A 15-year-old girl, Eva Goodman, who was forced to wear jail garb and handcuffs after falling asleep in a Detroit courtroom, is now suing the judge who had her detained. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan, accuses 36th District Judge Kenneth King of violating Goodman’s civil rights, arguing that his actions were outside the scope of his judicial authority.
The incident occurred on August 13, when Goodman attended Judge King’s courtroom as part of a field trip with a nonprofit group. The visit took an unexpected turn when Goodman, who had no prior experience in a courtroom, began to doze off during a hearing related to a homicide charge. According to the lawsuit, watching the proceeding forced the teenager to relive a past trauma, leading her to “shut down.
Judge King noticed Goodman sleeping and, after waking her once, saw her asleep again. This time, he had her removed from the courtroom. What followed was a series of events that left Goodman and her family deeply shaken. The lawsuit claims that the teenager was forced to disrobe and put on jail garb, placed in an isolated holding cell, and handcuffed. Two hours later, she was brought back to the courtroom, where King berated her for being disrespectful and asked if she wanted to go to jail.
The entire ordeal has left Goodman traumatized. “It’s been pretty devastating. Eva does not want to come outside,” her mother, Latoreya Till, said at a news conference. Till is seeking justice for her daughter, saying, “I just want Judge King to take accountability for the way that he humiliated my daughter… I feel like he owes her a public apology.”
The lawsuit alleges multiple violations of Goodman’s constitutional rights, including unreasonable search and seizure, detention without due process, and protection from unusual punishment. Goodman was never charged with a crime, and her lawyers argue that King had no authority to detain her, especially since no court proceedings were ongoing at the time.
“Eva wasn’t a litigant. She wasn’t a party. She wasn’t a witness, she wasn’t a lawyer, she wasn’t a court officer. She was there on a field trip,” said James Harrington, one of Goodman’s attorneys. He asserts that Judge King acted outside his purview as a judge, emphasizing, “I can tell you with 100% certainty that there is zero immunity for what happened in the courtroom on this day.”
The lawsuit also targets the private security services at the court and two unidentified court officers who complied with King’s orders. There is no specified dollar amount sought in the lawsuit, but it asks for more than $75,000 on each of the eight alleged violations, reported by AP News.
Judge King, who has been removed from his docket and will undergo training before returning to the bench, has not publicly responded to the lawsuit. However, he previously defended his actions in an interview with the Free Press, acknowledging that a lawsuit could be forthcoming.
As the legal battle unfolds, Goodman’s family continues to seek accountability and justice, hoping that their case will shed light on the mistreatment of vulnerable individuals in the courtroom.