Brickbat: Honor Thy Father … Or Else

When Geauga County, Ohio, Juvenile Court Judge Timothy J. Grendell ordered two teenage boys to resume visitation with their estranged father, they refused. So Grendell had them locked up in a juvenile detention center for the weekend instead. This concerned Geauga County Sheriff's Lt. Gary Gribbons so much that he wrote to the sheriff saying he didn't think they had authority to detain the two. But the boys remained in the detention center. Two weeks after the boys were released, Grendell's constable, John Ralph, filed complaints against the two, charging they violated the state's unruly child law. Those charges were dismissed by prosecutors. Grendell refused to answer questions from a local TV station about the matter, saying his "job as a Juvenile Court Judge is to protect the best interests of the children who come before the Court."