All language subtitles for Chaos.in.Court.S01E04.Boiling.Point.480p.x264-mSD[eztv.io]

Courthouses are
supposed to be places of calm

and dignity,
where order is maintained

and justice is served.

But often, when stakes and
emotions are at their highest,

cool heads don't
always prevail.

Coming up...

All of a sudden
you crazy now?!

...a father's grief
and rage unleashed.

You gonna murder my son, man?!
For nothing?!

A famous Las Vegas magician

is forced to reveal his secrets.

I can't answer that as
a yes or no question.

Copperfield would rather
disappear right now.

He'd rather be anywhere else.

And an angry disabled man

turns the tables on the judge.

Strength comes from places
that you can't imagine.

How can you say the things
that you're saying?

All
the jaw-dropping moments,

plus insights from our team
of crime and legal experts...

Custody battles are some of
the most contentious

hearings that you will find
in a courtroom.

...on "chaos in court."

27-year-old lukace kendle
is in a pretrial

hearing to determine if
he's mentally competent to

stand trial.

He's accused of shooting
35-year-old Michael smathers,

leaving him paralyzed from
the waist down

and for the murder of
29-year-old kijuan byrd.

Dawson: The defense attorneys
are trying to set out whether

or not their client has
the mental capacity to actually

go through a trial,
or if he's insane,

they're trying to establish
that as a defense.

Lukace kendle was a security
guard at a Miami strip club

and sports club by
the name of club lexx.

Kendle was hired
as armed security

and carries his own
licensed gun,

and after pulling into
the parking lot to begin

his shift one night in 2012,

the former bodybuilder spots
two African-American men

sitting in a truck next to his.

Kijuan byrd and Michael
smathers were best friends.

They went to the club
to go relax,

play pool, and catch some of
the Miami heat

during the playoffs.

Michael was in
the driver's seat.

Lukace kendle approached
the truck as kijuan

and Michael started
to get out.

Kendle stated that
as he approached the car,

Michael and kijuan were
allegedly looking at him in

a threatening way and that
either kijuan or Michael said

something along the lines of,
"I'm going to kill you,"

and that one of the men was
pulling something upward.

Feeling threatened,
kendle whips out his gun

and begins shooting
into the windshield,

striking Michael smathers
four times.

Kijuan dives out of
the passenger side of the truck

and attempts to crawl

to safety under the truck
to get away from

the barrage of bullets.

Lukace kendle continued to
fire into kijuan byrd,

firing multiple times
into his back.

He was shot eight times,
four times in the back.

Kijuan byrd is pronounced

dead on arrival
at the hospital.

Arlene: Kijuan was
a sincere person.

He was very funny.

He had a good heart.

He has two amazing kids,

but they were very young when
their father was killed.

They don't really remember
a lot about their dad.

Meanwhile,
his good friend,

Michael smathers,
is in critical condition

about to undergo surgery.

Michael had a really
thriving life

before he encountered
lukace kendle that night.

He had a construction company

that was really growing
and successful.

He had his whole life
ahead of him,

and now he is confined
to his bed.

He's paralyzed
from the waist down.

Kendle says he opened
fire in self defense,

but the evidence doesn't seem
to back up his claim.

Rendelman: When the
investigators arrived

at the scene to investigate
the death

of Mr. Byrd and the serious
injury of Mr. Smathers,

one thing they notice is
neither of them were armed.

Lukace kendle was relying on
a very controversial law

we have here in Florida
called stand your ground.

Bryant: Stand your ground means
just that -- you do not have

to flee in the face of
some sort of threat.

You can stand your ground
and defend yourself.

Stand your ground is
something that was brought

to national attention based
on the trayvon Martin case,

and it only happened
a few months prior

to this incident here.

Trayvon Martin,
a 17-year-old

unarmed African-American,

was shot to death
while walking home by

George Zimmerman,
a white man on neighborhood

watch patrol in
his Florida neighborhood.

