Judge Joe Brown Begins Jail Sentence for Contempt of Court Charge

Judge Joe Brown found himself on the other side of the justice system on Thursday, when he turned himself in to begin serving a five-day prison sentence stemming from a 2014 contempt of court charge.

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Brown, 68, was observing juvenile court proceedings at the Shelby County Criminal Court in Memphis, Tennessee last March when he was approached by a woman who asked him to take a look at her child support case. He told ABC News at the time that he felt obliged to help her and ended up going before a judge on her behalf.

"When I insisted that the woman's charges be dismissed, he started talking about, I'm not an attorney so-and-so," Brown explained. "I said, 'You know it's wrong. ... You're better than this.'"

Brown was found in contempt when he reportedly became verbally abusive to court workers and ignored Juvenile Court Magistrate Harold Horne's warning to calm down, according to local news reports.

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The former TV judge, who was running for Shelby County District Attorney at the time, was subsequently sentenced to five days in jail for his contempt charge. and turned himself in to begin serving the sentence on Thursday.

"I always used to be a hot shot about protecting people's rights," Brown told ABC News at the time of his initial arrest. "I was not happy to have my liberty detained even for 30 seconds. That's precious. It's not about the conditions of incarceration, it's about the loss of liberty."