Judge Amber Wolf just rules.
When the Louisville judge realized a defendant in a burglary case had been in custody during the birth of his son, Wolf arranged for him to meet and hold his 1-month-old baby.
James Roeder and his wife, Ashley, are co-defendants in the same burglary case, WKYT reports. Because of this, they had been ordered by Wolf not to have contact with each other even though Ashley gave birth to their baby while she was awaiting trial.
On August 5, Ashley and James had back-to-back court dates and Wolf noticed Ashley holding up their son, hoping the new dad would catch a glimpse of him, WDRB reports.
Knowing that James may not get an opportunity to meet his baby anytime in the near future, Wolf decided to intervene.
“It wasn’t really a judge thing. I think it was just more of a human thing.”
“She called my attorney up to the bench and whispered something to him,” Ashley told WKYT. “And he came to me and said, ‘Would you have any objections to James seeing his son?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely not.’”
In the Jefferson District Court video above, Wolf calls James back into the courtroom. She makes it very clear that the couple could not discuss their cases, but she wanted to make an exception to the no-contact order so that James could meet his baby.
In the video, Ashley hands their son to her husband. James holds him for a few moments and kisses him. Both parents can be seen wiping away tears.
Soon after the tender moment, tissues were handed out to the courtroom.
“Thank you for letting me be a part of that,” Wolf told Ashley in the video. Once both parents left the courtroom, Wolf addressed the court and said:
“If you all aren’t teared up, then you’re just heartless.”
As a judge, Wolf has a lot of heart. She also made headlines in late July when a woman was humiliated by jail officials and was brought into Wolf’s courtroom without any pants on. Wolf apologized to the woman, got her pants and immediately got on the phone with jail officials.
“Am I in the ‘Twilight Zone’ right now?” Wolf, outraged, asked jail officials over the phone.
For Wolf, being simply kind in court is a no brainer:
“[Allowing James to meet his son] wasn’t really a judge thing,” she told WDRB. “I think it was just more of a human thing.”
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