Bizarre, Courts, Criminal law, Uncategorized

Round One: Two Judges in Washington D.C. Get Into Physical Altercation

oah-logo-new_0It is rare to have a judge involved in fist fight but it is even more rare when the other combatant is also a judge. That was the scene this week downtown Washington where Administrative Judge Joan Davenport, 63, went toe-to-toe with Administrative Judge Sharon Goodie. Davenport was charged with misdemeanor simple assault.

Goodie told police that she knocked on Davenport’s door to deliver files on March 31 when the door suddenly opened and Davenport “lunged” at her — causing Goodie to fall “backwards with her arms flailing.” Goodie said that she “landed in a squat position against the wall in the hallway.”

However, Davenport said that she was speaking to a witness when someone began loudly banging on her office door. Goodie then allegedly “stomped in” with case files. After a brief argument, Davenport said Goodie threw down the files and began to yell she was being attacked.

Both judges work in the D.C. Office of Administrative Hearings dealing with public benefits, rehab services and public works.

Davenport’s bio states that she worked with the Baltimore Police Department as well as the Montgomery County Office of the County Attorney. Judge Davenport was also a community representative for Howard University School of Law Dean Kurt L. Schmoke when he was elected Mayor of Baltimore City. She clerked for the Honorable Kenneth Lavonne Johnson of the Circuit Court of Maryland for Baltimore City. She earned both her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Baltimore, and is a licensed member of both the District of Columbia and Maryland Bars.

Goodie’s bio states Judge Goodie worked as a prosecutor for the District of Columbia Office of the Attorney General and handled cases involving juvenile delinquency (criminal) and child abuse and neglect (civil) cases from 1997-2004. She was in private practice in Washington, DC from 1996-1997.Judge Goodie clerked for the Honorable Harriett R. Taylor at the District of Columbia Superior Court from 1994-1995. She received her Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1994, and received her Bachelor of Arts cum laude from Brandeis University in 1985.

Clearly the police believed Goodie. It is alarming to have two judges with such radically different accounts of what occurred. Clearly someone is lying. The police presumably interviewed the witness who is now not just a witness in an administrative case but a criminal case involving the same judge.

13 thoughts on “Round One: Two Judges in Washington D.C. Get Into Physical Altercation”

  1. I think that having these fights between judges is a wonderful idea, and regular scheduled fights should be mandatory. Judges need to get off the bench and get active for a change. Plus, a few solid left hooks to side of the head followed by right jabs to the body, with upper cuts to the jaw, should help to curb the natural judicial tendency to engage in intellectual dishonesty that so many judges are fond of. However, there needs to be juries to oversee the process to determine which judge has scored the most points, and to help prevent cheating, another natural judicial tendency to needs to be kept in check.

  2. There was a similar incident w/ 2 justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

  3. Have to stop sending our judges to 3rd world countries for training. Wait . . . the 3rd world is coming here, or haven’t you noticed.

  4. We clearly are going to have to put body cameras on judges now.

  5. There can be no PC in DC. All those within The Beltway are beyond repair. It is a vanity fair. It is time to move the Nations Capital to Kansas City. That town is mid nation and has a good baseball and football team. We could make DC into a ghetto like De Troit. Move the Washington Monument. Build a Wall around DC.

  7. @Richard Faust: The attacker in the ‘robe rage’ incident is black; the victim is white.

  8. Who cares? It was in DC. This is part of the social networking which goes on there. One was drunk, the other was stoned. Its not fried chicken daddy it’s Shake N Bake.

  12. Wow. Interesting fight between two “social” justices.

    Wait for it, wait for it…..Oh Jay …would have loved your monologue.

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