A Nevada Black man began this year by grabbing headlines with his caught-on-camera attack on a Clark County District Court judge just before she pronounced his prison sentence on Jan. 3 in a Las Vegas courtroom.
Although the shocking nature of the attack, where he leaped over her raised desk to choke her with his bare hands, seemed unusual, a similar event took place nearly 13 years earlier in Kentucky.
The contrast between the two cases lies in the fact that, in 2011, it was a white woman who leaped over the desk while in Wayne County Family Court.
While the Nevada man faced a litany of serious charges, including attempted murder, battery of an officer, battery by a prisoner, battery on a protected person, and intimidating a police officer, among others awaiting trial, the white woman received a mere contempt of court sentence for 120 days, almost four months more than her original sentence that she was upset about.
Las Vegas native Deobra Redden, 30, was on the verge of being sentenced to 19 months to four years behind bars when he impulsively jumped over Clark County District Judge Mary Kay Holthus’ bench, landing directly on top of her. In a split second, his attack was in full effect, with him grabbing her, pulling her hair, placing his hands around her throat, and hitting her on the head. Just as fast as he attacked her, multiple court police intervened to restrain him.
In a parallel incident involving Melissa Hardwick, she faced only a 10-day jail sentence for contempt of court due to disrupting the legal process in a case where her estranged husband had filed a domestic violence complaint against her. When Judge Jennifer Edwards went to sentence her, the Hardwick sprang in her direction.
For example, in the January 2024 incident, three courtroom officers swiftly intervened to apprehend her after she lunged. However, the judge was not injured at all in the incident.
“I put her on the floor, restrained her, using my knee and any other body part I could to hold her on the floor while I handcuffed her,” said one of the courtroom security officers, Adam Dodson, in 2011, according to the Daily News.
The court guard said he prepared for this in training but never in real life.
“I’ve worked there for three-and-a-half-years, and this was the first time anything that serious had happened,” Dodson said.
The Black man, recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, according to his attorneys, is facing a range of serious charges, including attempted murder.
In stark contrast, the white woman, without any reported mental illness during the case, faced charges of third-degree terroristic threatening, intimidating a participant in the legal process, and resisting arrest. She also was given a bond set at $25,000.
The woman’s case was assigned to another judge. Redden, whose original charge was attempted battery with substantial bodily harm, did not have his judge in his sentencing reassigned. Holthus did not tack on additional time to her original sentencing. Redden will face another judge as he confronts his fresh charges related to the attack on Holthus.
