Late last week, a criminal defendant in Florida had a rather unexpected outburst just before closing arguments were set to begin in his burglary trial. Dorleans Philidor, 33, apparently defecated in his pants and threw his own excrement at the judge, all the while exclaiming, “It’s protein! It’s good for you!”
This is not the shit that you expect to see go down in court on a regular basis.
No jurors were in the room when Philidor flung his feces at Judge Lisa Walsh, who luckily went untouched by the poop because a bailiff told her to run. Allen Rios, a witness who captured the debacle on his Instagram account, said, “It was intense. The corrections officers and police officers were swarming. Like 60 of them. They told everyone to leave and you couldn’t go back in. It was a hazardous area.”
Click here to see the crazy video clip that was taken by Rios.
The Miami Herald has the details on what happened next:
Walsh was not deterred. As courtroom 2-10 was shut down for cleaning, the judge moved the closing arguments to another courtroom upstairs late Friday morning, according to spokeswoman Eunice Sigler.
Jurors deliberated Friday afternoon for about one hour — then found Philidor not guilty of the crime. He won’t be getting out of jail, however, because he is still facing a separate trial in a grand-theft auto case.
It’s unclear if he will face charges related to the courtroom attack.
Something like this could only happen in Florida.
A burglary suspect threw his own feces at a Miami judge. Then, the jury acquitted him. [Miami Herald]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.