A Texas judge placed a mother in handcuffs after she deemed her outfit inappropriate for the courtroom and caught her allegedly taking a picture on her phone.
Video of the interaction, which was recorded and shared on TikTok in early September, went viral with more than 18 million views.
In the clip, District Court Judge Stephanie Boyd summons the woman to the bench and reprimands her for her choice of clothing.
“First of all why are you in this court in shorts?” Judge Boyd questions the woman, who approached the judge wearing a blue blouse and white shorts.
“I’m sorry, I just … I’ve never really been in court,” the woman replies.
Despite the woman’s apology, Judge Boyd showed little sympathy and proceeded to scold her. She demanded the woman hand over her phone to the court deputy to have whatever photos she took deleted.
“Who were you taking photos of?” Judge Boyd wanted to know.
The woman told the judge she was simply letting her daughter know that her son was “okay,” but that wasn’t a satisfactory answer as Judge Boyd replied, “No, my question is who were you taking photos of?”
After the exchange, Judge Boyd ordered the court deputy to handcuff the woman and put her in the “box.”
“Alright, so Deputy Lori, if you put her in cuffs, since you want to be next to her son, put her in the box.”
Many who watched the clip on TikTok could not believe the judge’s behavior.
“judge is way out of line…” one person commented.
“So what if someone has to go to court and they don’t have any nice clothing nor can they afford it????” another asked.
“Wow to much power and not enough compassion,” someone else wrote.
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