Judge Ito's Got Nothing on This Guy

Feb. 22, 2007 — -- In the morbidly mesmerizing circus-of-a-trial over Anna Nicole Smith's body, one man is standing out as a star: P.T. Barnum in a black robe -- Broward County Circuit Court Judge Larry Seidlin.

Seidlin somehow managed to send shockwaves even through a community of viewers sure to be jaded by now by the endless jaw-dropping circumstances in the case.

They may have thought they'd seen it all with this story. But then they got a judge in chambers, pronouncing that Anna Nicole Smith's "body belongs to me now" and "that baby is in a cold, cold storage room."

And then in a culmination of the strange journey, he shed actual tears as he issued his ruling.

"I have never in my life seen a judge get so emotional," said Royal Oakes, an ABC news legal analyst. "Judges are required to deal with highly personal, intense, life-changing decisions every day, and yet this judge could barely read his own decision he was so emotional."

Seidlin ruled that custody of the body should go to Richard Milstein, the attorney who was appointed to represent Smith's 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, in court. Seidlin said he hoped Smith will be buried in the Bahamas

"The decision, in retrospect, seems pretty straightforward," Oakes told ABC News Radio. "The baby is the next of kin. She has a guardian and so it's logical to have that guardian make the decision as to what should happen to the remains."

But it's the way Seidlin issued the decision that had people buzzing: He got choked up frequently and wept as he explained it, as onlookers gasped.

The New York Post labeled him a "wacky judge." In fact, sources say it's always been Seidlin's dream to become a judge on a "Judge Judy"-style TV courtroom show.

According to celebrity gossip Web site TMZ.com, Seidlin is angling for his own television program. It says Seidlin has even made a demo tape of cases that were recorded in his courtroom.

It certainly seemed that way during the hearing. Seidlin became instantly famous for shooting from the lip, frequently throwing out one-liners a la Milton Berle; sending the courtroom into gales of laughter. He called lawyers nicknames like "Texas" and "Miss California" -- and made outlandish declarations like "I am the trier of fact," and "We are here on a search for the truth."