(UnitedHeadlines.com) – While being sentenced for an attempted battery charge Jan. 3, Deobra Redden, 30, leaped over the bench in a Las Vegas, Nevada, courtroom and assaulted the judge.
In a statement, court information officer Mary Ann Price said he was in court on a “charge of attempted battery with substantial bodily harm” related to an April 23 incident when Redden threatened “to bust the kneecaps” of another man. In May, he was ordered to undergo a competency test, and he was found competent in October after being committed to a state behavioral facility. In November, he pleaded guilty to the charges but missed a December court appearance and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Redden’s attorney argued he should receive a suspended sentence and probation for the charge.
Video of the incident shows that not long before the attack Redden, a three-time felon, told the court that he was working and “in a better place in my mind.” He stated that he feels “I shouldn’t be sent to prison,” adding that if the judge feels it’s appropriate, “then you gotta do what you gotta do.”
Judge Mary Kay Holthus stated that because of his past convictions and the crime she would impose a prison sentence. Before she delivered the sentence, she said that while she appreciates what he said, with his history, she thinks “it’s time he got a taste of something else.”
As he was about to be sentenced, Redden was heard swearing, then jumped over the bench toward Holthus, pushing her against a wall. In the video, an alarm sounds and someone says, “Hey, get off her! Don’t do this.” His move led to a brawl between him and court officials, which injured a courtroom marshal. The courtroom marshal received stitches for a head injury at a local hospital. The judge, who “experienced some injuries,” was not hospitalized following the incident.
In her statement, Price thanked the judge’s “staff, law enforcement, and all others who subdued the defendant.”
Redden was back in court Jan. 4 on new felony charges of battery against a protected person and battery.
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