The star of the television show "Judge Joe Brown" has been arrested and charged with five counts of contempt of court in Tennessee, court officials in Memphis said Monday, according to CNN.
Shelby County Juvenile Court officials said the 66-year-old Brown was sentenced to five days in jail after causing an outburst Monday in a child support hearing, CNN reported. Brown is running in the Democratic primary for Shelby County district attorney general.
Brown, 66, became "pretty raucous" and "challenged the authority" of Magistrate Harold Horne, another judge told CNN. He was later released on his own recognizance, CNN Memphis affiliate WMC-TV reported, citing the Shelby County Sheriff's Office.
Brown, a former Shelby County criminal judge, was in court to represent a client in a child-support case, CNN reported. He apparently became upset when he was told the case was not on the afternoon docket, Chief Magistrate Dan Michael said.
Magistrate Judge Horne charged the former TV judge with contempt of court, said Dan Michael, chief magistrate judge of the Shelby County Juvenile Court, according to CNN.
"He darn near caused a riot in the courtroom, he had people so inflamed," Michael said of the former TV judge, CNN reported.
Brown could not be reached for comment, according to CNN. Neither jail officials nor juvenile court officials knew whether he had retained a lawyer.
WREG-TV was reporting that Brown had been released from jail, CNN reported. The former TV judge was representing a woman who had been brought in on a warrant in a child support case, Michael said.
Brown, he said, was yelling and repeatedly challenging Horne's authority and even addressing his comments to a crowd of people inside the courtroom, according to CNN. Brown's nationally syndicated TV show was canceled last year.
