Anger is spreading in Detroit and beyond in response to the handcuffing and hours-long public humiliation by Judge Kenneth King of a homeless high school student during a field trip to the 36th District Court earlier this week. Eva Goodman, age 15, had fallen asleep during a presentation by King after having been up late the night before with her family looking for a place to sleep.
Attorneys for Goodman who was ordered into jail clothes during the field trip filed a lawsuit against a judge Wednesday, accusing him of humiliation, false arrest and unlawful detention.
Eva’s mother Latoreya Till told the Detroit Free Press, “My daughter is hurt. She is feeling scared. She didn’t want to go to work. … She was really nervous and intimidated. We have to bounce around currently because we don’t have a permanent address. And so, that particular night, we got in kind of late.”
King was removed from courtroom duties last week until he completes training, which hasn’t started yet.
His actions were “extreme and outrageous and calculated for the purpose of inflicting fear and severe emotional distress,” according to the lawsuit, which seeks more than $75,000.
Goodman was on a field trip led by a nonprofit group, The Greening of Detroit, when she fell asleep. Her mother later said she may have been tired because they don’t have a permanent address.
King said it was her attitude that led to the jail clothes, handcuffs and stern words — all broadcast on livestream video from his courtroom. He also threatened her in front of her peers with juvenile detention before releasing her.
King “acted as producer, broadcaster, complaining witness, arresting officer, finder of fact, judge and disciplinarian,” attorneys Gary Felty Jr. and James Harrington said in the lawsuit.
A message seeking comment from King’s lawyer wasn’t immediately returned Wednesday.
“I wanted this to look and feel very real to her, even though there’s probably no real chance of me putting her in jail,” King told a TV station last week
Latoreya Till, told reporters that her daughter is struggling a week later.
“It’s been pretty devastating,” Till said. “Eva doesn’t want to come outside. She doesn’t want to be involved with no one else but her family, relatives. It’s hard for her to sleep at night. She’s asking me, ‘Why the judge do me like this out of all the kids?’ ”