Celebrity judge, Joe Brown, best known for his syndicated courtroom TV show, turned himself in and started his five-day jail sentence in Memphis, Tenn., TMZ reported. Brown was ordered to serve the short term after he was charged with contempt for a 2014 courtroom outburst.
"Former judge Joe Brown has arrived at the Shelby County Corrections Center," William Gupton, director of the Shelby County Corrections Center, told local paper The Commercial Appeal. "He's in a cell by himself in a protected area from other inmates. This is a standard procedure for any inmate who might be threatened by inmates at the facility."
The 68-year-old TV judge represented a woman in a child support case last March, ABC News reported. Brown explained how his good deed turned into a jail sentence in an interview last year. "When I insisted that the woman's charges be dismissed. He started talking about, I'm not an attorney so-and-so.," Brown told ABC News. "I said, 'you know it's wrong. ... You're better than this.'"
His exchange with Juvenile Court Magistrate Harold "Hal" Horne led him to be charged with contempt. Horne sentenced Brown to five days in Shelby County Jail. Brown appealed, but the sentence was upheld earlier this month in Tennessee Supreme Court. Brown said he wasn't pleased with the decision.
"I always used to be a hot shot about protecting people's rights," he told ABC News. "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."