Zimmerman claims that trayvon
reached into his pocket for

what he thought was a weapon
and felt threatened.

All trayvon Martin
was doing was

walking through
the neighborhood

and being black.

George Zimmerman was
acquitted in the murder of

trayvon Martin using
the stand your ground law.

Lukace kendle was going to use
the same playbook to get

himself out of trouble.

Rendelman: After the shooting,
investigators begin to learn

quite a lot about the defendant
in this case.

Bryant: Prior to working
at the strip club,

where they're supposed to
check on your background to

make sure you're fit
for the job, he had

a number of duis, he had some
disorderly conduct problems.

Mercy: Lukace kendle was in
the Navy but was discharged.

He had many
alcohol-related offenses,

so he was not good enough
to be in the Navy.

But unfortunately,
they thought he was

good enough to be
a security guard.

Florida doesn't
require security guards to

undergo mental health
evaluations

or checks for substance abuse,

a common practice for
law enforcement officers.

Bove: His background check
should have had red flags.

He should not have gotten
the job

or the license
to carry a firearm.

Rendelman: After his arrest,
Mr. Kendle is

diagnosed with an array
of behavioral issues.

He is diagnosed with
antisocial personality disorder

as well as impulse
control disorder.

Pearson:
Mr. Kendle was examined by

multiple mental health experts

that were court-appointed, and
in their review of his history

as well as his current
mental state,

they determined that he was
competent to stand trial.

Bryant: It's important
not to confuse the idea

of being competent to help

in your own trial and being
insane, criminally insane --

very different.

All you have to do to be
competent to assist in your own

defense is to understand

the charges against you and be
able to assist either yourself

or your attorney
in your defense.

Good morning, your honor.

Jane Anderson
with Gary Winston on

behalf of the state of Florida.

Kendle's pretrial
hearing begins in April

of 2014, two years
after the murder.

In the courtroom
are the family members of

the two victims in this case,
specifically Donald byrd,

who is kijuan's father,
is in the audience,

along with several
family members.

Kendle's lawyer,
Carlos Gonzalez, argues that

due to his client's behavior,

he should be kept under
observation at a mental

hospital rather than
behind bars.

When Mr. Byrd hears
the defense talking about

the mental health of
the defendant,

he becomes outraged.

My son is --
he needs to go to prison!

He don't need to be laying
in no mental hospital.

He need to -- he need to
go to prison, man!

It's heart-wrenching to listen
to Donald byrd as he sits there

yelling at this defendant,

talking about the fact that
at the time he shot him dead,

he didn't have
the mental illness

that he's talking about now.

He needs -- he needs to go
to prison, man!

He gonna play crazy!

He went crazy when he killed
my -- murdered my son, man.

He wasn't crazy then,
but he crazy now!

As this father gets more
and more angry,

he's getting louder
and louder,

and the bailiffs sense,
you know, this could be ugly.

All of a sudden,
you crazy now?!

You wanna lay in
a mental hospital?

You murdered my son, man,
for nothing?!

When he was trying
to get away from you?!

You -- you --
he was trying to get away

from you, man,
and you kept shooting him

while his back
was under the truck!

You kept shooting him, man.

You kept shooting him
in his back!

His back was turned to you,
man!

Bryant: If they can't calm down
this grieving father,

you have to get him
out of the courtroom.

And they do --
they slowly back him out

so that this proceeding
can move forward.

He was trying to
get away from you,

and murdered him, man,
like that!

You murdered him, man,
like that!

Why you do it
like that, man?!

And you want to play
crazy, man?!

It was his daughter
and my nieces

that helped him
out of the courtroom.

This has been very hard for me,
through the trial,

even this interview,

I have to relive the story
over and over again.

But I felt the pain.
I felt the pain.

I felt hurt.
I felt angry.

Kendle is ultimately
found competent to stand trial.

Rendelman: The irony is that
after he's found competent,

he makes a decision, which many
attorneys would think is

kind of a crazy decision.

