Family of Michigan teen sues judge who ordered her handcuffed after she fell asleep in courtroom

The family of a Michigan teen who was handcuffed and jailed after she fell asleep in a Detroit courtroom earlier this month sued the judge who presided over the measures, accusing him of violating her civil rights in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The 56-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Michigan, accuses Judge Kenneth King of malicious prosecution, false arrest, false imprisonment and other allegations.

The suit also accuses two unnamed court officers who detained the 15-year-old girl of unlawful seizure and false arrest. 

“This is a very troubling case,” one of the lawyers who filed the suit, James Harrington, told reporters Wednesday. “We had a member of our bench denigrate, humiliate, intimidate, and essentially incarcerate a 15 year old kid.”

A message left at King’s courtroom Wednesday was not returned.

King, the presiding criminal division judge in Michigan’s 36th District Court, previously told WXYZ-TV of Detroit that his censure was designed to “get through to her” after the teenager fell asleep in his courtroom on Aug. 13.

“That’s not something that normally happens. But I felt compelled to do it because I didn’t like the child’s attitude,” King told the station. “I haven’t been disrespected like that in a very long time.”

“That was my own version of ‘Scared Straight,'” he said, referring to the reality show that sought to help troubled teens change their behavior through interactions with the criminal justice system.

After an investigation into the matter, court officials previously said King had been removed from his docket and would undergo mandatory training. Officials at Wayne State University, where King has been a part-time contract faculty member since 2022, said his classes were reassigned to other instructors.

King censured the teen while she was on a summer field trip with a local nonprofit aimed at helping students interested in becoming lawyers better understand the profession.

The teen’s mother has previously said her daughter was tired because they were in between homes and had arrived at a new place to stay late the night before.

After the group observed a hearing in a homicide case the teen “unintentionally expressed her disinterest in the proceedings by nodding off after being exposed to a court hearing that forced her to relive a traumatic event, causing her to shut down,” according to the suit.

King then “publicly berated and humiliated” the teen and described her as a juvenile delinquent, the suit says, noting that the proceedings were being livestreamed on YouTube.

The teen apologized but fell asleep again and King told her to use the bathroom “because of what he had in store for her,” the suit says.

After she returned to the courtroom, a court officer placed the teen in a detention cell and locked her inside, according to the suit. She was ordered to put on a jail jumpsuit, handcuffed and taken to a holding cell, where she was left for hours, the suit says.

King later convened a mock trial with a jury that included fellow students and threatened to send the teen to a juvenile detention center, according to the suit.

Speaking at the news conference Wednesday, the teen’s mother, Latoreya Till, said her daughter was devastated by the events.

She “doesn’t want to come outside,” Till said. “It’s hard for her to sleep at night. She’s asking me, ‘Why did the judge do me like this, out of all the kids?'”