The girl ordered detained by a Detroit judge after nodding off on a field trip to his courtroom spoke publicly for the first time this week, testifying during a disciplinary hearing against the judge.
Eva Goodman, now 17, said Monday, Sept. 14, that the experience in Judge Kenneth King's 36th District courtroom in 2024 repeatedly left her scared and embarrassed. She said it subsequently caused her to lose sleep and miss school, too.
"I was overwhelmed emotionally, I was definitely sad," said Goodman, describing how she felt when officers detained her and escorted her from King's courtroom. "I didn't know what was going to happen."
King is accused by the state oversight body for judges, the Judicial Tenure Commission, of failing to follow the law
and mistreating both Goodman and a lawyer he’d also had detained in a separate matter. King did not speak in court Monday except to identify himself; he may testify before the end of the proceedings.
King previously defended his actions with the girl. His lawyer, Todd Perkins, said neither incident at the heart of the disciplinary proceedings rose to the level of judicial misconduct.
Through more than three hours of testimony Monday interrupted by video of the 2024 proceedings, Goodman wiped her cheeks with a tissue and fought back tears while discussing how the entire event made her feel.
That includes recalling the moment on her field trip when peers laughed and voted to have King send her to juvenile detention.
"I wasn't going to let them see me cry, to let them know I was sad," Goodman said, as King looked on with his family at his back.
In the worst-case scenario for the judge, who is up for reelection this November, the judicial misconduct process could end in his ouster in a rare move by the Michigan Supreme Court.
In general, ramifications for judicial misconduct allegations are uncommon in Michigan.
'I was scared,' teen says at Detroit judge's misconduct hearing
Goodman, 15 at the time of the encounter with King, testified she didn't really want to go to King's courtroom on the field trip that day. But she said the supervisor of her summer program told her she had to attend.
Commission lawyers played video of King and security interacting with Goodman. That includes times when Goodman fell asleep, King screamed at her to "wake up" and the judge ultimately ordering her to be taken away.
Never-before-seen security footage from within the courthouse showed one security officer pat Goodman down with her arms splayed against a wall and multiple security officers giving Goodman jail garb typically reserved for people accused of committing a crime. Separate footage shows Goodman put on a large, dark green jumpsuit over a t-shirt and pants.
"I didn't feel comfortable fully taking off my clothes," Goodman testified.
Goodman said, watching video of her putting on jail garb, she thought she was probably scared and just wanted to go home. She testified she didn't understand what was happening at the time.
Done changing, video shows her walking to holding area. Goodman said she was then handcuffed behind her back and waited. She said she didn't think being handcuffed and forced to wear a jail outfit was fair.
"I was scared," Goodman said. "I felt very embarrassed that it happened in front of everybody that I worked with."
Commission lawyers ended with video of the final encounter between King and Goodman. King is visibly frustrated, criticizing Goodman's body language and attitude.
"I'm tempted to give her some days in jail, as a lesson," King says on the video.
The defense lawyer King asked to represent Goodman at the time tries to help her, at one point saying, "the point has been made" before King continues to question her.
At this point, King asks Goodman's peers to raise their hands if they think she should go to jail. Jeers and a roar of laughter are audible on the footage. Video shows King smiling and laughing throughout his statements to the field trip participants. He did not smile while watching the video Monday during the disciplinary proceeding.
Goodman stared at the ceiling or floor while the video played. She rarely looked at the screen.
"It was like reliving it, all over again," Goodman said when asked about watching the footage in court.
After King let Goodman leave that day, she testified she never wanted to leave her family. She said she didn't feel comfortable going to school or the store. Kids approached her and asked questions about it at school; she said she missed two to three weeks of classes after her encounter with King. Goodman said she couldn't sleep more than two hours at a time.
Teen detained on courtroom field trip cross examined
Perkins, King's lawyer, elicited few new details or fireworks during his roughly 30-minute questioning of Goodman.
The lawyer walked Goodman back through her encounter with the judge in 2024. He asked specific questions about her body posture and her understanding of the judge's actions.
Perkins also asked Goodman if she ever made comments similar to, "you do what you've got to do" after King spoke with her and whether she said he didn't care about King's statements. Goodman testified she did not make those comments and does not remember responding to King at the time.
Goodman paused when Perkins asked her why she was laughing with her peers when King asked them to raise their hands if they supported the judge sending her to jail. She said she laughed as a way to express her emotions; Perkins suggested it was similar to laughing so as not to cry, and Goodman agreed.
Perkins asked if Goodman thinks she presented herself with an attitude when King spoke to her. After Goodman said no, Perkins rested.
Judge 'wanted her to cower,' lawyer says of teen's handcuffing
In opening arguments, Nichollette Hoard, a staff lawyer with the commission, argued King sought to "teach a lesson" that went beyond expected judicial norms and conduct.
"This case is about what happened when Eva did not display the fear, submission or deference that Judge King appeared to expect from her," Hoard said.
"The more he escalated, the more Judge King seemed to demand Eva respect his authority by cowering. He wanted her to cower."
King misused the judicial contempt power, Hoard said, deploying it as a personal tool to bolster his ego instead of what is prescribed in the law. She also noted King is accused of similar conduct in a separate instance, where he had a lawyer detained for several hours.
"The law does not become optional because a judge’s ego isn’t satisfied. Due process does not disappear because a judge believes someone has an attitude," Hoard said.
During his own opening statement, Perkins said King has a revered record of over 20 years on the bench and the evidence does not support disciplining the judge. He specifically argued that King held Goodman in contempt, court was in session during the entire proceeding with Goodman, and King had the power to do everything he did.
"He made this finding, and he reversed himself ... the record reflects he did make that finding as a judge."
Concerns with the use of contempt are a matter for an appellate court, not for judicial misconduct proceedings, he said.
Whether King was acting in his capacity as a judge is also key in a federal lawsuit that the teen and her family brought against the judge. King recently lost an appeal to have the case thrown out at its current stage based on judicial immunity.
Detroit judge faces allegations in lawyer's detainment
The testimony Monday focused exclusively on the experience of Goodman; previously, her mom said she lacked permanent housing at the time of the encounter with King and she was reliving trauma that day in court because of an unrelated case.
The other case the commission is expected to raise this week took place in 2022, when a defense attorney claimed they were ready to proceed in a case but wouldn’t be opposed to an adjournment prosecutors asked for. The attorney hadn’t received all the evidence in the case and King said it would be malpractice for the lawyer to proceed.
A back-and-forth escalated, and King eventually had the lawyer detained and placed in handcuffs.
King has argued that context was missing around both incidents. He’s also argued he did not violate judicial canons.
King already faced consequences for some actions. Immediately after the Goodman encounter, he was temporarily removed from the bench for training. When he returned a few weeks later, it was to preside over traffic court instead of the high-profile criminal cases he typically heard.
King also lost a teaching role at Wayne State University and, after a Free Press investigation into the use of YouTube by King and others, the 36th District Court banned the use of chats while livestreaming proceedings.
The entire proceeding involving Goodman was broadcast live to King's popular YouTube channel, where the judge intentionally built an online following throughout his tenure on the bench.
The Judicial Tenure Commission hearings are expected to take several days to complete.
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: 'I was scared': Teen testifies against Detroit judge in misconduct hearing