Um, the next issue, your honor,
is the charge adjudicated,

and competent,

judge: Sir?

Judge: Okay.
You want to,

represent yourself for
the purpose of the trial?

Usually, characters like
Mr. Kendle feel that they are

the smartest people in the room

and they feel like
they know everything.

It's incredible that kendle,
in his defense, goes from

claiming he's potentially
incompetent to stand trial to

representing himself.

The presiding judge in
the case advised the defendant

multiple times that
representing himself

was a very bad idea.

Will you understand that
you will not get any special

treatment from the court
just because you are

representing yourself?

You will be required to
abide by

the rules of criminal law and
criminal rules of procedure.

-Do you understand?
-Yes, ma'am.

But kendle is adamant,
and the judge ultimately rules

that he will be allowed to
represent himself at trial.

Have a seat.

Kendle's murder trial
for the shootings

of smathers and byrd begins
in 2015.

Mr. Kendle's defense evidence
was pretty thin here.

You know, he basically
cross-examined the prosecution

witnesses but didn't have
much more

to support his defense that,

as he said, he felt he was
forced to defend himself

in that parking lot.

That account is turned
upside down by the testimony

of a star witness,

kendle's surviving victim,
Michael smathers.

The most powerful moment in
the trial, and one that will

always sit with me
for the rest of my life,

was bringing in Michael smathers
on a hospital bed

to testify and share
his story with the jury.

What did you say in response
when you saw his gun?

Don't shoot.

Michael smathers,
in his testimony,

completely contradicts

the story of the events that
the defendant

presented to police.

He made it very clear that
he was sitting in his truck.

He was confronted
by kendle at gunpoint.

He raises his hands
and is like, you know,

what's the problem, you know,
why are you doing this?

And kendle opens fire on him,

paralyzing him right there
where he was seated.

In my experience
as a homicide prosecutor,

we've seen individuals shoot
and kill someone

because they didn't like the way
they looked at them.

So we'll never really know
exactly what went down

that triggered lukace
kendle on this day.

Ultimately,
the jury believes

Michael smathers'
version of events.

Lukace kendle is found
guilty of second-degree

murder with a firearm
and attempted murder.

He is sentenced
to life in prison.

Arlene: Had they did
a background check,

my son would be here today.

I spoke to the mayor
of dade county.

They honored my son
with a resolution stating

that all candidates

for a security guard must have
a background check

and a mental evaluation.

I will continue to fight

for gun laws to be
changed because

I know I'm doin' somethin'
good for others.

And I'm also honoring
my son.

Man, he was trying to get away
from you!

And you murdered
a man like that!

You murdered
a man like that!

Coming up,

a disabled defendant
wreaks havoc in the courtroom.

You can see that
the frustration is building.

And later,

David Copperfield
wishes he could disappear.

I can't answer that as
a yes or no question.

Woman: On the docket,
people versus Jeremy schuh.

39-year-old Jeremy
schuh requires a wheelchair

to get around.

A series of strokes has left
him with limited use of

his arms and legs,

but he still must face a judge
for prior crimes committed.

He's in court for a pretrial
hearing on charges of

home invasion,

criminal possession
of a controlled substance,

and a string of theft
and vehicle break-ins.

How would you like US
to proceed?

Judge: Proceed with a motion.

Jeremy schuh is trying to kick
the judge off the case,

a motion to recuse the judge

who he thinks has treated him
badly in the past.

That normally happens when
a defense attorney can make

the argument that

a judge has some type of
inherent bias based on

interaction with the defendant

on a prior occasion.

Schuh's defense
attorney, Walter white,

wants judge David swartz
kicked off the case.

Judges are faced with
all kinds of personalities,

all kinds of defendants,

and in this situation,
this judge was faced with a man

who doesn't like him,

who talks back at him,
wants a different judge.

Not surprisingly,
the judge rules against him.

He is not going
to remove himself

from this defendant's case.

