Nobody likes going to court: Lawyers don’t like it, plaintiffs don’t like it and defendants definitely don’t like it. The only people who might like it even a little are judges, who often seem to be on massive power trips, readying themselves to find anyone and everyone in contempt for so much as coughing out of turn.


One Maryland judge took things to the next level when he instructed the court sheriff to tase a man in his courtroom who wouldn’t stop speaking over the judge, including making sovereign-citizen arguments. While that does sound incredibly annoying, judges should probably have a little more patience with weirdos than almost immediately resorting to tasing them.



The man was wearing a “stun cuff” on his ankle after previously escaping from court, so the sheriff was able to remotely control the cuff and tase him that way. The video is a difficult watch — the man immediately falls to the ground and begins screaming in agony as everyone else looks on, seemingly frozen. The judge, Robert C. Nalley of Charles County, Maryland, pleaded guilty to one count of deprivation of rights following the incident, and prior to that was banned from the bench.


This wasn’t Nalley’s first disco, however. In 2009, he deflated the tire of someone who had parked in a restricted area near the courthouse, as he considered the spot to be his. He later pleaded guilty to tampering with a motor vehicle, paying a $500 fine and writing a “heartfelt” letter of apology to the woman who owned the car, a member of the courthouse cleaning staff who didn’t want to walk through the courthouse car park at night.


The main question on Redditors’ minds was why on earth stun cuffs are a thing to begin with, with one commenter explaining, “It discourages bad behavior from a guy who might otherwise have nothing to lose.” In my view, it treats people who have not yet been convicted of any crime like animals needing to be controlled and shouldn’t be normalized in any civilized society.


Gross.