Civil contempt occurs when the contemnor willfully disobeys a court order. This is also called indirect contempt because it occurs outside the judge's immediate realm and evidence must be presented to the judge to prove the contempt. A civil contemnor, too, may be fined, jailed or both. The fine or jailing is meant to coerce the contemnor into obeying the court, not to punish him, and the contemnor will be released from jail just as soon as he complies with the court order. In family law, civil contempt is one way a court enforces alimony, child support, custody and visitation orders which have been violated.
Senator Boseman, in defiance of the judge's court order, took the child of Melissa Jarrell with her out of town without informing the child's mother. She was also in defiance of the judge's order allowed the child to be in the sole custody of an unauthorized person while staying with lobbyist Teresa Kostrzewa. Both of these issues were presented to the judge Wednesday.
Jim Lea, Boseman's attorney, claimed while Boseman agrees that she had violated the court order, she was unaware that she had done so, thus making it seem to be an unintentional violation. The judge heard the defense and basically agreed, however...
The judge was not fully convinced that the error should go unpunished so she ordered Boseman to pay the cost for bringing this act of defiance to the court's attention.
Now I ask you, why would a judge order an innocent person to pay the cost of bringing the charge to court?
Boseman was guilty, so says the big fat check she will have to write to prove it.