The judge is staying.

Dorsey: When that didn't work,
the attorney didn't want

to be accused of ineffective
assistance of counsel,

and he went on to say,

I want out of here,
too, judge.

He finds Mr. Schuh
to be uncooperative,

and he's not able to
effectively represent him.

And because all of
these things are being denied,

you can see that
the frustration is building.

This is not unusual.

Happens a lot with defendants
who believe that, you know,

a few months
at the prison library

turns them into Perry Mason,

they can handle the case
better than anybody else.

What the court does here is
says to the attorney,

"if you need to step in,

"if you need to advise,
you're there to do it,

you're there to protect
the defendant's rights."

When Jeremy schuh hears that,
he is instantly angry -- why?

Because now he has
to represent himself,

and the judge is not gonna
give him the time he thinks

he deserves and needs to get
prepared for his trial.

Dorsey:
He's just not gonna cooperate,

and he's not gonna be quiet,

and so just before he's
completely removed from

the courtroom, he kinda

is able to get the strength
from somewhere...

He flips over
the defense table.

Everyone was taken aback
to see him bolt up like

a Jack-in-the-box and then
have the strength to overturn

a significantly-sized table --
strength comes

from places
that you can't imagine.

This is not something
you would expect from

a guy that comes in feebly
sitting in a wheelchair.

It's superhuman.

In most courtrooms, the tables
are actually nailed down,

and the reason they're nailed
down is to prevent something

like this from happening.

Bove: Even though a defendant
like this comes in

in a wheelchair, you can never
let your guard down.

Fortunately,
nobody was hurt in

the incident except
for a microphone.

But let me tell you,
as a judge in that

particular situation,

I would find him
in contempt of court.

Judge David swartz
does hold Jeremy schuh

in contempt of court on
a $50,000 bond.

Dawson:
I understand he had strokes.

He's in a wheelchair, but you
cannot conduct yourself

that way in a courtroom.

In San Diego, California,

60-year-old Regina Johnson
has been

convicted of a horrific crime
and is about to receive

her sentence.

Regina Johnson is accused of
killing her husband

and her 14-year-old daughter.

But Johnson continues
to insist she's innocent.

Judge,
how can you say that?

-They never proved anything.
-Judge: Mrs. Johnson...

Nobody ever said --
they never even had a motive.

Why? What?
How can you sit there

and say that I killed
my daughter?

How? You have no --
how can you say

the things that you're saying?

Five years earlier,
in the spring of 2012,

it seemed like Regina Johnson
had it all,

including a solid job
in financial services.

Her husband, Reuben,
and daughter Aaliyah,

were the center of her world.

Reuben is former Navy and now
works in the security industry.

Aaliyah was very popular.

She was a cheerleader
at a local high school.

The whole family
lives in a very

nice condo
in a San Diego suburb.

But somewhere along the way,

things started to turn dark
behind closed doors.

On June 2, 2012, Regina calls
her sister-in-law in a panic.

Regina called to tell them
that Reuben

and Aaliyah were dead.

After an investigation,

Regina Johnson is arrested
and charged with both murders,

but she insists
it's a terrible mistake.

When her trial begins
September 18, 2017,

she admits to the jury that
she killed her husband, Reuben,

in self defense,

but only after he killed
their daughter, Aaliyah.

I didn't kill my daughter.

Whitmore: Johnson testified
in court that there was

an altercation
between she and her husband,

at which time their 14-year-old
daughter stepped in between

the husband and Johnson.

Johnson reports
that the husband then

shot the 14-year-old daughter.

He killed my daughter.

That was his daughter, too,
but he killed her.

I lost her.
I lost everything.

He shoots and strikes
the daughter,

and then he sets
the handgun down,

according to Regina.

Johnson: When he put that gun
down, and I picked it up,

I mean, I panicked,

and I was afraid,
and I thought, if I don't

pick this gun up

right now, he might
try to kill me,

so I picked it up,
and I k--

I shot him.

