Judge Who Chastised Abuse Victim Gets Own Punishment

A Florida judge who publicly dressed down an abused woman in 2015 and sent her to jail for three days for not showing up to face her abuser in court is now facing her own repercussions. Seminole County Judge Jerri Collins, who reached a plea agreement in March to receive a public reprimand for what many are saying was a callous response to the domestic violence victim, will still receive that public reprimand, and now she's been ordered to take a domestic violence course as well by the state's Supreme Court, WESH reports. Click Orlando reports that Collins already completed an anger management course that was also part of her punishment.

The abused woman attended a contempt of court hearing on July 30, 2015, after she was served a subpoena for a July 22 court date and never showed. The crying woman told Collins she had been suffering from anxiety and depression, to which Collins replied, " You think you're going to have anxiety now? You haven't even seen anxiety" before sentencing her to jail. The Supreme Court of Florida found that "Judge Collins raised her voice, used sarcasm, spoke harshly, and interrupted the victim," adding that the judge's "behavior created the appearance of partiality toward the state." Earlier this year, Collins admitted to a judicial panel she shouldn't have come on so strong to the woman, but she said the woman had ignored a subpoena and therefore earned her contempt-of-court punishment. Collins' public reprimand has been scheduled for Aug. 30. (More Florida stories.)