Photo: EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA / Pexels
A District Court judge in Texas was punched and then accidentally was given an electric shock with a taser gun , when he tried to help subdue a rogue defendant who reportedly attacked a sheriff and prosecutor after bail was denied, witnesses say.
Joseph Catarineau, aged 58, appeared on charges of financial fraud before State District Judge Danilo ‘Danny’ Lacayo in Houston on Tuesday, when the judge asked if the defendant needed an attorney, witnesses told the Houston Chronicle.
Lacayo denied the defendant’s bail and ordered a bailiff to detain him, according to witness Daniel Glasscock, who was hoping to appear in another case.
That’s when it exploded the ‘fight’ in court, say Jo the Harris County District Attorney’s Office First Assistant David Mitcham.
Catarineau addressed the judge in a disrespectful manner and when the bailiff tried to stop him, Catarineau took her by the hair, threw her to the ground and began to beat her , according to the prosecutor Jacob Salinas.
“He was hitting her, so I tried to intervene,” said Salinas.
Lacayo got off his bench and tried to help subdue the defendant, and the two exchanged blows with Catarineau, he said.
While Salinas, a former college football lineman, and Lacayo were holding the man, the sheriff retrieved the stun gun that had fallen from his hand and applied it, but the three men received the electric shock , because the judge and the prosecutor were holding Catarineau.
Catarineau was out on bail and was not handcuffed in the time of the attack, reported the KHOU network.
“The bottom line is that I’m not going to allow an officer to be hit in front of me,” Lacayo said.
While David Mitcham of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office told KHOU that no video of the savage incident exists, a mugshot of Catarineau shows him sporting a black eye, following the altercation at the courtroom.
Catarineau had been indicted in 2018 to submit false financial statements that he had worked for American Airlines and Envoy Air and that the two companies owed him money.
“It is an administrative case, it does not involve violence, so it is a surprise to everyone why this fight occurred ”Mitcham said of the incident.
Court records show that Catarineau’s attorney, David Kiatta, l e had asked the judge to withdraw from the case on 13 December.
Catarineau had worked as a pilot for Envoy Air, until he was fired at 2017 for ‘erratic behavior’, according to court records.
Had legal trouble after filing a lien of $ 37 million dollars against American Airlines, where it claimed that it provided labor, services and materials on 50 aircraft.
However, as a pilot, Catarineau would not have performed work or services for any aircraft.
Several months later, he filed another unsubstantiated lawsuit, this time citing services on dozens of other aircraft.
He proclaimed himself a ‘sovereign citizen’ who did not have to pay federal income tax.
The sovereign citizen movement has an extremist following that is believed to be exempt from most federal and state laws and has been linked to violence.
He will now likely face three counts of assault on a public servant and will remain behind bars in the Harris County Jail, Harris County Chief District Attorney Sean Teare said. The incident is just one of many that affect the entire state of Texas, with 1200 cases of similar assaults in courtrooms only this year.
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