Shadowing Practice: Top 7 Heated Court Moments Between Lawyers and Judges - Learn English Speaking with Video
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That was before the - Don't get brazen with me.
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If they were talking about it from your children, you would definitely notice it.
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You need to sit down right now.
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You're out of line.
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In fact, you're excused.
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You need to go sit in the back with your chief public defender.
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There is nothing quite like seeing blowups between judges and attorneys in open court.
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Here at Law & Crime, we sure have seen our fair share.
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This is seven of some of the most heated moments between judges and attorneys in recent trials.
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Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law & Crime.
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I'm Jesse Weber.
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I've talked about the drama in a courtroom before.
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The subject matter, the defendants, the witnesses, it's real life on display for you.
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But it is also a court of law.
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Not only do opposing sides battle it out, but there are also those times, those very tense times between the judge and the attorneys,
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and that is what I want to get into, seven of some of the most heated moments between a judge and an attorney in our recent cases.
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I got to tell you, I don't remember in recent history, maybe any more heated moment between a judge and an attorney than in the Parkland School shooter trial out of Florida.
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The penalty trial for the man who pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder
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and 17 counts of attempted murder for opening fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School back in 2018.
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After he pled guilty, all the jury had to decide was what should be his punishment, life in prison or the death penalty.
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And I want to be clear here.
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This was an exhausting trial.
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It was very emotionally taxing, especially with the victim impact statements from those who lost loved ones in the attack.
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It was honestly one of the toughest cases that I've covered so far here at Law and Crime.
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So you can imagine for those in the courtroom, this was not easy.
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And there was a point when defense counsel objected to victim impact statements that were directed not necessarily towards their client,
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but in their view, more towards them and their own families.
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When they tried to bring this issue up to Judge Elizabeth Schur, let's just say it didn't go very well.
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And keep in mind, there was already a lot of built up tension between the judge
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and defense counsel well listen to a courtroom just devolve into chaos
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when these people are upset about specific things that have gone on from
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that table like shooting the middle finger up at this court
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and laughing and joking miss mcneil be quiet
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when these people have sat in this courtroom and watched this behavior from
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that table and they want to say that they're not happy about it What is the problem?
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Judge, I have no problem because I have thick skin.
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But once you bring in my children, I think that's highly improper.
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I didn't even know you have children.
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I don't know what you're talking about.
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Your children?
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What about your children?
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For them to comment on my children is highly improper.
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Before the sports will allow that kind of testimony.
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Okay.
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There was, I don't remember any comments about any children.
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And if there was, it obviously didn't, it came and went without me noticing it.
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Judge, I can assure you that if they were talking about your children, you would definitely notice them.
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You need to sit down right now.
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You're out of line. In fact, you're excused.
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You need to go sit in the back with your chief public defender.
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He's the public defender, Judge.
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Mr. Weeks, please ask the lawyer from your office to go sit down and not say anything else.
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to try to threaten my children
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and bring up my children is inappropriate go to the back of the room now
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that just violated about every rule of professional responsibility
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that i have ever i have never if you're going to get up here
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and you're going to judge i asked you to go sidebar on this matter you sidebar
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or not you don't have one of your assistant public defenders say something about my children?
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Judge, that same venom that the court is expressing is the same venom
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that defense counsel had to sit through this entire morning.
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She brought up her children multiple times during the trial.
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Nobody knows if I'm barren or not.
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They don't know about my children.
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Sit down.
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Sit down.
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Yeah, pretty unbelievable to see.
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Wow.
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Now, Judge Elizabeth Schur took a lot of heat for her conduct during the course of this trial, and it wasn't just viewers who took notice.
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It was the Florida Supreme Court.
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You see, after the Judicial Qualifications Commission determined that Judge Schur's behavior seemed to create the impression that she was pro -prosecution,
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the Florida Supreme Court publicly reprimanded her as well.
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But Schur actually resigned, left the bench before this decision.
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And in the end, by the way, the jury recommended life in prison for the shooter,
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not the death penalty, which was a decision that came with its own set of controversy.
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All right.
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There was another heated moment that came straight to my mind when I was coming up with this topic.
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The Kyle Rittenhouse trial back in 2021.
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Very high profile trial of an 18 year old out of Wisconsin who was charged with first degree intentional homicide reckless homicide,
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attempted homicide, and reckless endangerment for opening fire during a night of civil unrest in Kenosha a year earlier.
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And this case raised important questions of self -defense after he shot and killed two men and injured a third.
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Now, at one point, Kyle Rittenhouse took a stand to explain his actions.
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Of course, he was the subject of cross -examination by the prosecution, here prosecutor Mark Binger.
