A Maryland judge who ordered a deputy to remotely shock a defendant with a 50,000-volt charge pleaded guilty (PDF) to a misdemeanor civil rights violation in federal court Monday, and he faces a maximum of one year in prison when sentenced later this year.
The incident happened in July 2014 during jury selection for a trial concerning a man accused of carrying a loaded handgun during a police stop the year before, according to a plea agreement with former Charles County Circuit Court Judge Robert Nalley.
Before jurors were brought in, the judge was asking the defendant if he had questions to submit to prospective jurors, who were not yet in the courtroom. Delvon King, the 25-year-old defendant acting as his own attorney, refused to answer several times.
According to the judge's signed "statement of facts," (PDF) the defendant, called "Victim 1" in court documents, objected to Nalley's "authority to preside over the proceedings" and continued reading from a prepared statement after the judge ordered him to "stop."
After the third time King refused to comply with the judge's order, Nalley told a deputy sheriff to remotely activate the stun cuff attached to the man's ankle. The judge said, "Do it. Use it," according to the court document the judge signed. The document said:
The deputy sheriff walked over to where Victim I was standing and pulled a chair away to clear a place for Victim I to fall to the floor. At this point, Victim I stopped speaking. The deputy sheriff then activated the stun-cuff, which administered an electric shock to Victim I for approximately five seconds. The electric shock caused Victim I to fall to the ground and scream in pain. Nalley recessed the proceedings.
The judge has been banned from the bench. King eventually agreed to serve two years after withdrawing a motion for a new trial. In that motion, he said he could not adequately represent himself out of fear of being shocked again. The authorities said King was wearing a stun cuff because they said he had fled from an earlier court proceeding.
The authorities are increasingly using stun cuffs, which are about the size of a deck of cards, at detention centers and courthouses. They are made by various companies and cost around $1,900 for a device and transmitter. Some models can shock at 80,000 volts.
reader comments
131