General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJudge Promoted by Trump Administration Threatened a 2-Year-Old With an Attack Dog
Shades of Abu Ghraib
Judge Promoted by Trump Administration Threatened a 2-Year-Old With an Attack Dog
Want me to go get the dog? the judge yelled at a Guatemalan boy. Do you want him to bite you?
Noah Lanard
On March 30, 2016, in an immigration courtroom in Charlotte, North Carolina, a 2-year-old boy was doing what you might expect: He was making some noise. But Judge V. Stuart Coucha former Marine known to have a temperwas growing frustrated. He pointed his finger at the Guatemalan child and demanded that he be quiet.
When the boy failed to obey his command, the threats began. I have a very big dog in my office, and if you dont be quiet, he will come out and bite you! Couch yelled.
Couch continued, as a Spanish-language interpreter translated for the child, Want me to go get the dog? If you dont stop talking, I will bring the dog out. Do you want him to bite you? Couch continued to yell at the boy throughout the hearing when he moved or made noise.
Kathryn Coiner-Collier, the only independent observer in the courtroom that day, says her mouth was on the floor as Couch made his threats. She sometimes saw Department of Homeland Security dogs sweeping the court building, and it was completely plausible to her that dogs could have been there that day. Coiner-Collier, then a coordinator for a project run by the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy to assist immigrants who couldnt afford attorneys, says she ferociously scribbled everything Couch was saying. Soon after, she wrote an affidavit containing the dialogue above, and Kenneth Schorr, the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacys executive director, submitted a complaint to the Justice Department in April 2016.
I was outraged, Schorr says about learning of the threats. Ive been practicing law for over 40 years and I have never experienced judicial conduct this bad. Coiner-Collier says Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Deepali Nadkarni, Couchs superior, interviewed her multiples times about the affidavit and told her that it was accurate. Schorr says Nadkarni told him that everything in the affidavit was corroborated by the internal investigation. Nadkarni wrote to Schorr in June 2016, Judge Couch acknowledged he did not handle the situation properly and assured me it will not occur again.
Schorr doesnt think that Couch should have been able to remain on the bench after his threat to call in a dog on a child. In an unexpected way, he got his wish: In August, the Trump administration promoted Couch and five other judges to the Justice Departments Board of Immigration Appeals, which often has the final say over whether immigrants are deported. All six judges reject asylum requests at a far higher rate than the national average; Couch granted just 7.9 percent of asylum claims between 2013 and 2018, compared to the national average of about 45 percent. (Before becoming an immigration judge, Couch served as a military prosecutor and attracted widespread attention for refusing to prosecute a Guantanamo detainee because he had been tortured.)
more...
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/09/judge-promoted-by-trump-administration-threatened-a-2-year-old-with-an-attack-dog/
tblue37
(64,980 posts)backtoblue
(11,323 posts)gratuitous
(82,849 posts)It takes a real man to repeatedly threaten a two-year-old. But he backed down later when called on it, so maybe Trump will reconsider his nomination if Couch starts to run into trouble.