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And a couple of issues came up.
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One was Binger questioning Rittenhouse about his decision to remain silent after his arrest.
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Binger also wanted to point out that there was other evidence,
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prior statements from Rittenhouse, showing that he wished he had his AR -15 to defend against looters who were ransacking properties.
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And this was a problematic line of questioning.
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And as you will hear, Judge Bruce Schrader took issue with Prosecutor Mark Binger's line of questioning.
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While Binger is going to try to defend himself in this clip you'll hear it he said
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that the court left the door open to these inquiries judge
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schrader admonished him quite expressly first of all your honor this was the subject of emotion i'm well aware of
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that and the court left the door open for me not for you
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my understanding of you should have come and asked why would you think that
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that made it okay for you without any advance notice to
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bring this matter before the jury you are already you were I was astonished
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when you began your examination by commenting on the defendants post
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arrest silence that's basic law it's been basic law in this
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country for 40 years 50 years I have no idea why you would do something like
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that and it gives well I'll leave it at that so I don't know what you're up to.
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May I respond?
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Yes.
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We filed another act's motion on this exact issue because in my mind, and I argued this,
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it is identical to what was going on on the night of August 25th in the sense
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that the defendant was using this exact same weapon.
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He was using it in a manner to try and protect property.
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No, he wasn't.
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There's, your honor, with all due respect.
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I'm not going to rehash the motion yeah that's absolutely untrue
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and there's no no no your arguments of record my comments are of record
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and why I ruled as I did is of record there's nothing
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that I heard in this trial to suggest anything has changed even
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if you're correct in your assumption
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that you know more than I did at the time you should have come to the court
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and say I want to go into this you know why it was excluded in the first place
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because it's what it was propensity evidence.
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That is exactly what 90404 is designed to prevent.
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You're talking about his attitudes?
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His attitude is he wants to shoot people.
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Now, I've admitted that kind of evidence in other trials when it's been appropriate.
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I didn't admit it in this case because to me, what I've heard in this trial, and by the way, Mr. Richards absolutely correctly points out that just hours ago,
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I said I had heard nothing in this trial to change any of my rulings. So why?
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That was before the testimony, Your Honor.
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Pardon me?
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That was before the testimony.
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Don't get brazen with me.
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You knew very well, you know very well
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that an attorney can't go into these types of areas
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when the judge has already ruled without asking outside the presence of the jury to do so.
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So don't give me that.
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That was definitely a moment for sure.
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And this case would end in Kyle Rittenhouse's acquittal.
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Yeah, it turned out to be a case of a defendant taking the stand, and it seemed to pay off.
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All right, let's go now to Delaware County, Ohio, back in August of 2022.
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A man named Matthew Moore was on trial for the murder of his wife, Emily Noble.
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Her body was discovered four months after she was reported missing in the woods.
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She was hanging from a tree by a USB cord.
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Prosecutors allege that Moore staged the scene to look like a suicide, but he was the killer.
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Defense counsel argued that it was possible that Noble had, in fact, killed herself.
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And as that back and forth was happening between both sides on the testimony and the evidence, this trial was notable for one particular outburst,
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one particular moment from the prosecutor.
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You see, Mark Sleeper and Melissa Schiffel were acting as prosecutors for the state.
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And on the seventh day of trial, the judge, Stephen Wolliver, wanted to move forward with proceedings, despite the fact that Schiffel wasn't there in the courtroom.
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Now, according to Sleeper, the court was informed two weeks earlier that Schiffel wouldn't be in attendance due to a scheduling issue.
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Well, Mr. Sleeper let the judge know that he wasn't going to just let this happen.
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You know, I'm sorry, but I would object to going forward anyway right now about the elected county prosecutor who's on this case.
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She chose not to be here.
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That's not accurate, Judge.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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Your objection's noted.
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We had a phone status conference two weeks ago in which Ms. Schiffel...
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Your objection is noted.
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okay i'm not going to participate in this proceeding without the elected county prosecutor i think this is a sham
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that you're going forward
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when the court was you're going to sit here you're going to sit here you were told about her unavailability
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and specifically told her on the phone not to cancel
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that appointment that it wouldn't be i'll tell you what
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if you want to be here for the decision that's your
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business well your honor i think this is outrageous you're going for without the prosecution
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and he's straight up left the courtroom turned his back on the judge
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and everything pretty brazen i don't think i've seen that too often
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and by the way an attorney getting away with it no
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repercussions for sleeper as far as i saw now without having
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had the opportunity to speak with mr sleeper who knows what really happened here
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but i do know that this case wasn't the best for the prosecution
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because the jury in the end sided with the defense that's right.
