Your Honors, You're Under Arrest

In Reno for a four-week course run each summer by the National College of the State Judiciary, seven visiting judges accepted an invitation from Instructor Ronald Fremlin to view local fauna at the New China Club. Two young women who seemed to be inviting companionship struck up a conversation. A bellicose stranger suddenly intervened. "I was with these ladies." he barked, "and I don't like your butting in!" One thing led to another as the barroom tough shoved one of the women from her stool and hit Illinois Judge Robert Dean in the stomach, not once but twice. As the voices rose in anger, the police stepped in.

Before they knew what had happened, the seven judges were outside, spread-eagled against a paddy wagon while being frisked. "We didn't do anything wrong," one protested. "I want my lawyer," shouted another. Paying no attention, the cops herded them into the stuffy wagon, but had to let two go when there was no room for them. At the police station, the five unlikely suspects were booked for disturbing the peace, ordered to empty their pockets, take off their shoes and belts and turn their socks inside out. Then they were thrown into the drunk tank with six other prisoners, one of whom had passed out in a corner.

Smelling a Rat. After a couple of hours, the still angry judges were rousted out for fingerprinting and mug shots, and that was when the police made a mistake: they called the names of all seven judges who had been at the club. Because only five had actually been arrested, Florida Judge William Frye III, a former policeman, finally smelled a rat. Pressed by the judges, the police admitted that it had all been a put-up job, a "field trip" arranged in cooperation with the college to show the judges the view from the other side of the bench. The bruiser who punched Judge Dean was a local reporter, William Kroger, who had volunteered his services. The two women were the wife and secretary of one of the arresting officers.

The plan had been to keep the judges locked up overnight, but after they tumbled to the hoax, they were released on their own recognizance. They still had to appear in court the next day for a "trial." To their amused dismay, their assailant turned state's evidence, but the judges were still found not guilty. After it was all over, said former Judge Laurance Hyde Jr., dean of the college, "the only objections were by those who didn't participate. They all asked why they didn't get in on it."

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