Judge mocks inmate who publicly soiled himself after guard wouldn’t let him use bathroom
Judge mocks inmate who publicly soiled himself after guard wouldn’t let him use bathroom
An Ohio judge mocked an inmate on Thursday who allegedly soiled himself when a guard wouldn’t let him go to the bathroom.
Common Pleas Judge David E. Cain, 72, spent an hour writing a poem about the uncomfortable moment on September 17 when Darek Lathan reportedly had an accident at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient after becoming ill with a cold and getting diarrhea from the cold showers.
Lathan, who has no attorney, filed a lawsuit against the prison for the ‘harassment, embarrassment, ridiculing (sic) and emotional distress’ caused when other inmates laughed at him following the incident. He is asking for $2 million in damages.
Lathan is currently serving a 17-month sentence for a vandalism violation, according to Think Progress.
Cain, who felt that the lawsuit was ‘frivolous’, wrote a poem with phrases like: His anal sphincter just exploded. The plaintiff’s britches quickly loaded. It made the inmates laugh and play. To see the plaintiff’s pants this way.’
The final line of the poem alludes to the judge’s views on the lawsuit. ‘Neither runs nor constipation. Can justify this litigation. Whether bowels constrict or flex. De minimus non curat lex,’ reads the conclusion of the poem whose final line translates from Latin to ‘the law takes no account of trifles.’
Cain, who has been a judge for 30 years, posted the ‘poetic’ ruling to the court website.
‘You know, if he is going to file something that frivolous, he can’t expect me to be too judicious in how I respond. He can’t expect me to take it seriously,’ the judge told the Columbus Dispatch.
Cain was re-elected by the court in 2012 and noted that he’s just three years away from being too old to qualify for re-election.
‘I only have three years to go’, he said.
‘If there’s anything I want to do, I better get about doing it. I just wanted to have some fun.’
The judge was a writer before he became a judge and was even once employed at the Columbus Dispatch for 10 years before getting his law degree.
In the 1970s he wrote song parodies about local celebrities for the Press Club’s Gridiron Show, the Dispatch reported.
Ohio prison conditions ‘are among the worst in the nation,’ according to Think Progress.
Ohio prison guards have been accused of raping and beating inmates and lying about each other’s behavior.
A thousand inmates at an Ohio women’s prison dumped their lunch trays in protest back in August after word spread that maggots had been found on a serving line.
Inmates at the prison in Marysville northwest of Columbus staged the protest after finding the maggots and notifying staff, dumping their food into trash bins, spokeswoman Jo Ellen Smith said.
It was the second complaint about maggots at the prison, which houses about 2,500 women, and one of several incidents around Ohio prisons reported in 2014.
Back in 2013, Ohio inmates were forced to endure 100 degree heat in their cells because of an agreement with KOREnergy Ltd.,the company that provides electricity to prison, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The prisons shut off the electricity between 2 and 6 p.m. causing the prisoners to swelter.
