District Judge Amber Wolf couldn't believe what she was seeing – "Is this for real?" she said – in her Louisville, Kentucky, courtroom Friday, when a woman who had been in jail for three days was hauled into court wearing athletic shorts so short that it looked like she wasn't wearing pants.
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The woman, who was jailed for failing to complete a diversion program related to a first-time shoplifting charge from 2014, had been jailed for three days without a change of clothes. According to her lawyer, she had asked for a jumpsuit and was denied feminine hygiene products by the Jefferson County Jail.
Wolf got out her cellphone and called the jail to find out why there was a “female defendant standing in front of me with no pants on.”
“What the hell is going on? I’m holding her here until she is dressed appropriately to go back to jail. This is outrageous,” she said.
“Am I in the twilight zone? What is happening?”
According to WDRB, jail spokesman Steve Durham said it was "pretty standard that when individuals are arrested, they remain in the clothing that they've been arrested in, especially for the first 72 hours."
But Metro Corrections Deputy Director Dwayne Clark seemed to contradict that. “Dressed like she was, she should have been changed into a jumpsuit," he said. "I've got to look into why she wasn’t.”
Wolf asked that someone bring something to cover the woman and ruled that she be released from jail with time served and a $100 fine.
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