Showdown at St. Louis County Circuit Court. Oct. 10, 2006

I attended traf­fic court with my wife in St. Louis County Cir­cuit Court, where a motion hear­ing was to take place. My wife was called by the judge to approach the bench. She approached with me in tow. The pros­e­cut­ing attor­ney took his posi­tion at the left cor­ner of the table fac­ing the judge and my wife took her place at the far right cor­ner with me to her right.

Dis­cus­sion on one of the motions began with the pros­e­cu­tor for the City of Olivette, Steven Fluhr, argu­ing for the plain­tiff. I was lis­ten­ing, whis­per­ing to my wife what was tak­ing place and what to say in rebut­tal. Judge Clif­ford then barked at my wife to keep quiet, that he was lis­ten­ing to the pros­e­cu­tor, and he would tell her when she could speak. Now remem­ber, my wife is pro se, and not versed in the ways of appear­ing at the bar.

Clif­ford then asked me who I was, and I said that he needed to address my wife, since I was not a party to the case. My wife told him that I was her coun­sel. He asked me if I was an attor­ney, to which I replied, no. He then told me that I could not be my wife’s coun­sel since I was not an attor­ney. My wife said that she had the right to choose her coun­sel and I was her choice.

Clif­ford pro­ceeded to tell me that “this area” was reserved for mem­bers of the bar, and since I was not an attor­ney I had to sit down. I told him that I was not going to sit down, and that I was going to honor my wife’s request to assist her. He then said that he would have me jailed for con­tempt if I did not sit down. I told him to do what he felt he had to do, I was not sit­ting down. He then said that he had never been shown such dis­re­spect in his court­room, and he didn’t want to have to jail me for con­tempt, but he was pre­pared to do so if I did not sit down. I said to do it. There was a bailiff in the court­room who approached me from behind as this was tak­ing place and I just turned to look at him and I shook my head as in not to lay a hand on me. He stopped about six feet behind me.

Clif­ford ordered the clerks to get the sher­riff. One of them asked, “Really?” and Clif­ford responded with, “Yes!”. Every­one just stood there. The clerks got on the phone and called the Sher­riff, the pros­e­cu­tor, Steven Fluhr, just looked down at his shoes, and my wife asked me what she should do if they arrest me and should she stay there for the hear­ing. I told her that if I am taken away that she should walk out of the court­room since she had been deprived of her right to assis­tance of counsel.

At about this time two deputies came into the court­room and Clif­ford held his hand up as to have them halt and told them that I was not under arrest yet, but rather to just wait there. So, there stood the deputies at the back of the court­room, a bailiff behind me, my wife to my left and the pros­e­cu­tor oppo­site her. There was not a sound for what seemed like about two min­utes as Clif­ford leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceil­ing. I stood there pre­pared to be escorted to a cell.

Clif­ford finally leaned for­ward and said, “You can assist your wife, but you can’t stand at the bar. That is reserved for attor­neys. If you wanted to assist her then you will have to sit in your seat and she could go to you to con­sult.” I’m think­ing to myself, almost aloud, “Where is the con­tempt of court you threat­ened me with? I pro­ceeded back to my seat, which was about six rows back. There stood the two deputies behind my seat and before I sat down I thought about sit­ting with them stand­ing guard over me. I thought, “To hell with that.”, and I walked back up to the front of the court­room and sat in the front sec­tion usu­ally reserved for attor­neys. This was a bet­ter place to hear what was tak­ing place at the bench.

As my wife argued the motion which I had writ­ten for her she turned a few times as if to ask me a ques­tion. Clif­ford paused and asked, “Mrs. McCoy, it appears you have some ques­tions for your hus­band. Do you wish to con­sult?” She said yes and was allowed to come sit by me while I briefed her on what was hap­pen­ing and how to argue the motion. This hap­pened a total of three times and was allowed to con­sult with me uninterrupted.

After the pro­ceed­ing was con­cluded, Clif­ford said, “Mr. McCoy, will you approach the bench?” I walked to the bench and leaned over close to Clif­ford when he said, “In all my years on the bench I have never had any­one show such dis­re­spect. When I give an order I expect it to be fol­lowed. If you ever dis­obey another order in my court I will hold you in con­tempt, do you under­stand?” I looked Clif­ford in the eye and said, “It think we under­stand each other.” I then turned and walked out of the courtroom.

The moral of the story is that peo­ple have a right to assis­tance of their choos­ing. I do not rep­re­sent peo­ple in legal pro­ceed­ings. I do not speak to the court on their behalf. I speak with them pri­vately. No judge has a right to tell some­one they are not enti­tled to assis­tance of any kind. Clif­ford knew this and also knew he would be break­ing the law by deny­ing my wife assis­tance. He would have opened a can of worms by hav­ing me held in con­tempt. I was pre­pared for this pos­si­bil­ity. When you have noth­ing to fear you will real­ize the only peo­ple like Clif­ford have on their side is intim­i­da­tion and fear.