A video from Clark County District Court surfaced on social media Wednesday when a three-time felon man attacked a female judge in Las Vegas while she was handing sentence, US media reported.
As the man approached her and jumped towards her, judge Mary Kay Holthus took cover and fell as the person tried to grab and injure her, the video shows.
Holthus hit her head, but was OK, sources said. A marshal was injured.
The attacker — Deobra Redden — was in the courtroom for sentencing on a charge of battery with substantial physical harm, according to the filings revealed on the media.
Soon after Redden reached her bench, people surrounding the Clark County District Court judge resisted and fought with him to stop before throwing him to the ground. The assault prompted an alarm system in the court for a while alerting others about the incident.
Moments before Redden threw himself on the judge’s bench, his attorney asked Holthus to sentence his client to probation to which she replied: “I think it’s time he get a taste of something else.”
According to the documents in court, Redden on April 23, “[threatened] to bust the kneecaps of another man, resulting in substantial bodily harm.”
In the following month, a different judge issued an order for Redden to undergo a competency determination, records said. Redden was later committed to a state behavioral facility and then found him competent in October, according to the news reports.
In November, he pleaded guilty and Judge Holthus issued a bench warrant for his arrest in December as he missed his appearance.
Redden was booked into the Clark County jail on new charges of battery and battery on a protected person. Holthus was elected in court in 2018 and previously she worked for the Clark County District Attorney’s Office.