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Matthew Moore was acquitted of the murder of his wife, Emily Noble, and he was free to go.
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So I did title this episode, Heated Moments Between a Judge and an Attorney.
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But can I be a little clever?
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Can I take a little poetic license with that?
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How about blowups between a judge and a guy who represented himself and acted as his own counsel?
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So he might not be an attorney per se, as clearly demonstrated at this trial, but how could I talk about this topic without bringing up
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Darrell Brooks Jr. The man who went to trial out in Waukesha, Wisconsin, he was charged with 76 criminal counts for driving a
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red SUV into a group of holiday parade goers back in November of 2021, killing six people, injuring dozens of others.
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And at one point he decided that he's going to represent himself.
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It was bizarre from the arguments he was making to his outburst that got him kicked out of the courtroom.
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This court ordered Mr. Brooks be removed from the courtroom due to repeated interruptions and disruption with the court.
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He took his shirt off as well.
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I'm also told that he is threatening to throw and break items.
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However, when he was in court and face -to -face with Judge Jennifer Darrow, that is when the fireworks happened.
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It threw people off the loop.
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They weren't ready for it.
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They scared of it.
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That's what it is.
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Come on, man.
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Mr. Brooks.
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Come on, man.
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Stop it.
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Stop it.
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Stop it.
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You're a public servant, Your Honor.
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I respect your courtroom.
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I respect you.
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You're a public servant, though.
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Your job is to be the referee.
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I'm a grown man with grown kids.
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Ain't nobody going to talk to me like that.
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Nobody.
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I don't have a problem with doing what you asked me to do, not tell me.
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Just like when I asked you about subject matter jurisdiction that you have yet to prove on the record.
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but somehow i'm being intentionally disruptive come on man stop just
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stop it i don't care what you believe fully all right
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it's not a game we i don't take this as a
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game that's what that's what nobody that's what nobody you don't
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got to explain nothing to me do you that's what you don't understand you think
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that this is a whole game to me this is not
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a game to me your honor nothing about this is a
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joke that's what y 'all don't understand I would like to provide the defendant
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and the court with so that had to be that had to be said so it's the defendant
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That's not how it was said.
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That was how it was said.
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You want to run the record back?
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Mr. Brooks.
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I'm the only one.
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I got one ear that working.
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I heard that.
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This is to benefit you so that you understand your witness has a prior record.
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Your Honor, when I leave the table, I'm away from the courtroom, and I have to elevate my voice.
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This is the alleged record of ableston.
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Stop talking.
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Come on, man.
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Like, I don't know who y 'all be thinking y 'all fooling.
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And I'll set the value and return the value of this document.
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One more interruption, and you're going to be removed to the next courtroom.
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That's what you want to do anyway.
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It's not what I want to do.
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Do not interrupt Attorney Opper.
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So, can you tell, can you speak?
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I believe he has seven prior criminal convictions via OWI's second criminal trespass to dwelling from 2006.
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All right, I need to take a break.
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This man right now is having a stare down with me.
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It's very disrespectful.
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He pounded his fist.
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Frankly, it makes me scared.
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never never have i seen an attorney doing quotes for all of our listeners an attorney
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acts so disrespectfully to a judge it was just insane to watch this go down
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but judge dar was able to keep this trial from completely derailing
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and i should tell you a lot of this went down
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outside the presence of the jury they weren't in the court
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to see what brooks was doing a lot of the time
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but it didn't change the fact
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that brooks was still making these nonsensical legal arguments in court and really didn't help his case because in the end,
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he was convicted across the board and sentenced to six life sentences plus over 700 years in prison.
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Okay.
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As we continue on and talk more about these heated moments between judges and attorneys, let's talk right now about Young Thug's RICO trial.
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So the Grammy award -winning rapper, whose real name is Jeffrey Lamar Williams, is facing eight criminal counts, including conspiracy to violate the state's RICO a racketeering law.
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This is part of a wide sweeping indictment against him and what was originally 28 other defendants, although a number have taken plea deals.
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But prosecutors claim that the defendants are all part of this criminal enterprise, that Williams is at the head of it,
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that he co -founded a street gang called YSL or Young Slime Life back in 2012, and that has caused all of this chaos.
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We have people charged with murder, aggravated assault, robbery, theft, illegal firearms possession.
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And believe it or not, the jury has still not been selected at the time of this recording.
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Not surprising considering that the actual trial could last six to nine months asking a lot of a jury in this case.
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But anyway, we have to talk about the drama happening between the attorneys and Judge Glanville overseeing the case.
