Associated Press
JOLIET, Ill. – An Illinois judge has freed a man who’d been jailed for three weeks after letting loose a loud yawn during a sentencing hearing.
Thirty-three-year-old Clifton Williams of Richton Park was found in contempt of court and jailed on July 23 after yawning in Will County Judge Daniel Rozak’s court.
Williams was in court for his cousin’s sentencing on a drug charge. And a prosecutor in court at the time described the offending yawn as “loud and boisterous.”
As Williams stood before the bench in shackles, the judge gave him a short lecture Thursday, telling him he wasn’t in custody for simply yawning. Rozak told Williams he was found in contempt for making a sound “that was offensive to the court.”
Where’s the outrage from the people who thump the constitution? It’s okay to yell down elected officials and disrupt the rights of others, but you can’t yawn in court?
Day in, day out, we hear about democracy being disrupted. Local residents can’t ask valid questions without hecklers drowning them out. Yet, this guy serves three weeks in jail for yawning “loudly!” What is this world coming to?