Law Humor

Ex-judge, that is.

After his firing, which you may recall was prompted by the jailing of a 19-year-old for failing to return a DVD to the library, former municipal judge James Kimmel stood by his decision to issue a bench warrant for the boy's arrest.  Claiming that the city loses thousands of dollars a year to the scourge of library-material theft, Kimmel said he was hoping to deter such miscreants.  "I think that if people understand their ramifications for [sic] not returning materials," he told a local reporter, "they will return them, and I was trying to keep the city from having further losses."

Kimmel admitted, though, that in this case the materials (namely one (1) DVD of the film "House of Flying Daggers") had been returned, and that he should have known that before issuing the warrant because the library had sent him a letter to that effect.  "It should've been on my desk and it wasn't," said Kimmel.  He did not say who he thought might have been responsible for the letter's non-presence.

Although he had issued a warrant for the arrest of a teenage non-DVD-returner, Kimmel maintained that he has "never enjoyed arresting people or issuing warrants," which may well be true, and that it's "always been one of my main concerns that warrants were not vacated or improperly issued," which is probably not.  The city council's investigation turned up 71 other outstanding warrants that appeared to be questionable or at least had never been properly served, so if warrants were really one of his "main concerns," I would hate to see how some of the secondary concerns were handled.  (Actually, I would probably enjoy seeing that.  Just a figure of speech.)  Kimmel said he was angry about his termination but would not try to get his job back.  He said he would return to private practice.

In the days ahead, look for reports on the daring exploits of a mysterious masked library vigilante who fights to protect the town of Littleton, Colorado, from those who would prey on the goodwill of citizens by absconding with publicly-owned library materials.  Let all those who prowl the stacks with evil intent beware.

Link: 9NEWS.com