In yet another not great moment for the judiciary’s respect in the eyes of the public, a judge in Arizona was caught by the police urinating on the steps of the courthouse, seemingly while drunk, at about 1:30 in the morning. The caught and disgraced judge resigned after the arrest and incident became public knowledge.
For reference, the judge involved with the incident was now-former Yavapai County Superior Court Judge Pro Tempore Kristyne Schaaf-Olson. Judge Olson is 42 years old. The incident, most of which was caught on tape thanks to the police officer’s body cam, occurred in the wee hours of the morning on October 4.
In the wild video footage of the incident that emerged, the seemingly drunk judge was caught with her pants down, urinating in public while right next to the courthouse. Her husband, a local official with the town government, then tried to prevent the police from questioning her, leading to him being wrestled to the ground by the officers.
The video begins with the responding officer approaching Judge Olson as she tried to pull up her pants and nonchalantly sit on the nearby bench, pretending that nothing at all was amiss with the situation. The officer, obviously frustrated and disgusted with the situation, can be heard remarking, “This is disgusting.”
The officer, as shown by the body cam footage, then tried to identify her by getting her to spell her name. Seemingly too drunk to do so, Judge Olson struggled to even verbally spell her name to the responding officer. It was at that point that her husband arrived and also started causing a ruckus.
He, the parks and recreation manager for the Town of Chino Valley, Arizona, even tried to pull his wife away from the officers even as they ordered him to step back so that they could properly deal with the situation. Trying to handle him as he demanded to know why they were interrogating her, the frustrated officer snapped, “Because I just saw her puking and urinating, exposing herself to several people.”
Entertainingly, Jason Olson, the husband, then insisted, “Nope. That wasn’t her.” The situation then became more confrontational as Jason Olson refused to follow police commands, and eventually he was thrown to the ground by an officer who could be heard exclaiming, “Get your a– on the f—ing ground, dude!”
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Enraged, Jason exclaimed, “I’m not doing anything!” The officer could then be heard speaking into his radio, telling the department, “515, we’re fighting.” As he did so, a gaggle of several other officers worked to restrain and handcuff Jason Olson. Meanwhile, Judge Olson was cited for urinating or defecating in public, which is a misdemeanor offense in Arizona. While being cited, Judge Olson struggled to even sign, leading the officer to tell her, “Nope, right here on the screen. On the screen.”
Watch the police bodycam footage here:
Olson resigned a few days after the incident, releasing a statement in which she said, “My resignation comes after careful consideration of current physical, medical and family circumstances.” She added, “The Yavapai community deserves and has judges who are steadfast in their commitment to serving Yavapai County, considering current events in my life, I believe it would be difficult to honor this commitment. I have therefore decided to resign.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video