I’m going to have to say it was the defendant who sucker punched me during a sentencing hearing. When I got up off the floor I had completely changed my mind about recommending probation. He wound up doing a year (the maximum sentence) for the crime, and he picked up an additional 18 months for Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer. (Prosecutors are law enforcement officers in Florida).
This incident prompted me to do three things:
[1] I resumed weightlifting after a 15 year hiatus, and eventually became able to lift more weight at age 40 than I could as a redshirt tackle for my college football team. This training actually came in handy a few times when fights broke out in the courtroom & the bailiff had conveniently disappeared.
[2] I became much more cognizant of what the defendant was doing in the courtroom. I later decided I had to maintain this vigilance anywhere in the courthouse when the brother of a murder defendant attacked me in the hallway. Luckily, he began his charge at the far end of the hall from me, and other family members were able to tackle him and drag him into the elevator. Being in somewhat of a fog after just getting a verdict in a week-long trial, I remarked, “I wonder what he was trying to do.” My trial partner said, “You darn fool, he was coming after you!”
[3] When I began teaching law school I always included a prosecutor safety module in my prosecution classes.
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