A South Florida judge has resigned from presiding over a case after being recorded berating a sick woman in a wheelchair who died 3 days after being in court.
Sandra Faye Twiggs, 59, was in bond court after a verbal altercation happened with her daughter. While she was in jail, she had trouble getting medication for her asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and was seen coughing severely in the video recorded in court during her hearing.
The defendant had died in her bed and was found by her sister, Anna Twiggs, on Wednesday. Twiggs came home on Monday saying that they had treated her so badly in court that she was starving, dizzy and borderline breathless.
In the video, it could be seen that Judge Merrilee Ehrlich was so extreme in her tongue-lashing that Twiggs’ public defender, Howard Finkelstein, demanded the judge be banned from presiding over future criminal proceedings. He also said that Ehrlich’s treatment of the defendant was aggressive and tyrannical.
“It is not appropriate for anyone to endure that kind of treatment,” said Finkelstein’s chief assistant, Gordon Weekes. “All that was required was a bit of patience, and a bit of respect to allow this lady to speak, to gather herself and to breathe.”
During the hearing, it could be seen in the video that Twiggs was trying to explain to the judge about her condition but the Ehrlich was seen shouting at the defendant saying, “I’m not here to talk about your breathing problems.”
Throughout the whole hearing, the judge was aggressively berating the defendant and was seen saying, “I’m not going to spend all day with her interrupting me.”
Twiggs’ sister, Anna, expressed that the experience affected Sandra so much that it was the reason she had died after the day of her release. She recalled that her sister told her, “They treated me so bad. All I wanted was some medical attention and some help.” The judge was not immediately available for comment.