Up in Michigan, a judge took charge of his courtroom in an unusual way—he threw off his robe, left his bench, and helped tackle a defendant with the help of an officer—and it's all on video.
Back in December, Jackson County (Michigan) Circuit Judge John McBain was getting real tired of Jacob Larson's tomfoolery, according to Michigan Live, who recently released the video. Larson was in court for violating a personal protection order. As McBain told Larson to stop pestering the woman he was accused of harassing, Larson continued to talk back.
Originally sentenced to three days in jail, Larson's back talk prompted McBain to keep extending Larson's sentence, which started at a sentence of three days, to 45 days, then to 93 days, until it eventually hit 365 days (after the incident, however, McBain brought the sentence back down to 93 days in county jail).
Larson refused to put his hands behind his back, leading to a scuffle between him and the courtroom officer. At that point, McBain takes off his robe, steps down from his bench, and tells the officer to "tase his ass right now." The officer didn't tase Larson, but the officer and McBain were able to restrain Larson down on the ground. After Larson finally calmed down, the officer escorted him out of the courtroom.
McBain explained to Michigan Live that Larson was being aggressive and was "totally disturbing the decorum of the court."
While it's uncommon for judges to get into scuffles with defendants, court officials, after watching the video, decided that McBain hadn't done anything wrong and was simply maintaining order in his court.
Back in 2014, that same judge had told a convicted murderer that he hopes she dies in prison. At that time, he explained to Michigan Live, "Sometimes, I think a judge needs a little fire in the right kind of cases."
