Courtroom mix-up puts 11 in jail

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Here's the full story about those people that were jailed for being directed to the wrong courtroom.

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Courtroom mix-up puts 11 in jail
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They were misdirected, but a Seminole judge locks them up.

By Robert Perez
Sentinel Staff Writer

December 4, 2004

SANFORD -- After being directed to Courtroom 1B, the six men and five women waited Friday for a judge to hear their cases. And they waited and waited, but their names were never called.

Meanwhile, in an adjoining courtroom not 100 feet away, Seminole County Judge John R. Sloop was waiting for the 11 defendants to appear before him. When they didn't show up, he signed warrants for their arrests.

By the time the 11 finally discovered that they had been misdirected by court personnel and asked to appear before the judge to explain what had happened, he would not see them and ordered their arrests.

"When the officers came out, they had handcuffs," said Irving Merced, who was in court on a ticket for driving without a license. "I thought, 'I'm getting arrested? Why?' "

Before everything was straightened out, the defendants spent eight hours Friday in a Seminole County Jail cell.

Many of the defendants were angry and some began to cry as they were taken into custody, Merced said.

"I'm hungry, I'm tired and I'm disgusted," said Frantarshia Coleman, after she was released from jail Friday night. "This is ridiculous. This is disgusting."

Coleman, 33, of Orlando was in court on a ticket for not having her registration and proof of insurance. She was quick to pull out a wrinkled, yellow traffic ticket indicating her court date in Courtroom 1B. She and the others were supposed to be in 1A.

Theresa DeClue, 28, of Heathrow and Aileen Nunez, 24, of Orlando also recalled their shock at being jailed.

"I really thought, 'This is a joke. This can't be happening,' " DeClue said.

Nunez said she would contact an attorney.

"I hope that judge gets fired," she said.

Nunez and the others would have stayed in jail longer -- likely overnight -- had Sloop not signed paperwork later in the day allowing them to be released without having to pay bail. It is unclear why Sloop reversed his decision. Attempts to reach Sloop were not successful.

About the time that Sloop was reversing himself, Circuit Judge James Perry, chief judge of the 18th Judicial Circuit, took similar action to make sure the 11 would be released Friday.

"When I was made aware of this, I tried to reach Judge Sloop," Perry said late Friday. "When I was unable to reach him, I took steps to make sure they were released on their own recognizance."

Perry would not discuss Sloop's handling of the case or whether he planned to speak about it to Sloop next week. When asked, Perry said he would not have handled the issue the same way as Sloop.

Sloop has developed a reputation as a hard-nosed judge and was the only one of 10 Seminole County judges to receive the lowest rating -- "poor" -- in the 2004 Central Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers poll. Sloop's lowest rating in the poll -- 2.08 out of a possible 5 -- was for "demeanor."

Robert Perez can be reachedat rperez@orlandosentinel.comor 407-772-8046.



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