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Circuit Court Appeals Summary

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In this appeal, we address the validity of a contempt order issued by the Circuit Court for Baltimore County imposing sanctions upon Kearay Miller (“Miller”), appellant, for disruptions to a sentencing hearing caused by Miller’s cell phone. On appeal, Miller raises two questions for our review, which we have reordered and rephrased slightly as follows: 1. Whether the circuit court erred in holding Miller in direct criminal contempt when his cell phone rang during his brother’s sentencing hearing. 2. Whether the Court of Special Appeals should reduce Miller’s sentence for direct criminal contempt. For the reasons set forth herein, we shall reverse the judgment of the Circuit Court for Baltimore County. Because we answer Miller’s first question in the affirmative, we …show more content…
You were fully aware of those instructions. Your phone went off during the Court proceedings. It disturbed the Court proceedings.

I find you in direct criminal contempt of Court.

What would you like to say before I impose disposition?

MR. MILLER: It was a God honest mistake like. -- I would I’d a turned my phone off -- I turned it off the first time we came here. I had went out in the hallway and let my family know what was going on in Court, and I forgot it was on. It was just a mistake. That’s all.

THE COURT: Anything else?

MR. MILLER: No.

THE COURT: You are sentenced to the Baltimore County Bureau of Corrections for a period of five months. Take him away. The trial judge later filed an Order and Sanctions for Direct Criminal Contempt of Court where he articulated that throughout Thomas’s trial, Miller sat with Thomas’s family and friends and was knowledgeable of the fact that cell phones must be turned off in the courtroom. The trial judge noted that the cell phone “rang very loudly” and disrupted the business of the court. Further, the trial judge rejected Miller’s contention that his failure to silence his cell phone was a mistake

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