OLYMPIA, Wash. – A state panel has disciplined a judge who ordered cheers in court for the Super Bowl-bound Seattle Seahawks before issuing a manslaughter sentence.
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Beverly Grant asked about 100 people in court to say "Go Seahawks" before taking their seats on Feb. 3. Dissatisfied with the low volume of the response, she repeated the request.
That same day, Grant sentenced Steve Keo Teang to 13 1/2 years for manslaughter in the 2005 shooting death of Tino Patricelli, 28.
The Seahawks played in the Super Bowl that weekend. Patricelli's stepmother said she was offended in part because the game fell on the anniversary of her stepson's death.
Grant, who was appointed to the bench in 2003, apologized the following Monday. She eventually filed the formal conduct complaint against herself.
"Although my intentions were to defuse the courtroom situation, I realize now the inappropriateness of my opening comments," Grant told the commission.
The state Commission on Judicial Conduct gave the judge an admonishment, the panel's lowest-ranking punishment. An admonishment is a written reprimand.
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