Judge Joe Brown Arrested After Courtroom Argument with Magistrate in Shelby County

Judge Joe Brown speaking

Even courtroom TV personalities can be arrested and thrown in jail. This is the case for former Judge Joe Brown on Monday, who has had his own courtroom TV show for 15 years before it was cancelled.

Judge Joe Brown Arrested After Courtroom Argument with Magistrate Harold Horne

Judge Joe Brown was arrested on March 24, 2014 after being found in contempt of court in Shelby County (Memphis, TN).

Judge Joe Brown came to court to represent a person in a child-support case. Judge Joe Brown got a little upset when Shelby County Juvenile Court Magistrate Harold Horne told his courtroom that the case would not happen that afternoon. That's when Judge Joe Brown was ticked off. He went on a tirade in front of everyone in the courtroom, and was then arrested.

Judge Joe Brown back in Shelby County...to see the Jail

Magistrate Harold Horne found Judge Joe Brown in contempt of court five times, yes five times, before they were able to drag Judge Joe Brown out of the courtroom in handcuffs. He was booked in the Shelby County jail after being arrested.

Yahoo! Celebrity points out that Judge Joe Brown was a former Shelby County criminal judge. So who knows, maybe Judge Joe Brown will run into someone he put in jail many years ago.

Chief Magistrate Dan Michael was in the courtroom with Judge Joe Brown went off on Magistrate Harold Horne. He said that everyone was "kind of floored" by Judge Joe Brown's behavior in the courtroom.

Judge Joe Brown Explains his Outbursts

In this article, Judge Joe Brown says:  "I was not happy to have my liberty detained even for 30 seconds. That's precious. It's not about the conditions of incarceration; it's about the loss of liberty."

His outbursts, resulting in five counts of contempt of court, took place when Judge Joe Brown was only observing the juvenile court in the building when approached by a woman that asked for his help. Judge Joe Brown then went before a judge (Magistrate Harold Horne) on her behalf, but resulted in a less than favorable outcome for the former TV Judge.

Judge Joe Brown was only asking for the woman's charges to be dismissed, and that's when Magistrate Harold Horne told Judge Joe Brown that he was not an attorney.

Judge Joe Brown feels that he was unjustly arrested, but he stay in the Shelby County jail was not that bad. 

Read about Judge Joe Brown's TV courtroom show 2013 cancellation here.

Image credit: Flickr CC; by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District