Niagra Falls Judge who jailed entire courtroom over cell phone removed from the bench
Niagra Falls City Court Judge Robert Restaino has been removed from the bench after an incident where he jailed all 46 people in his courtroom after someone’s cell phone rang.
Niagara Falls City Court Judge Robert Restaino “snapped” and “engaged in what can only be described as two hours of inexplicable madness” during the March 2005 session, Raoul Felder, chairman of the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, wrote in the decision to remove Restaino from the $113,900-per-year post.
A phone rang while Restaino was hearing the cases of domestic violence offenders who had been ordered to appear weekly to update the judge on the progress of their counseling. A sign in the courthouse warns that cell phones and pagers must be turned off.
“Everyone is going to jail,” Restaino said. “Every single person is going to jail in this courtroom unless I get that instrument now. If anybody believes I’m kidding, ask some of the folks that have been here for a while. You are all going.”
Nobody came forward so this excuse for a servant of the people ordered all 46 people in the court taken into custody. They were taken to the jail, searched, packed into holding cells and those who were not able to come up with bail were shackled and bused to yet another jail. The judge ordered them released later that afternoon.
His excuse? He’s been under some stress in his personal life.
Two hours of inexplicable madness? Not hardly. There’s nothing inexplicable about this action. This judge got his knickers in a twist that someone would dare disturb him in his little kingdom and is clearly so wrapped up in his superiority complex, his obvious assurance of his own entitlement, that he just decided to take it out on everyone and guilt or innocence be damned. This is precisely the kind of man that doesn’t need to be on the bench and he certainly has lost any standing to pass judgment on anyone else. The only people I’ve ever seen that punished a whole roomload of people over the actions of 1 person were elementary school teachers and they were usually the worst teachers I’ve ever run into. That kind of tactic is wrong when applied to kids and it’s inexcusable when an allegedly professional adult applies them to other adults. That goes double for someone granted the kind of power a judge holds.
Thankfully, I’m not in Niagra Falls and if this is the caliber of people they’re electing to the bench, I’ll be staying well clear of that city.
The State Commission did the right thing in getting this clown off the bench. Now they need to make that permanent. Every person this judge abused had better have the entire incident expunged from their records (employers look for past arrests in the background checks and if someone is denied an interview over this…) Frankly, I hope every one of them sues.
