Legal News

At 10-Days-Per-Word, Threatening Defendant Gets 700 Days in Prison

By Dan Slater

If you have something not-nice to say, keep it short. At least that’s the lesson out of a Tennessee trial.

Joshua Beadle, on trial in Tennessee for burglary and rape, talked himself into nearly two years in jail after threatening to kill Judge Lee Coffee at a hearing on Monday. Beadle was reportedly held in contempt and sentenced to 10 days-per-word after Judge Coffee ordered him to stop the threatening comments. Coffee stopped counting at 70 words and sentenced Beadle to 700 days in jail. Here’s the AP report on law.com.

Beadle (pictured) was shackled and outfitted in a special hooded spit mask during the hearing. Back in January, Beadle attempted to spit at the judge, but missed and hit the clerk’s computer instead. At the hearing this week, through his nylon-and-mesh spit mask, he apologized to the clerk and assured her that his intended target was the judge.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 27, 2008 (boomark / email).