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Not-Too-Bright Defendant of the Day: Catherin Vaughn, aka Katherine Funk

By Eric Lipman

IF you've pleaded guilty to child abuse, and IF you're lucky enough to be sentenced only to probation (a travesty in and of itself in my opinion), it's probably a pretty bad idea to threaten to kill a judge, the judge's children, and the parenting-skills and anger-management instructor you're seeing pursuant to court order. Via a post on the Legal Profession Blog, we learn that this is precisely what Catherin Vaughn/Katherine Funk did, noting that she and her husband were adept at using explosives, and revealing that she had followed the judge home from court on several occasions and knew what the judge's children looked like. The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals ruled (.pdf) that it was perfectly appropriate for the judge to revoke Vaughn's probation and sentence her to 21 days in jail, followed by another two years of probation. Though three weeks in jail for a judge-threatening child abuser seems too kind, I suspect Vaughn/Funk will do more stupid things in short order and be punished accordingly.

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on June 21, 2010 (boomark / email).