‘Just awful’: Mom of teen who was placed in handcuffs by Detroit judge on field trip breaks silence

By Ruta Ulcinaite

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    DETROIT, Michigan (WXYZ) — On Tuesday we shared the story of 36th District Court Judge Kenneth King placing a child visiting his courtroom in handcuffs and in jail clothing for falling asleep and “giving him attitude”, now the 15-year-old’s mother is speaking out.

Latoreya Hill was horrified when she saw the video of her daughter, Eva Goodman, in handcuffs. Judge King says it was all to teach the teen a lesson about decorum and respect, but Hill says the judge doesn’t know the full story.

“Would you want someone to treat your child like that? Would you even treat your child like that,” Hill asked through tears.

Hill is a single mother of two and says Goodman, her eldest daughter, was signed up for a summer program with the Greening of Detroit nonprofit to keep Goodman busy. What was supposed to be an educational field trip to 36th District Court Tuesday, turned into a traumatizing moment for both her and her daughter.

Judge King, not liking the teen’s attitude and seeing her falling asleep, placed Goodman in handcuffs and a jail uniform.

“I think maybe she needs to go to the juvenile detention facility,” Judge King said in court. “Why are you being disrespectful to this court? You sleep in bed at your home, not at court.”

Hill says Goodman was falling asleep because the family does not have a permanent residence at the moment, and are just trying to make ends meet.

“To belittle her in front of the whole world and her friends, to make her feel even more worse about our situation,” Hill said through tears. “The fact that he was talking about ‘you go home and get in your bed’, how do you know my baby got a home, how do you know my baby got a bed, her own bed she could sleep in, she don’t have that right now, so she was tired,” Hill said through tears.

We spoke to Judge King Tuesday, who stands by his actions to discipline the child after showing him “attitude”.

“Do I have any reservations? Do I think I was heavy-handed in what I did? No, I don’t, because I’ll do whatever it needs to be done to reach these kids and make sure that they don’t end up in front of me,” Judge King said. “That was my own version of scared straight.”

Hill responded and said her daughter didn’t need to be taught any lessons and is barely getting by at home with what life has thrown her.

“You didn’t scare nobody straight, you made a parent upset, you scared my child she was nervous she didn’t know how to act. She never been inside no courtroom,” she said.

Hill frustrated with how this was handled, removed Goodman from the summer program and stands up for her daughter now, after she couldn’t stand up for her in that courtroom.

“My baby’s been struggling, but she been holding on tight, she’s been going to school, she get good grades, she don’t get into no problems,” Hill said.

King said he reached out to the family to help mentor Goodman, the family says they’re not interested.

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