But the prosecution
argues that what really

happened on may 29, 2012,
is very different.

Mental health evaluations
reveal Regina's been

taking medication
for severe depression

since losing her job
a year earlier.

First, there was evidence
that Johnson had been

struggling with depression
and paranoia

shortly before the shooting.

She had also been incredibly
angry and jealous

because she believed Reuben,

her husband,
had been cheating on her.

Whether Reuben's cheating was

real or imagined,
is jealousy

what led Regina
to shoot her husband?

If I was angry at Reuben, and I
wanted to shoot him because of

the affairs he was having,

I would have shot Reuben
a long time ago.

Regina Johnson is on
trial in San Diego, California,

for killing her husband
and her teenage daughter.

Rendelman: While Johnson claimed
that she had killed her husband

in self defense and had not
shot her daughter,

the evidence presented
at trial

did not support her story.

Whitmore: Investigators found
through different pieces of

evidence that the daughter

was actually shot even before
the husband arrived home.

Aaliyah wasn't yet
dressed for school,

and the autopsy proved
she hadn't eaten breakfast.

Reuben's cellphone data
reveals that he was still at

a doctor's appointment when
his daughter was killed,

execution-style.

Her mother shot
her in the back of the head,

killing her instantly.

She was 14 years old.

The prosecution alleges that

after shooting her daughter,

Regina then waits several hours
for her husband to come home,

and when he walks in,
she ambushes him,

then shoots
and kills him, too.

Then you have
the fingerprints.

The only fingerprints
all over the weapon --

they're Ms. Johnson's
fingerprints, and then just

the trajectory of the
bullets in the home shows that

it wasn't the husband
that did the killing,

that Ms. Johnson
actually did it.

In one of
the most shocking revelations

at the trial,

the prosecution says that
Regina told investigators

she covered her daughter's body

with a blanket
and lay next to it for days.

Aaliyah -- she was
the love of my life.

In fact, not only -- not only
was she the love of my life,

Aaliyah was my life.

It was just the two of US,
like this.

There's something
incredibly sad when

we listen to
Ms. Johnson talking.

I don't think there's
any question that anyone

watching believed

that Ms. Johnson loved her
child and cherished her child.

The condition of the
body reveals that Regina called

her sister-in-law three days
after shooting her daughter.

If the husband
actually killed the daughter,

she would have called
the police immediately.

When police
arrive at the home,

they find a hand written
message in the bathroom.

She allegedly scrawled on
a mirror in the bathroom

in lipstick to the doctor,

you knew better.
It's your fault.

You should have never
prescribed this medication,

so, I mean,
it sounds like

she's already
creating a defense, right?

She's blaming everybody
but herself for this.

After a 15-day trial,
on October 3, 2017,

the verdict comes in.

Regina Johnson is convicted
of two counts of

second-degree murder
for killing her husband

and her teenage daughter.

The facts are terrible.

There was only one place
Regina Johnson was going to go,

and that was prison.

Just over a month later,

Johnson appears before judge
Joan weber for her sentencing.

She reads a letter
to her daughter.

Aaliyah, mommy has been trying
to figure out why am I here.

Aaliyah, you know how much
your mommy loved you.

I should have protected you
on that day

when your dad took you
away from me, I snapped.

I took his life.

Often a judge is looking for
someone to express remorse

and regret for

the crimes they have committed
after they've been convicted by

a jury of their peers --
Ms. Johnson did not do that.

What Ms. Johnson did was
express the love she had

for her child and continue
to claim her innocence.

After the closing argument,

judge weber
delivers her sentence.

How can you say the things

that you're saying?
Because I wrote

on the wall,
I wrote on the mirror,

this is all your fault?

I didn't confess
to killing anybody.

Despite Johnson's
tearful arguments,

judge weber sentences her
to 80 years in prison.

Judge, you are not
a fair judge.

Mercy: She says that the judge
was being unfair.

