GREENBELT, Md.—A former Maryland judge who ordered a defendant to be physically shocked in his courtroom was sentenced Thursday to participate in anger-management classes and pay a $5,000 fine.
Robert C. Nalley of La Plata, Maryland, will also have to spend a year on probation.
Nalley, 72, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a civil rights violation for ordering a deputy to activate a “stun-cuff” that a defendant appearing before him was wearing around his ankle.
The defendant, who was acting as his own lawyer, was before Nalley in July 2014 for jury selection and had failed to listen to Nalley’s orders to stop speaking.
After he was shocked, the defendant fell to the ground screaming. A video of the exchange without sound and separate audio was played in court Thursday. Prosecutor Kristi O'Malley noted that the defendant didn’t raise his voice or yell during the exchange and even called the judge “sir.”
She said Nalley “very quickly grew impatient” and that his use of the stun-cuff was “highly disproportionate” for “nothing more than verbal interruptions.”
“Our constitution does not allow a violation of rights based on annoyance,” she said.
Nalley acknowledged as part of a plea deal “that the use of the stun cuff was objectively unreasonable under the circumstances,” and both prosecutors and Nalley’s lawyer agreed to recommend a sentence of one year on probation.
“To say that I’m chagrinned to be standing here is an understatement,” Nalley said in a brief statement in federal court in Greenbelt on Thursday.
Nalley, who was a judge in Charles County from 1988 to September 2014, did not apologize in court but did say he had made an “error in judgment.” Nalley’s ability to hear cases was rescinded several months after the incident.
Judge William Connelly, who oversaw Nalley’s case, said in court that a year of probation was an appropriate sentence in part because of Nalley’s age and the fact he can no longer hear cases.
