A Kentucky judge was outraged when a woman was brought before into her courtroom Friday morning without any pants on. You can watch video of the incident above.
The woman, whose name hasn’t been released, was in the Louisville Metro Corrections jail for failing to complete a diversionary program for a 2014 shoplifting charge, according to WDBR-TV, which first reported the story. She appeared in Jefferson District Court in front of Judge Amber Wolf for sentencing after spending several days in custody, the news station reports.
In the video, the woman’s attorney can be heard telling Wolf the jail “refused to give her pants and any kind of hygiene products that she needed.”
Wolf then says incredulously, “no pants? what?” And the woman says she came in on Sunday wearing what she had on.
The judge then repeatedly said, “excuse me,” and threw her pen onto her desk, saying “this is outrageous. Is this for real?”
Wolf then told the attorney, “this can’t wait,” and called jail officials from the bench.
“I’m actually calling to talk to Director Bolton or anyone who can come to my court room and tell me why there is a female defendant standing in front of me with no pants on,” Wolf said.
A screengrab shows the woman and her attorney.
The judge told the woman she wasn’t trying to embarrass her and said she is “very sorry,” before asking her staff to find something for her to cover up with.
“What the hell is going on?,” the judge asked a jail official. “This is outrageous. This cannot happen.”
The woman told the judge she has never had any other arrests other than the shoplifting incident. The judge rejected the 75-day sentence the woman was set to receive, calling it “ridiculous,” and gave her a $100 fine and credit for the time she served in jail.
Metro Corrections has claimed that the woman was wearing shorts under a long T-shirt.
“The judge drew a conclusion she didn’t have pants on and didn’t do anything to confirm that,” the jail’s assistant director Steve Durham told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “If we had taken somebody over with no pants on we should be held responsible. We didn’t.”
He told the newspaper jail staff followed proper procedures.
“During warm summer months, we get people all the time who are wearing shorts and t-shirts and miniskirts and tank tops,” he said.