How can you even sit there
and say the evidence?

-What evidence?
-Unfair.

After murdering her child.

But she's not fair.
What kind of judge is that?

Dorsey: And again,
she fails to take

responsibility for her actions,

but clearly

Regina was placing blame
everywhere except

for where it squarely
should land,

and that's on her.

I have no respect
for you as a judge now.

Mercy:
She was being dramatic there,

and she was being dramatic
in court.

Now she could be dramatic
in prison.

World-renowned
magician, David Copperfield,

known for getting himself
out of tight spots,

finds himself trapped not in
a chained-up box but inside

a Las Vegas courtroom.

When you think of David
Copperfield, you think

of Vegas,
you think of the magic,

you think of the glitz,
you think of the glam.

What you don't think about is

having this great magician
in a courtroom.

David Copperfield
is being sued civilly.

This is not a criminal matter.

He's not -- he's not going to
jail for being a bad magician,

you know, felony bad magician.
It's not a thing.

He is being sued
for negligence.

Copperfield,
along with the mgm grand,

is being sued by Gavin Cox,

who claims he was seriously
injured during one of

Copperfield's shows.

Whitmore: This 58-year-old man
is visiting from Kent, england,

to Las Vegas,

and he is a audience member
in the David Copperfield

magic show.

During the performance,

Gavin Cox is selected to
participate in one of

Copperfield's most
famous tricks, the lucky 13.

They take 13 people
from the audience,

and they put them
in this cube,

and then David Copperfield,
like, covers the cube up

with, like,
this big old drape.

And then he walks
around the cube,

showing that there's nothing
connected to the cube.

And the trick is they are
going to disappear.

The participants
then magically reappear

at the back of the audience.

Bravo! Bravo!
It's a miracle.

That's the way
it's supposed to work.

But the miracle, of course,

is just an illusion,

and in order to defend himself
against Cox,

Copperfield will be forced
to break the golden rule.

A magician never shares
his tricks,

unless there's a subpoena.

-David! David!
-That's very valuable.

World-famous magician
David Copperfield

is being sued by 58-year-old
Gavin Cox for injuries

he claims he sustained during
one of Copperfield's tricks,

the lucky 13.

Dorsey:
During the court trial,

David Copperfield was
certainly sorry that, you know,

anyone would have been injured
in the midst of his trick.

Woman: If somebody participated
in the 13 illusion,

and they were injured,

it's their fault, not yours,
yes or no?

I can't answer that
as a yes or no question.

It would depend on if
we did anything wrong.

But Cox's lawyer,
Benedict morelli,

isn't letting Copperfield
off the hook.

We're not gonna get along if
you keep doin' this, okay?

I'm just tryin' to tell
the truth.

Next question.

Copperfield really would
rather disappear right now.

He'd rather be anywhere else,
but that ain't the case.

During the course of
the trial, Copperfield's manager

is forced to reveal
how the trick works,

exposing secrets any magician
would hate the world to know.

Once the curtains close, Cox
and the other 12 participants

exit through a trap door

and then are ushered through
a series of hidden hallways.

But there was no magic
for Mr. Cox.

Dorsey: Gavin Cox said that
there was some construction dust

on the floor,

and that's what made him slip
and fall, and in so doing,

he sustained some
significant injuries.

Cox claims he suffered
brain and other injuries

to his shoulder that
required hospitalization.

Rendelman:
So when Cox allegedly fell,

he insisted that his medical
bills amounted to

about $400,000.

Like the master
escape artist he is,

Copperfield won't be cornered
into taking the blame.

All I'm asking you for is
answer my questions.

-No speeches.
-I'm trying to help.

Okay?
You're not helping.

I'm trying to give
a complete answer.

Now it's up to the jury to

decide who's liable for
Gavin Cox's medical bills.

Mgm grand 0%,

David Copperfield, 0%,

Gavin parks 100%.

