On Monday, a former judge from Charles County Circuit Court pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge against him. According to the charge filed against Robert Nalley Jr., the judge ordered a deputy sheriff to activate a stun cuff on the defendant whose trial he was overseeing. Authorities from the US Attorney's Office for Maryland claimed that the 72-year-old judge had violated the man's civil rights in the incident that happened in July 2014.
According to records, Nalley was overseeing a pretrial hearing with the victim, Delvon L. King, appearing before him. King was being tried for his gun offenses and had been objecting to having Nalley oversee the proceedings of the case. The 25-year-old ignored Nalley's orders to stop reading his statement twice, which prompted the judge to order the stun cuff attached onto King's ankle to be activated. This sent an electrical jolt to King for about five seconds, prompting him to stop, fall on the floor and scream. Nalley then recessed the proceedings.
After a month since the incident became publicized, Nalley was banned from the bench. On Monday, he entered into a plea deal with the federal court in Maryland where he admitted to the charge filed against him. As part of his plea deal, Nalley acknowledged that the use of the stun cuff was "objectively unreasonable under the circumstances." The overseeing US Attorney Rod Rosenstein said that disruptive defendants may be excluded from the courtroom and later prosecuted for contempt of court and obstruction of justice. However, he adds that force may not be used "in the absence of danger."
Nalley is scheduled to be sentenced on March 31, where Reuters believes he could be given up to a year in prison. He could also be facing a year of supervised release and pay up to $100,000 as a fine.
