Judge who belittled and jailed a domestic violence victim is reprimanded on live TV

Florida County Judge Jerri Collins appeared in front of the Florida Supreme Court this Wednesday to be publicly reprimanded for her unethical treatment of an unidentified domestic abuse victim who failed to show up to her abuser’s trial.

In October of last year, Daily Kos relayed the story of a woman who called police in April of 2015, claiming that the father of her child choked her and threatened her with a knife.

After he was arrested, the woman began having serious anxiety about the incident. According to recently uncovered video evidence obtained by WFTV, “she told the state’s victim’s advocate that she wanted to drop the charges and move on with her life rather than testify, but she was still called in to court.”

Judge Collins told the victim, “You think you’re going to have anxiety now? You haven’t even seen anxiety.”

“I’m just not in a good place right now,” the victim replied, sobbing. “I’m homeless now. I’m living at my parents’ house. Everything has been shut off. I just sold everything I own.”

Collins then began to belittle the victim.

“And violating your court order did not do anything for you,” Collins said. “I find you in contempt of court. I hereby sentence you to three days in the county jail,” said the judge.

While being taken into custody, the victim begged for mercy.

“Judge, I’ll do anything. Please — please! I have a 1-year-old son and I’m trying to take care of him by myself. I’m begging you, please, please!”

Collins, unmoved by the woman’s plight, sentenced her to 3 days in jail.

According to the Washington Post, Florida’s Supreme Court decided that a public reprimand of Collins was in order, but wasn’t enough punishment. Collins was ordered to complete courses in anger management and domestic violence.

Below is her public reprimand, which was broadcast in live TV:

Featured image via screen grab

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.

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