Video Shows Maryland Judge Ordering Deputy to Stun Defendant
Robert Nalley has been sentenced and banned from the bench for life.
— -- A newly released video shows how a former judge's temper landed him in hot water -- and out of a job – after he ordered a deputy to use a stun device on a defendant in his courtroom.
Robert Nalley, 72, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a misdemeanor civil rights violation. The court sentenced him last week to one year's probation, fined him $5,000 and ordered him to take anger management classes.
Maryland's highest court also banned Nalley from the bench for life.
In the newly released video from July 2014, Nalley is seen telling a deputy to activate a "stun-cuff" that the defendant was wearing around his ankle. Delvon King, who was acting as his own lawyer on a gun charge, was before Nalley during the hearing when the judge told him to stop talking.
When King failed to listen, Nalley ordered him to be shocked with 50,000 volts of electricity.
The graphic video shows King -- who was sentenced to probation for the gun charge -- falling to the floor and wailing in pain as the judge called for a five-minute break before leaving the courtroom.
"It felt like fire went through my back," King said outside the courthouse last week after Nalley’s sentencing.
Prosecutor Kristi O'Malley said the defendant didn't raise his voice or yell during the exchange and even called the judge "sir."
She said Nalley "very quickly grew impatient" and that his use of the stun-cuff was "highly disproportionate" for "nothing more than verbal interruptions."
The former judge did not apologize in court but did tell reporters after his sentencing that he had made an "error in judgment."
"I regret that it ended this way," Nalley said.
King attended last week’s hearing but walked out of the courtroom before Nalley's sentencing. He called the former judge's actions "torture" and a "very dehumanizing experience."
"There was no justice here today," King said after the hearing, adding that he didn't believe Nalley was sorry for his actions.
This wasn’t Nalley's first run in with the law. He also pleaded guilty in 2010 for deflating the tires of someone's car he claimed was in his parking spot at the courthouse. He was also fined, had to write a letter of apology and was suspended for five days without pay.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.