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A woman who dialed into a court hearing in Detroit while in her car this week was berated by the judge, who asked “Do you think I’m that stupid?” when she appeared on video apparently driving the vehicle.
Fox2 Detroit reported that defendant Kimberly Carroll called late into a hearing relating to a financial matter, and was asked by the judge, Michael K McNally, to turn on her camera.
When she did, the Zoom call revealed Carroll sitting on the left side of the vehicle in the front, and therefore presumably driving, as the vehicle was clearly still moving.
“You cannot be driving, ma’am,” McNally said. “What are you doing?”
Carroll repeatedly claimed – despite her position in the car – to be a passenger in the vehicle and that she was going out of town for an unexpected family situation. McNally was unconvinced, according to the footage.
“Am I crazy or does it not look like you’re driving that car?” he asked her.
When Carroll continued to protest that she was a passenger and not driving, he followed up: “How would you be on the left-hand side if you’re a passenger in the front seat? Am I missing something?”
“Left-hand, right-hand side. I’m sorry, I’ve been sitting in a room. I didn’t know,” she replied.
McNally then pointed to Carroll’s seat belt coming out of the driver’s side.
“Now you’re lying to me, right?” he said.
Later, McNally asked the court’s clerk to note Carroll “was not available at the time and then was driving a car and telling the court she was not”.
Fox2 Detroit later obtained a statement from Carroll in which she admitted the truth.
“I want to be clear that I take responsibility for my mistake. Appearing on a Zoom court hearing while I was driving was poor judgment, and I regret that decision. I panicked in the moment and made the wrong call instead of pulling over or asking to reschedule. For that, I am truly sorry,” it said.
Carroll also decried her newfound viral fame as reports and videos of the incident spread online.
“The question I’m left asking is whether this situation needed to become a public example at the expense of someone’s livelihood and dignity,” she said.
“I am human. I made a mistake, I own that mistake, and I am willing to accept the consequences.”
Carroll is not the first person to go viral from a Zoom call in the courts system. Last year a Detroit police officer appeared at a virtual court hearing without wearing any trousers.
Perhaps the most famous example was in 2021 when a Texas lawyer appeared before a judge as a cat, after being unable to change a video filter on his computer. “I’m not a cat,” Rod Ponton told the court as he and his assistant tried to remove the filter.
