(WXYZ) — The family of the Detroit teenager who was handcuffed and forced to wear jail clothes during a field trip to a court room is filing a lawsuit against the judge who made it happen.
Watch the full press conference below at Fieger Law
Eva Goodman, 15, and her mother, filed the lawsuit on Wednesday with Fieger Law, alleging the judge violated her Fourth Amendment rights when Judge Kenneth King detained the teen and lectured her after she fell asleep in his court room.
"It's been pretty devastating. Eva doesn't want to come outside ... It's hard for her to sleep at night. She's asking me, 'why did the judge do me like this out of all the kids?' Like she's really not understanding the or the whole thing of the system or what happened or was going on," said Latoreya Hill, Eva's mother, at a news conference. "I wish I could have brought my daughter here for today, but she doesn't want to be in front of the camera. She doesn't want to talk. She's embarrassed, humiliated, and I can't blame her."
The lawsuit alleges that King used his own version of "Scared Straight" and told 7 News Detroit after we broke the story that the reason he made her do that was to teach a lesson because she had a bad attitude.
WATCH: Detroit judge scolds teen during court field trip, places her in jail uniform
"It wasn't so much, in fact, that she had fallen asleep because I have attorneys that fall asleep sometimes, so that's not too big of a deal. It was her whole attitude and her whole disposition that disturbed me," King told 7 News Detroit last week. "I wanted to get through to her, show how serious this is and how you are to conduct yourself inside of a courtroom."
"Common sense and the facts demonstrate that a grown man became rattled by a young girl that he falsely concluded to be and cast as a delinquent, who was actually a fragile teenager forced to attentively face a past trauma during an actual prior court proceeding that had ended, before shutting down during class," the lawsuit said.
WATCH: Mom of teen placed in handcuffs by Detroit judge on field trip breaks silence
In the lawsuit, it's alleged that Goodman was held in a holding cell for hours.
"He berated the minor on a live platform, ordered her jailed, caused her to be handcuffed, demanded that she take off her clothes and change into jail garb, imprisoned her for hours, and then conducted a fake trial with her classmates (and possibly his internet followers) as her jurors and his audience," the lawsuit said.
The family is now asking for $75,000 but attorneys say that figure is likely to change as they begin discovery and investigate the scope of the live stream.
Last week, 36th District Court Chief Judge William McConico said that King had been temporarily removed from the docket and will undergo training. At this time, King is still removed from his docket.
WATCH: Judge who had teen handcuffed for sleeping in court is removed from docket
"We are going to have him go through some training sessions dealing with cultural competency also some sensitivity training, because there should never be a situation where a child is on a field trip and she ends up in a jail jumpsuit and in handcuffs," McConico said.
McConico added that while he doesn't agree with King's disciplinary actions that day, he stands by him being a qualified judge.
"Judge King likes to use teachable moments. The tactics are not the tactics that we believe is acceptable at 36th District Court. I know Judge King personally, and that's not normally in his character," Chief Judge McConico said.
Hill spoke with 7 News Detroit after learning of the disciplinary action.
"Don't play with an upset mother," Hill said. "Because you told my daughter don't play with you in your courtroom, and, so, you can't play with the citizens of Detroit and an upset mother."
Attorney Todd Perkins is now representing Judge Kenneth King. He says knowing Judge King personally, the public has some misconceptions about who he is. However he says right now their focus is on reminding 15 year old Eva that she matters.
"There’s never been any intention to hurt anyone to embarrass anyone to put them in the cross hairs of harm," said Perkins. "Let’s move away from Judge King and let’s concern ourselves with this young person who has announced that they’re hurting. Let’s fix that. Judge King will be okay. He’s going to be okay because he’s done too much for his community, for this community to not embrace him afterward."
Till says she would like a public apology and to see her daughter smiling again.
"Basically I just want Judge King to take accountability for the way he humiliated my daughter. It could have been anybody daughter," said Till.
You can read the whole lawsuit below
Family sues Detroit judge who handcuffed teen during field trip by WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Detroit on Scribd
