Updated as of 8/21/2024 at 3:15 p.m. ET
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The Black teen who was forced to wear jail clothes and handcuffs for falling asleep in a Detroit courtroom is taking action against the judge who humiliated her.
Eva Goodman, 15, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Michigan against 36th District Court Judge Kenneth King after his power trip last week. Goodman was in his courtroom as part of a local organization field trip.
To her surprise, she arrived to her work group to find that the agenda that day was not to plant trees but to visit the courthouse. The suit says Goodman wasn’t even interested in practicing law but would have either stayed home or tried to switch groups to do another activity if she could’ve.
Goodman had a “rough night’s sleep” and dozed off in the courtroom after sitting through a homicide trial that forced her to “relive a traumatic event,” the suit said. King then felt “personally disrespected” when the teen “expressed her opinion on the lecture by nodding off during the presentation.” The suit says King launched his own version of “Scared Straight” by “ridiculing” Goodman in front of her peers and “berated” her all while on livestream on his private Facebook page “King’s Corner.”
The suit claims when Goodman was ordered to change into jail garb and be handcuffed, she was “imprisoned for hours” in a holding cell before having to stand in a fake trial.
The suit names King as well as two unnamed officers as defendants who allegedly accused her of disrespecting the judge and treated her like a real juvenile delinquent. The suit accuses King of violating Goodman’s constitutional rights and subjecting him and the other defendants to liability.
Goodman demands compensation in monetary damages for the mental anguish, emotion distress and humiliation as well as medical expenses for the psychiatric care she’s undergone since the incident.
“It’s been pretty devastating. Eva doesn’t want to come outside. It’s hard for her to sleep at night. She’s asking me, ‘Why did the judge do me like this out of all the kids?’” said Goodman’s mother, Latoreya Till in a press conference Wednesday. “I just want Judge King to take accountability for the way he humiliated by daughter. I feel like he owes her a public apology.”
The lawsuit is only one more ring in the ripple of consequences King is facing following the whole ordeal.
Though King proudly defended his actions that day, Wayne State University spokesperson Bill Roose tells the Detroit outlet that King has been suspended from his two Fall 2024 courses of the judicial process and criminal procedure/investigation.
“In light of the 36th District Court’s temporary suspension of Judge Kenneth King, Wayne State University has reassigned two Fall 2024 courses to other instructors. As a contracted part-time faculty member, King has never had an ongoing faculty appointment. Since 2022, he has taught a total of five sections of courses between Wayne State’s Law School and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,” read the statement.
King’s actions in the courtroom that day also resulted in an internal probe that led him to be temporarily removed from his court docket, per a statement from Chief Judge William McConico. He’s been ordered to undergo training to address the “underlying issues” that led to the teen’s humiliation.
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