This story has been updated with additional information.
A Detroit judge who last year garnered national scrutiny after having a sleepy teenager detained while on a field trip in his courtroom is now facing a professional misconduct case.
Judge Kenneth King of the 36th District Court was named in a formal complaint filed on Thursday, Nov. 13, by the Judicial Tenure Commission. The commission investigates accusations of bad behavior by judges, and the complaint details not only the incident with the teenager – already the subject of a federal lawsuit – but also an incident in 2022 in which King had an attorney detained and placed in handcuffs.
King’s attorney in the federal lawsuit, Todd Perkins, said he did not believe the judge’s actions in either incident rose to the level of judicial misconduct.
When all is said and done, he believes the judge will be defended successfully.
“I know his heart, I know his family, and I know he doesn’t try to impose harm or injury upon anyone,” Perkins said.
King was temporarily pulled from the bench and sent to training after the incident with the teen girl. He was then assigned to traffic court, as opposed to handling high-level criminal matters.
He was also the subject of a Free Press investigation into his use of a YouTube chat. Amid the reporting, his chief judge banned jurists at his court from including chats during court livestreams .
The formal complaint kicks off a process that, in the most severe of outcomes, could result in the Michigan Supreme Court suspending or removing a judge.
King has 14 days to respond to the formal complaint after it is served to him.
Sleepy teen detained
King had teenager Eva Goodman detained during a field trip to his courtroom with a nonprofit in August 2024.
As the Free Press previously reported, King spoke to her group in between hearings. About 45 minutes into his talk, he noticed the girl sleeping and yelled at the girl to wake up, since-removed video of the hearing showed.
She fell asleep again and King had her taken away. She was brought back two hours later in jail garb, and King had the teen’s peers vote as to whether he should send her to jail.
The 15-year-old was sleepy because the family was without a permanent home and the girl was reliving a traumatic event and shutting down due to a case in the courtroom that day, according to her family and the lawsuit. The family also indicted the girl was asked to disrobe to put on the jail garb but refused to take off certain items.
King later told the Free Press he thought he acted appropriately, that he felt the teen was disrespectful with her body language and that he sought to help the teen.
“I wasn’t trying to punish the young lady,” he said. “What I was trying to do was, I was trying to serve as a deterrence.”
The Judicial Tenure Commission complaint took issue with multiple aspects of the incident, and alleged that King claimed the girl was in contempt without warning her that sleeping could be contemptuous and without citing law or putting facts on the record as to why she was in contempt.
Her sleeping also occurred while King was off the bench and without his robe, the complaint states.
Whether King was acting in his judicial role during the exchange is also key to the federal lawsuit, where King has argued judicial immunity in seeking to have it dismissed. The judge overseeing the federal lawsuit opted not to dismiss the case, and that argument has now made its way to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The professional complaint also states the mock trial in front of the girl’s peers was devoid of due process, King failed to follow the law for contempt of court, he failed to treat the child with dignity, and he exposed his profession to reproach.
A lawyer detained
The other incident listed in the complaint is said to have taken place in 2022 during an exchange with a defense attorney who wasn’t being confrontational.
In that case, an assistant prosecuting attorney told King that she had not provided discovery – information and evidence − she owed to the felony defendant in the case, and that the complaining witness was unavailable for the preliminary examination that day, according to the complaint. She asked for an adjournment.
Her opposition, the defense attorney, said he’d received some discovery and was prepared to proceed, but wouldn’t oppose an adjournment, the complaint states.
King and the defense attorney then went back and forth, with King questioning that the defense attorney received the discovery and that he was ready to proceed, according to the complaint. King suggested the defense attorney was being untruthful.
King agreed to adjourn the hearing, but told the prosecutor she didn’t need to provide more discovery since the defense attorney was ready to proceed without it, the complaint states.
Thereafter, King said it would have been malpractice for the defense attorney to proceed, the filing states.
The situation continued to escalate, and King accused the defense attorney of being disingenuous. He interrupted the attorney and told him, “Keep talking. Be quiet. I’m done.”
The defense attorney then asked, “Be quiet?” and King ordered him detained, according to the complaint.
King never found the attorney in contempt nor used the word “contempt,” according to the complaint.
Similar to the teen’s case, the commission said King failed to be faithful to the law, and failed to be courteous, patient and respectful.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit judge who had sleepy teen detained now faces misconduct case
Reporting by Darcie Moran, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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