Starting the New year, you may think not much happened during the first week. However, on January 3rd, a defendant by the name of Debora Redden was in a court hearing in Clark County, Nevada, and decided to attack judge Mary Kay Holthus as she was sentencing him for his felonies and more.
Defendant Redden already had a bad criminal history for things like battery, robbery, assault, and injury to property, which gave him a bad reputation to begin with, and unlikely receive any bail. On the day of his sentencing, Redden was being charged with attempted battery with substantial bodily harm for 19 months to 4 years in prison. Redden and his attorney asked the judge for probation rather than time behind bars, saying he was getting his life back on track with a new job and plans to continue his education.
Holthus then read the defendant’s full criminal history to the courtroom. This list included three felonies, misdemeanors, multiple domestic violent cases, robberies, and an attempted home invasion. His attorney pleaded that he believes Redden could complete probation, but Holthus disagreed saying, “I appreciate that, but I think its time that he gets a taste of something else because I just can’t, with that history.”
This then triggers Redden to shout explicit language to the judge and ran toward her, leaping over the bench and attacking her. Redden tackled Holthus to the ground, both disappearing from everyone’s sight. As others were trying to restrain him, he continued to yell explicitly and threw several punches at not only the judge, but also to those who intervened. Judge Holthus sustained minor injuries and a court marshal was also sent to the hospital. In the end, Redden was charged with seven counts of battery charges against a protected person along with attempted murder and his reasoning was as follows: he was having a bad day.
This incident shows that the courtroom may have been unprepared for a situation like this, lacking security and awareness of who they are dealing with. To get some opinions on this horrible situation, Abby Atwood (12) and Isabella Jentzsh (11) expressed how they feel about the judge and defendant’s case. Isabella stated, “I think if the man was charged with assault before, they should’ve been more prepared in the courtroom by having more officers or having him more restricted. If I were the judge for Holthus, I would feel devastated because it would be my job to give him the sentence he deserves for his own actions. Therefore, I would give him all possible charges he can get to hopefully make him learn a real lesson, but I wouldn’t give up on the job.” Isabella agrees that the courtroom should’ve been more prepared in case of any situation like this.
Abby Atwood, having a similar opinion, states, “I would feel quite worried about the possibilities of any other accidents like this in the future, and they need more added security moving forward. I think he deserves a life sentence because his reasoning of ‘having a bad day’ doesn’t excuse any of his actions, knowing he has a history that makes him deserve a few years in prison. I feel Holthus may have felt a little bad for the defendant at first due to people having rougher lives than others, but she was doing what she felt was right and got attacked for it.” In the end courtrooms should take this incident as a sign to pay more attention to defendant’s history in case of any charges of usual violence. You never know what someone is capable of even around law enforcement, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.