A Detroit judge who in 2024had a teen girl detained after she fell asleep on a field trip to his courtroom saw his misconduct hearing abruptly halted this week, with the state’s oversight body for judges and the Michigan Supreme Court now set to weigh a possible deal to close the case.
Currently, the details of the deal for 36th District Court Judge Kenneth King are not public.
The case against King entered its second day of testimony Tuesday, Sept. 15, on accusations King failed to follow the law and was disrespectful to the teenager and another lawyer he had detained. However, after getting through one witness, lawyers on both sides announced they’d reached a tentative consent agreement and wanted to pause the hearing as they seek approval for
the deal from the state body known as the Judicial Tenure Commission and, ultimately, the Michigan Supreme Court.
Commission lawyers discussed possible agreements with King’s team before the public hearing kicked off Monday, Sept. 14, said Glenn Page, the interim executive director and general counsel for the commission.
That was the same day the teenage girl testified for hours about her fear and embarrassment at being forced into handcuffs, jail garb and a mock trial in which her peers laughed and voted, at King’s behest, on whether she should go to juvenile detention. King has previously defended his actions and argued he did not violate judicial canons.
Neither Page nor King’s attorney, Todd Perkins, would reveal details on any agreed upon sanction Tuesday. Page said the agreement won’t be made public until the state Supreme Court makes a decision.
However, the proposed agreement deals with the professional misconduct case tied to the teenage girl, Page said. The commission would drop the part of the case tied to the lawyer who was detained in a different encounter.
The Judicial Tenure Commission had its regularly scheduled meeting Monday morning and King's team was then contacted about the agreement, Page said.
Even after an agreement was reached, commission lawyers still continued the hearing in order to finish key testimony in the case, Page said.
Gary Felty, a lawyer for the teenager, said he was proud of the now 17-year-old Eva Goodman and thought her performance on the stand likely played a role in resolving the case with a settlement.
“She did a fantastic job testifying and that may have been a crucial factor in deciding whether to resolve the matter or proceed to a determination,” Felty said Tuesday.
King still faces a federal lawsuit from Goodman and her family. He recently lost an appeal to have the case thrown out at its current stage, where King unsuccessfully argued he was protected by judicial immunity.
The pause in the misconduct case also means King won’t take the stand this week and testify under oath about what happened; he was on a witness list to potentially do just that.
The witness called Tuesday was lawyer John McWilliams, who saw part of the August 2024 interaction between Goodman and King, and addressed the court when King asked him to do so at the time. The only other witness to testify the week of the hearing, besides Goodman, was the leader of her summer program during which the field trip took place.
If approved by the commission, the matter goes to the Michigan Supreme Court, which has the power to suspend, remove or otherwise discipline a judge and can either accept the agreement or decide to impose a different sanction.
Should the state’s highest court seek to impose a different sanction, King would have the chance to withdraw his consent and continue the currently paused proceedings.
Contact Darcie G. Moran at dmoran@freepress.com. Dave Boucher is an investigative reporter with the Detroit Free Press. Reach him at dboucher@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Possible deal reached for Detroit judge who had sleepy teen detained