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You see, he runs a very tight ship in his courtroom
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and the attorneys will know that because if you don't follow court rules of professionalism and decorum, oh boy, he's going to let it be known.
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Like for example, one of the defense attorneys in this case was held in contempt of court
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and was ordered to pay a fine and buy his colleagues lunch.
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Next two things are just follow -ups on other business that we held a little earlier.
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Mr. Minetas, good morning, sir.
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You were supposed to buy lunch for your colleagues have you done
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that as of yet you're supposed to have done that by march the 17th
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did you go to jet did i told you jason's deli um did you uh satisfy
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that prong of your contempt yet
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i don't believe that you were held in contempt young man
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and if you want to revisit that again we can certainly open it up
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when i just want you to pick a date mr.
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minute is your this was in satisfaction of me not sentence you to jail for 20 days
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so if if if that's the case well then I will revisit the basis for your contempt
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or how about the time
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when judge Glanville ordered another attorney to write an essay to
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the next matter mr johnson um how are we doing on
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that paper i mean the the uh the importance of professionalism yours is due by
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the 28th of april i'm just checking just clocking so we on track
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well you better have said she's not writing for you either because that wasn't offered to you
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you you already asked me could i pay the thousand dollars i told you no
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well i know you would but i but i that's not what's on the table
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28 that yes at noon
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or you do 20 days it's 17 page paper on the
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importance of professionalism in a legal field in treating one's opponents
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with civility paper is to be published quality in APA format
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and at least 10 primary and 10 secondary sources by the way this is the same judge
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ordered a juror that left the country instead of reporting to jury duty to write a 30 -page essay.
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So it makes you wonder what this trial will actually look like when it starts up.
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Okay, now I think it's pretty obvious when judges are ticked off, and many times that is directed towards the attorneys.
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You want a prime example?
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How about the Theodore Edgecombe case?
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This was the man on trial for first -degree intentional homicide out in Milwaukee County,
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Wisconsin, for shooting to death jason clearman it was a road rage incident gone bad with edgecombe claiming
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that clearman called him the n -word
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and to get the f out of the road after he says their car clipped him
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while he was on his bicycle an altercation ensued after clearman
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got out of the car edgecombe shot him it was a
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case of who was the aggressor what happened here was this
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homicide was it self -defense well there were a few times during the course of this case
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when Judge David Borowski got into these heated back and forth moments with Edgecombe's counsel.
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For example, here's what happened when the defense wanted to call a certain witness testifying about what would constitute a threat.
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Mr. Burms has testified.
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He's actually been caught by the state on numerous occasions, over several hundred homicide cases and testified to what constitutes a threat.
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Your Honor, I would like the defense to name me one case where Detective Burms has taken the stand
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and stated to a jury
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that he believes something was a threat to an individual name one
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so hang on so would i am well a case number
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that occurred in milwaukee county well the state hasn't asked for
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um any type of addendum to mr browns i'm asking i'm asking mr browns is not here right now
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but hang on council you just represented that he's testified hundreds of times in this court for me this court means me.
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I don't care what happens in front of other judges.
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I don't care what happens down the hall.
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I'm presiding over this case.
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I will make the rulings.
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So as far as I'm aware, he's never testified in front of me.
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And I don't recall ever hearing testimony along the lines of what you just indicated.
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So unless you have a case number that I can look up in Milwaukee County, but particularly one that was in front of this judge, then forget it.
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You guys cannot just make blanket allegations from the defense without supporting it.
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He didn't support it in writing and now it's not being supported on the record.
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That was a valid request.
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Name a case now or we're moving on.
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Mr. Burrams can testify to the cases that he testified in.
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Name a case now.
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We don't have those information.
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He's testified in several cases.
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Counsel, he's done it with other judge's argument does not work with me.
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Mr. Huebner knows that.
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Mr. Mahd should know that.
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I don't care what other judges have ruled.
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Period.
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Yeah.
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And then there was the time
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when defense counsel was questioning a member of law enforcement about whether anything was moved from the crime scene
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that would maybe tell a different story of what went down.
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This happened during the actual trial.
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You don't know if a other item had been moved from one place and put in another place.
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Jackson, Your Honor, there is absolutely no evidence that anything was moved.
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That's right.
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There's no evidence of that.
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Don't imply something, Counsel, that there is no evidence of.
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None.
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There's been no evidence introduced in this case by any witness that is even close to that.
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That assumes facts, not in evidence.
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Sustain.
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Move on to a relevant question.
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Don't imply things that have not occurred and are not in evidence.
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Move on.
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Whew.
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Felt particularly harsh, right?
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Well, you know, I'll tell you, Judge Borowski received his fair share of criticism.
