Kimberly Senette, 23, had only gone to court to urge her brother Lawrence Senette, 18, to accept a plea deal.But Judge Steve Windhorst took a dim view of her revealing outfit and locked her up for contempt of court, reports the Times-Picayune newspaper.Miss Senette was wearing knee-length shorts which revealed her pants and the top of her buttocks, according to a witness.When Judge Windhorst questioned her appearance, she said she had to remove her belt when going through a security checkpoint at the courtroom entrance.She ended up being handcuffed and seated a row behind her brother as he eventually accepted a 12-year prison sentence in exchange for his guilty plea to carjacking.“It certainly is not unheard of for a judge to hold a person in contempt for disruptive or disorderly dress in court,” said Dane Ciolino, a Loyola University law professor. — Orange news.
BOOK THRILLERLIBRARIANS at Winona Public Library were thrilled this week when someone returned a book that had been checked out some 35 years ago.The book is called “Small Voices: A grownup’s treasury of selections from the diaries, journals and notebooks of young children.” It’s a collection of journal entries that prominent public figures had written as children. Someone left it in the library’s drop-box. It is Amnesty Week for overdue books.Reference librarian Robin DeVries said she’s thrilled to get it back.Records suggest it was checked out in the early 1970s. But because the circulation system has since changed, it’s not clear who last checked it out.The Winona Daily News said the overdue fine would have been more than US $1 400. — Reuters.
MISS MAFIA ORGANISERS are holding what is understood to be the first ever pageant exclusively for girls convicted of Mafia-connected crimes.Contestants are allowed to post their pictures on the contest website only after submitting a police mugshot to prove their background, reports CEN.Other vital statistics submitted to judges in Budapest, Hungary, include charges and time spent behind bars.One finalist — identified as Anna — said: “I was told by my friends several times to go in for a beauty contest. But I couldn’t because they rule out anyone with a criminal record”. The winner — who gets a car and an apartment in Budapest — will be decided at a finals pageant at a bar that was once bombed out in a Mafia clan fight.“We have thieves, fraudsters, gang members, bank robbers and swindlers so it should be an interesting night,” said one organiser. — Orange news.
HOLY SMOKE?AN AUSTRALIAN lawyer provoked controversy by posting online a video of himself smoking roll-ups made with pages torn from the Koran and the Bible.Alex Stewart’s 12 minute clip, entitled Bible or Koran — which burns best?, has now been deleted from YouTube.Stewart, who works for the Queensland University of Technology, holds up the two religious texts before ripping them apart and lighting the rolled up pages.At one stage he inhales deeply from one of the roll-ups before blowing out the smoke and commenting: “holy”. — Orange news.