In an interesting twist,

the jury came back finding
David Copperfield,

his company, and the resort
had no liability,

and that it was Cox that was
100% responsible for

the injuries he incurred.

Popovich: It appears to simply
indicate what we had argued,

which is this is
an unfortunate accident.

We're sorry he got hurt
on the property.

Copperfield won the case,

but he had to give up
the secret to

one of his most
popular illusions.

In some ways, it's kind of sad
that we're able to know exactly

how this trick was performed,

and to that end, David
Copperfield no longer does it.

I think that David Copperfield
did do magic to

the jury because he made that
liability just disappear.

In Portland, Oregon,
26-year-old dequise hammick

is embroiled in a contentious
custody battle

with her ex-boyfriend.

Hammick sits in the jury box
in plain view of her ex.

Dequise hammick is,
at the time,

homeless and is addicted
to drugs,

and in the courtroom
is her ex,

along with his attorney.

Sitting in the back
of the courtroom are

their two young daughters,

who are already living
with foster parents.

This courtroom appearance may
determine their futures.

She is here listening
to her ex

talk about
her child-raising abilities.

Why? Because the court is
examining whether or not

this woman should
have her kids

or should custody be ultimately
removed and given to

somebody else?

Custody battles are some of
the most contentious

hearings that you will find
in a courtroom.

Just the fact that you're
fighting for custody of

children heightens

your emotions and causes
the possibility

for chaos in a courtroom.

Dorsey: Her ex is speaking
about her in

a way to the judge
that she finds offensive.

She finds it probably a little
bit humiliating.

So dequise pops up,
wanders kind of slowly but

deliberately to the table
where her ex is testifying,

has a word with him, and then
speaks with her right,

I believe it is.

She decks him.

Her children actually
had to be removed

from the courtroom so

they would not witness this
behavior and be in harm's way.

The frightened
children are taken down

the hallway and out of
the courthouse,

but dequise hammick is still
in a rage.

She's still out of control
despite the fact

that they're trying to get her
under control.

In a Portland courtroom,

26-year-old dequise hammick
has already

punched her ex during
a bitter custody hearing,

but she's still fighting mad.

Bryant: They bring a deputy in
to remove Ms. Hammick from

the courtroom,
and he puts a cuff on her,

gets her halfway through the
door when she decides, hey...

Why not punch him, too?

Bove: She just turns around
with her free hand

and also hits him in
the face.

But the deputies are on it,

and they did a excellent job
at de-escalating the situation.

Dorsey: Usually, when you have
aggression in a courtroom,

seldom, if ever, do we see
women acting out violently.

And so that's, I think,
what caught everyone off guard.

It takes two deputies
to get her into handcuffs.

Dorsey: If the goal is to get
your children back,

why would you,
while in court,

engage in a physical
altercation with not only

your ex and then engage in

similar activity
with the deputies?

It doesn't bode well
if you really want the court

to believe that somehow

you are deserving and should
be given your children back.

Mercy: She had a long history
of cocaine addiction,

which probably contributed to
her actions in court that day.

The judge orders
hammick removed from

the courtroom and continues
the hearing without her.

She was then placed in

a wheelchair to remove her
from the courtroom.

As she was being wheeled out,

her behaviors, again,
continued to escalate.

Dawson: As she's being
wheeled down the hall,

she grabs
for a deputy's belt,

basically reaching
for his gun area.

So again, she's still out of
control, despite the fact that

they're trying to get her
under control,

at least so the hearing can
take place and they can

move forward.

Order is finally restored,

and fortunately,
no one is injured.

At the end of the day,
I feel that

Ms. Hammick felt
she had nothing more to lose,

and she was going to lose
her children.

Hammick is charged
with assaulting a public safety

officer and sentenced
to 364 days behind bars.

After serving her time,
she makes another

court appearance.

Now sober,
she apologizes to the court.

She had been on drugs,
she said at the time,

was using cocaine that day,

and now she's, you know,
cleaned up her act, literally,

and so I think it did
come off as sincere.

