For folks itching to know all the details about the bedbug incident in Judge Cylenthia LaToye Miller's courtroom in which a courtroom was cleared in the 36th district court last Thursday, the judge has posted some clarifications on her Facebook page. Among them:
- The person who had the bed bugs was NOT a witness in the case and was NOT accompanying a witness.
- The person's daughter admitted he had bed bugs "all over the house."
- The court Bailiff Tony Kellum informed me and my Clerk Lyn Cain that after he removed the man from the courtroom, he spoke to him in the hall and the man had acted as if it was no big deal that he had bed bugs.
- The other court Bailiff Al Baylor asked the people in the front row to leave the courtroom after Bailiff Tony Kellum informed him about his conversation with the man.
- Tony Kellum also stated that the man was in the men's bathroom, "scratching and knocking things off of him."
- Audience members stated that they saw a bug "crawling down the bench" in the courtroom.
- As I had gone to my chambers to obtain information regarding a case, I was NOT in the courtroom when the Bailiffs removed the people from the front row of the courtroom & when I returned, they were already in the hall.
- I only removed the rest of the people from the courtroom AFTER the Bailiffs informed me about their findings and the audience members stated they saw a bug crawling down the bench.
- The officers, attorneys, audience members, & staff present were very concerned and uncomfortable in the courtroom.
- The fact that no bed bugs were found in the courtroom is a blessing and per the official who contacted me from the Detroit Health & Wellness Promotion Department, we "dodged a bullet."
- The people who returned to the courtroom the next day were very happy to have been able to leave the courtroom, have it checked out, & return to the courtroom on Friday instead of having been forced to stay in the courtroom under those circumstances on Thursday.
