The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Palm Beach County Judge Jorge Labarga. He gets the award for the following.

WEST PALM BEACH — A 34-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to lewd and lascivious molestation charges in exchange for a 10-year prison sentence followed by 20 years of sex-offender probation.

The sheriff's office says Noel Schultheis lured 10-year-old boys to his home using video games and remote-control cars, then engaged in sexual activity with them.

Schultheis originally was charged with sexual battery on a person less than 12 years of age and could have faced life in prison for the crimes.

Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga declared Schultheis a sexual predator, triggering public notification requirements and restrictions on where he can live once he is released from prison.

When it came time in the courtroom Monday for the prosecutor to detail Schultheis' crimes, Labarga called the lawyers up to the bench and turned on a "white noise" sound so others in the courtroom - including a gallery full of jail inmates - could not hear their conversation.

Labarga later said he had the details of the crime recounted at the bench to protect Schultheis from the wrath of other inmates.

He said the information is publicly available in court records.

I don't know which is worse, LaBarga giving a two-time molestor of boys just 10 years, or his moronic concern for what would happen to Schultheis in jail. I got a message for you judge- Start worrying about 10-year-old boys, not the people who want to molest him. For protecting a child molestor instead of the public, Palm Beach County Judge Jorge Labarga is today's Knucklehead of the Day.

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