My heart breaks for you Judge Stoop- NOT!

Seminole County Judge John Stoop cried and said he was horrified at his having 11 people arrested for going to the wrong courtroom. Judge Stoop testified before the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission on Tuesday in regards to the arrests he ordered in 2004. The judge could be removed from the bench.

Stoop is a sorry excuse of both a human being and judge. First he played God having these people arrested, he even left the courthouse and it was up to another judge to free these people after they spent 9 hours in jail! Then Judge Stoop will not apologize to his people, he says his lawyer told him not to. Thirdly Stoop is trying to explain his unforgivable actions by saying he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Its one big crock, this jackass has been in trouble before and is trying to weasle his way out again. If there was any justice, this man would have been removed from the bench 2 years ago and jailed 10 hours for every hour the people he jailed did time. This country has too many out of control judges, and almost as bad judges who won't discipline these. Florida is no different, Stoop could well get off with a slap on the wrist and that is inexcusable.

If Judges don't judge offending justices with proper justice, our whole judicial system comes into question because our judiciary feels they are above the law the rest of us have to obey.

I'll say it again, a revolution will happen some day when a judge lets go one too many child molestor. The people will rise up and Judges like Stoop or that Knucklehead in Vermont better run for cover.

Open Post- Third World County, Right Wing Nation, Cao's Blog, Blue Star, Bright & Early,

SANFORD -- Saying he was "horrified" by what he had done, Seminole County Judge John Sloop on Tuesday told a panel deciding whether he should be kicked off the bench that a mental disorder made him order the arrest of 11 people who had accidentally gone to the wrong courtroom.

"I will never be able to make amends," he said on the first day of his trial.

Sloop, 57, is fighting to salvage his 15-year judicial career. Prosecutors with the Judicial Qualifications Commission, the state panel that polices judges, want him removed from the bench.

Sloop blamed his actions on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Until the incident, he said, he never realized he had a problem, but soon after, a psychiatrist confirmed his self-diagnosis.

The morning of Dec. 3, 2004, 11 traffic offenders went to the wrong courtroom. He ordered them arrested for failing to appear.

Two judges and a bailiff told him it was all a mistake, that the defendants had sat in a different courtroom after they were directed there by faulty paperwork or deputies.

Sloop conceded Tuesday that he ignored those warnings, ate a quick lunch of popcorn, left the courthouse to run errands, then returned and began his afternoon hearings as if nothing had happened.

That behavior, he said, was a classic symptom of ADHD: He had a schedule to keep, and he wouldn't be deterred, he said.

He is much better now, he said. He takes medicine daily and is under the care of both a psychologist and a psychiatrist.

Sloop testified for slightly more than an hour. When he was questioned by the prosecutor, Lauri Waldman Ross, his answers were brief.

But when the questions came from his lawyer, Marc Lubet, Sloop was contrite, expansive and, at one point, his eyes filled with tears.

He has never formally apologized to those who were arrested because his attorney advised him not to, he said.

"I have wanted to apologize. I look forward to that apology," he said.

Why hadn't he apologized right away, before he had hired a lawyer, before the commission brought formal charges, asked a member of the six-person commission serving as jury.

"I can't answer that," Sloop said. "I can only suggest I was struggling with an undiagnosed disorder."

Sloop's psychiatrist and psychologist are expected to testify today, which is expected to be the hearing's final day. Also likely to take the stand is a commission-hired psychologist.

Two of the 11 people jailed that day testified Tuesday. One was Alda Rugg, an Oviedo homemaker ticketed for driving home with a new truck without a valid tag and registration.

She sat in a courtroom waiting for her hearing to start for at least two hours, and when the judge in that courtroom, Seminole County Judge Ralph Eriksson, realized there had been a mix-up, he sent her and the 10 others next door, she said.

She went and, within minutes, deputies were clicking handcuffs onto her wrists and latching chains to her legs, she said.

Sloop had already left.

"I just kept asking, kept asking, 'Why can't we see the judge?' " Rugg said. " 'Why do we have to go to jail?' "

She was freed about nine hours later, after she and the others had been strip-searched.

Lubet said Sloop signed their release orders about 2:20 p.m. By then, two other judges also had begun working on their release.

Ross told panel members that it was the fourth time Sloop has been in trouble with the commission, often because of his temper. Each time he had been warned, he conceded, and each time he had promised never to be a problem again.

This time, though, he did more than lose his temper, Ross said.

"This," she said, "was raw abuse of power. Judge Sloop put these people in jail for one reason and one reason only: He could."