The apology was
truly heartfelt.

Hammick is
no longer incarcerated

and still hopes to one day

regain custody of
her children.

18-year-old Avery white
appears before

judge Michael cicconetti
in painesville, Ohio.

He's accused of painting
graffiti on the caboose

of a train owned by
the grand river railway.

This is really a pretty
straightforward case

of vandalism.

He paints a little graffiti
on the side of this train car.

Well, the train car
is privately owned.

The company who owns
this train car

is not gonna just
let this thing go,

so they bring him to court.

This is a small business you
have pretty much, isn't it?

Yes, 2.5 miles of railroad.

The prosecution brought
the actual owner of the caboose

that Mr. White is charged with
vandalizing with his graffiti.

Cicconetti: It's not one of
these cross-country ones.

This is when
the local ones goes back

and forth between the docks
and then to the plant.

So you know,
they don't have a lot

of money, and it's not
a large corporation,

but they wanted to have
that corrected.

And they wanted something
done with the young man.

People tend to believe
that the railroad

property is not private
property but public property.

I only laugh
because I know that

to be true,
and that has to stop.

Dawson: You can actually see
on his face

that he felt bad, he was
embarrassed, and he really was

ready to get this all
behind him.

I'm gonna ask you right now,
anything you want to say

before we go ahead
with sentencing?

I'm not saying
what I did was right,

no way it was, but i'm
owning up to it, and I'm taking

full responsibility for it.

I could see that he was
remorseful -- by the time

he came up there,
I've already reviewed

his criminal history,
which was zero.

So the judge is
quite creative in how he

punishes the defendants
that come in front of him.

In another graffiti case,

the judge sentenced a man to
mow a school's entire lawn

with a push mower.

Judge cicconetti is the man
who wants to send

a message to the defendant as
well as every offender

in the community.

There's -- there's consequences
to be paid.

You can't go around destroying
property just for the fun

of it.

Dawson: White is listening to
judge cicconetti talk about

the sentencing,
to talk about the crime,

and I believe he's really
scared at that point.

I think he's sitting there,
and he's shaking in his boots.

You know, we get so much
destruction in here,

just vandalism anymore,

and there's no accountability
for it.

I said,
now what am I gonna do?

Earlier that week, I was
walking in front of the court,

just kind of out for
my daily walk,

and I'm looking at
the handrails.

We were looking yesterday
at those railings right

out in front over here
with...

With Dave,

and they really
need painting.

They're in horrible shape,
they have rust on 'em.

The judge says, look,
here's the deal,

ten days in jail,
which must sound

very enticing for some
18-year-old kid,

or you can paint the railing
out in front of the courthouse.

You're gonna go head out
there and do the railings.

You're gonna scrape 'em
and then paint 'em.

Only difference is --
you wanna do fine arts --

you're gonna paint 'em
with this.

So you take your choice.
What is it?

White: I'll take the second
option, your honor.

And so Avery opted for the --

I'll take the toothbrush
for 200, judge.

Cicconetti: My goal every day
was to be sure

that we got a laugh
in the courtroom.

You have to laugh.

You have to have a sense of
humor if you're on the bench.

If you don't,
you'll go crazy.

Seeing this kid actually

undertake the punishment
is satisfying.

You know, here's a guy that
was defacing private property.

Now he is helping enhance
public property.

You know, in theory,
that's the perfect solution.

White: I walked in there fully
expecting to go to jail, sadly,

but I was very relieved when I
found out that he was gonna do

a creative sentencing option.

My number one rule,
my philosophy is --

always has been --

everybody is entitled to make
one mistake in their life.

I don't want to destroy
a person's life for one thing

that they've done, especially

if they admit it,
and they're remorseful.

Judge cicconetti is
a legend in Ohio.

All of US judges,

we look up to him, not only
because he's a nice guy,

but he's also
an intelligent judge.

And these creative sentences
have really helped people,

as opposed to always sending
people to jail.