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Community activists wanted him removed from the case after they felt he made rulings that showed a bias towards the defense, including allowing the word victim to be used to describe Clearman.
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But he remained on the case.
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The jury ultimately convicted Edgecombe of the lesser charge of first -degree reckless homicide, and he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
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All right, we got to go to our final one some more heated moments between judge
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and attorney can be found in none other than the Alex Jones trial.
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So the InfoWars founder and host was in a very tough legal situation.
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He was sued by the families of those who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, as well as a former FBI agent for comments that he made regarding the massacre,
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namely that it was staged, that it was fake, that it was a hoax, that the parents were crisis actors.
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They sued him under various legal theories, such as defamation and intentional affliction of emotional distress,
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then Alex Jones actually automatically lost these lawsuits because he failed to abide by court -ordered discovery obligations.
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It's called a default judgment.
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Well, the trials that we covered here on Law and Crime
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and Sidebar were purely about how much would he owe the plaintiffs damages.
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That was the main question.
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So he's going into these two trials as a loser, and it just becomes a matter of how much does he have to pay up.
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I want to talk about the Connecticut trial, where Norm Pattis represented Alex Jones, very animated lawyer.
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And, you know, he seemed to constantly interrupt the judge, Barbara Bellis, and she was none too happy,
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expressing her frustration both on the record and at very audible sidebars.
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He's not an expert, and
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so what one does isn't what we're going to show we're here to show what he did right
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but that's a different attorney pattis attorney pattis how many times do i have to say
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when i'm speaking you stop you have been a member of the bar for a long long time
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and you know the rules
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and all the courts i i don't know how i don't know how i'm not making myself clear
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and maybe it's my fault i do not want to sanction
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an attorney i do not want to find an attorney I have gone almost two decades as a judge
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and never had to do that and I don't want to do it now but
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if we have a continued problem where you're talking over me
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I don't know what else to do I've asked you
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and I say I'm literally almost begging you I have no recourse
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but to do that I'll start with what do I need to do to stop the comments
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and the call just tell me what I need to do.
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Do I need to hold one of you in contempt?
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I'm not going to have the comments anymore.
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I'm not going to have it.
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I'm not going to have it.
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Do you expect me to lay silently when they're directed at me, but inappropriately, do you expect me to roll over for my client?
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It's not going to happen.
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You know, look, very tough subject matter, but my goodness, what was happening there.
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Unbelievable to watch.
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Interesting to see, to say the least.
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Also not great for Alex Jones.
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He was ordered to pay almost $50 million in one trial out of Texas
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and almost $1 billion plus $473 million in punitive damages out in that Connecticut trial.
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Just absolutely whopping verdicts.
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Well, that is just a selection of some heated, tense moments between judge and attorney.
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And as I usually say in these recaps, I am sure we will have many more to come.
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That's all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody.
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Thank you so much for joining us.
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Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts.
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I'm Jesse Weber.
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Speak to you next time.
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What You'll Learn from This Heated Courtroom Clip
This intense dialogue is a goldmine for IELTS speaking practice and real-world communication skills. You’ll master how to express strong disagreement politely (and when to hold back!), navigate high-tension conversations, and use tone to emphasize urgency—critical for clear, confident speaking. Plus, you’ll learn to identify when to pivot from defense to de-escalation, a key skill in professional and personal interactions.
Listen For These Sounds: Connected Speech & Reductions
Native speakers often blend words, and this clip is full of examples. Notice how "I don't know" becomes "I dunno" and "what about" shortens to "whaddabout." Listen for the linking in "highly improper" (the "h" in "highly" softens, making it "highly improper"). Also, pay attention to the reduction in "you would definitely notice it"—the "would" almost disappears, sounding like "you’d definitely notice it." These nuances are key to improving English pronunciation and understanding fast speech.
Say It Like a Native: Rhythm & Stress
To mirror the speaker’s natural flow, focus on stress and rhythm. In "Judge, I can assure you that if they were talking about your children, you would definitely notice them," the stress falls on "assure," "talking," "children," and "definitely"—these words drive the emotion. Practice using a sharp, staccato rhythm when expressing frustration (like "You need to sit down right now") and slowing down for emphasis (as in "I have thick skin"). This is the heart of the shadowing technique (or "shadowspeak")—repeat the dialogue aloud, matching the pace and tone to train your mouth and brain to speak like a native. Don’t forget to vary your volume: the judge raises her voice to command attention, while the attorney softens to convey vulnerability. Mastering this balance will make your speech more engaging and persuasive.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have seen · I've talked · I've covered |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were directed · was charged · was excluded |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | man who pleaded · those who lost · penalty, which was |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.