CHICAGO (WBBM/CHICAGO TRIBUNE) -- A Richton Park man received a rude awakening when his ill-timed yawn in a Will County courtroom landed him behind bars.
Clifton Williams received a six month jail sentence from Circuit Judge Daniel Rozak after he stretched and let out the yawn, according to a Chicago Tribune article.
Williams was sitting in the fourth-floor courtroom according to the report, where his cousin, Jayson Mayfield, was pleading to a felony drug charge.
A prosecutor in the case says Williams yawn was " not a simple yawn," but one that was a "loud and boisterous attempt to disrupt the proceedings."
Mayfield, who was entering his guilty plea at the time, claims it was "not an outrageous yawn."
Williams was jailed on July 23 and is expected to serve at least 21 days.
According to the Tribune article, Rozak has a record for sentencing spectators whose cell phones go off or who use profanity during proceedings.
Rozak is responsible, the report says, for more than a third of all contempt-of-court charges handed down by 30 judges in the 12th Judicial Circuit over the past 10 years, more than any other judge in the country.
Contents of this site are Copyright 2009 by WBBM. The Chicago Tribune contributed to this article.
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