In some version of poetic justice, a Michigan state judge has been fined $25 after his Windows phone interrupted a prosecutor's closing argument. The fine occurred as a result of Judge Raymond Voet's own policy, having enacted a rule that if anyone's phone goes off during a case, it'll be confiscated.
Voet told ABC News that, "I detest the distraction in the courtroom, and here it happened to me."
Apparently, Voet had the phone in his pocket during the Friday court session, but had failed to lock the touchscreen. The phone's voice command function was accidentally enabled.
"I'm guessing I bumped it," he said.
"The phone is saying, 'Say a command.' The prosecutor was in the middle of his closing arguments... He lost his train of thought and looked at me. I felt my face starting to burn red," the judge stated.
Although it does not seem like he was asked to, Judge Voet did the right thing and turned off his phone, allowed the prosecutor to finish, and left to pay the fine during the next recess.
Voet said that he has previously taken phones from prosecutors, defendants, witnesses, spectators, friends, and even police officers, but this is the first time that his device has disrupted the courtroom.
"I like my phones just like anyone else," he said. "But it's very distracting when a phone goes off."
Voet very reasonably concluded that despite the fact that no one asked him to pay the fine, if he couldn't live by the rules he himself enforced, then he had no business making others do so.
"Judges are humans," Voet said. "They're not above the rules. I broke the rule and I have to live by it."
Raymond Voet is currently the Chief Judge at the Ionia County 64-A District Court in Michigan.
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