A JUDGE WITH ATTENTION-DEFICIT DISORDER????

Surely all his cases ought to be re-opened!

A Seminole County judge claims he has a mental disorder and that's what caused him to send 11 people to jail for being late to his court. Judge John Sloop now only hears civil cases instead of criminal Sloop's attorney says he's fine now, thanks to medication, medication he was not on back in December. Sloop went for a full psychiatric evaluation after the incident in the courtroom back in December, according to Sloop's attorney.

Eleven people, including Ron Parilla, were sent to the wrong courtroom for a traffic hearing. Sloop signed arrest warrants for all of them, not knowing why they were missing. But even after a deputy informed the judge about the mix up, Sloop went to lunch and heard other cases before ordering everyone be freed. Parilla spent seven hours in jail even after that order. 'It was horrific, horrific knowing you were going to jail for no reason," Parilla said.

Now Sloop's attorney says the reason this happened was the judge's then-undiagnosed attention deficit disorder. "His decision making and analysis of the situation had been effected by this," said Sloop's attorney, Mark Lubet. "He had 100 other things on his mind and he didn't prioritize them in the way they should have been prioritized." After the evaluation, the 56-year-old started taking medication and his attorney says now his decision-making is fine. But, Parilla isn't buying it. "He has a common-sense disorder. I'm not a doctor. I can't say what he does or doesn't have, but it seems convenient that it just happened on December 3rd and no time before," Parilla said. Sloop will use the argument to try to keep a state panel of judges from removing him from office. Parilla says Sloop ought to go without a fight. "He's proven he doesn't have the credentials or common sense to be on the bench." Sloop's attorney says the judge is making good decisions now that he's on medication. As for decisions in the past, the attorney says no one knows if the disorder affected him.

From here


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