino – if only) is ready to mete out justice when he hears the urgent trill of a mobile phone. In Anorak’s list Of Ten Items To Enrage [...]
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mopocket (Free subscription) | 11/28/2007
I heard this on NPR this morning and wanted to share it: Judge Robert Restaino did not adapt well to an intrusion of modern life. A cell phone went off in his courtroom. And the judge said he’d throw everybody in jail if the offender didn't step forward. Nobody did, and 46 people were thrown behind [...]
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Cnet (Free subscription) | 11/28/2007
It was a normal enough morning in a Niagara Falls courtroom, with Judge Robert Restaino plodding through his routine batch of domestic violence arraignments. That is, until a ringing cell phone pierced the air. What followed was "two hours of inexplicable madness," including the jailing of 46 people, according to ...
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ICWT: In Corruption We Trust (Free subscription) | 11/28/2007
Judge Robert Restaino, who ordered the entire audience of a courtroom jailed after a ringing cellphone disturbed him, has been recommended for removal from the bench by New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct for “two hours of inexplicable madness” in which he acted “without any semblance of a lawful basis” and behaved like a [...]
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San Fransisco Chronicle (Free subscription) | 11/28/2007
A judge who jailed 46 people who were in his courtroom when a cell phone call interrupted proceedings was removed from the bench Tuesday by a state commission. Niagara Falls City Court Judge Robert Restaino "snapped" and "engaged in what can only be...
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Abovethelaw.com (Free subscription) | 11/28/2007
This episode gives new meaning to the term "flip phone." A cell phone that went off during court proceedings caused one judge to flip out. From the NYT's City Room blog : The next time you pass through the city court system in Niagara Falls, N.Y., remember to turn your cellphone off. Today, the Commission on Judicial Conduct recommended the removal of a judge in Niagara Falls City Court who had, what...
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Truemors (Free subscription) | 11/28/2007
In 2005 at a Niagra Falls, New York court, a cell phone began ringing and Judge Robert Restaino demanded that the owner come forward. No one in the court room budged. Like a wound-up, over-extended rubberband, Restaino snapped and went off on a two-hour bizarre tirade. Still no one budged, and he sent all 46 [...]
