Woman Physically Assaults Judge During Divorce Hearing: Melissa Harvick and Judge Jennifer Upchurch Edwards
Ho-lee heck. On July 13, 2011, Melissa Harvick, a Wayne County, Kentucky woman, attempted to physically assault Judge Jennifer Upchurch Edwards during a domestic violence hearing for a complaint filed by Harvick’s estranged husband.
Harvick received the contempt order and accompanying 10-day jail sentence from Judge Edwards because she talked over her ex and continuously interrupted him and the judge during the proceedings.
Upon receiving the contempt order and jail sentence, Harvick leapt over the bench at Judge Edwards. Three deputies were required to restrain Harvick and remove her from the courtroom.
Judge Jennifer Upchurch Edwards was hearing a domestic violence complaint against Melissa Harvick from her estranged husband.
“Things have been escalating since the first of the year,” the woman’s ex-husband is heard saying in the courtroom recording, obtained by 27 NEWSFIRST.
Not long after that is said, Harvick is both seen and heard arguing with the judge.
“That’s got nothing to do with it,” said Harvick during the July 13 family court hearing, referring to her estranged husband’s comments about their personal life.
“Ms. Harvick, you will be held in contempt of court,” Judge Edwards told Harvick, after several profanities were said by Harvick.
“I don’t care. I haven’t done anything to this court,” Harvick said. “Haven’t done anything to him.”
“She’ll be held in contempt,” said Judge Edwards.
Harvick is then seen jumping over the bench, in what appears to be an attempt to physically attack Judge Edwards.
Three deputies are then seen grabbing Harvick and pushing her to the floor. She was then taken away in handcuffs, allegedly threatening the judge as she was being taken out of the courtroom.
“You’ll be sad when it happens, Jennifer!” Harvick is heard saying.
Harvick is in jail on contempt of court charges now, but officials say more will be added.
Harvick seemed to feel empowered enough by the judicial system to argue with a judge, to physically attack a judge and then, as she was being forcibly dragged from the courtroom, to threaten a judge.
Wow. Wonder who created this Frankenstein’s monster?
Here’s some video of the kerfuffle:
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More video that includes an interview with one of the three deputies who helped to subdue Ms Harvick:
I know it’s immature, but this news item makes me smirk. In fact, it caused a schadenfreude-gasm, as Rich Oliver would say.
Thoughts?
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33 Responses to “Woman Physically Assaults Judge During Divorce Hearing: Melissa Harvick and Judge Jennifer Upchurch Edwards”
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LOL @ schadenfreude-gasm.
Clearly this is a case of not recognizing interpersonal boundaries.
Clearly. Or perhaps it’s an example of women becoming drunk on their own power in Family / DV court and Frankenstein’s monster running amok when a judge — and a woman judge at that — tries to hold a woman accountable. Maybe.
“You’ll be sad when it happens, Jennifer!” Harvick is heard saying.
Addressing a judge in open court by her first name – the ultimate in arrogance. And highly doubtful that they’d ever met before that day, at least not in a social context.
Yeah, that struck me as very inappropriate. And coupled with the implied threat, doubly arrogant.
It was only a matter of time. How many times have women violated a court order without suffering any consequences? No doubt countless times.
What happens when a judge finally holds a woman accountable? Said woman lunges for the judge’s throat.
I think they should play this video in every kangaroo emergency restraining order
court, every family law court and every court room that tries DV cases.
Melissa got what she deserved.
Had a young lady “MotherF***” a judge in court. Six months in jail for contempt.
It was a good day.
True that.
Real life consequences: The treatment of choice for persons of poor character.
I think the most telling thing about the video is that so often when men complain of physical abuse or domestic abuse by their female partner they are shrugged off with a ‘how much damage can a woman do’ attitude. In the video it took three sizable men to get this woman under physical control. Can’t imagine what her ex went through trying to ward off her physical rages.
Excellent point, Lebrocq.
Being this was carried early on by the local news here in Kentucky I hoped it would come up here.
From what I heard locally the Judge has now recused herself from the Divorce Case after upholding the DVO for the husband because the Crazy Witch is facing criminal charges in which the Judge is the victim. This means that once she is done serving her punishment for her attempted assault of the Judge her divorce case will begin all over in front of a new Judge.
Who wants to bet that the new Judge will automatically give her the benefit of the doubt and believe some cockamamie story about how her attempted assault her was due to stress and some sort of drug interaction?
And then that Judge will proceed to hand over to this woman the kids and any money she needs even after this act on her part that proves the husband’s contention that she is violent and needs to be kept away from him and the kids hence his DVO request that was just upheld.
So I am not betting that even though she showed her true self that she will lose the “court’s sympathy” for the poor wife. It may sound bitter, but I have talked to so many lawyers and others that will tell you that a woman can do things a man would both be thrown in jail for and lose everything as well. So I am not buying that she won’t somehow have her actions rationalized and excused thus restoring her superior position in court later.
All her poor husband has gotten is a temporary reprieve from her insanity until it starts all over with a new divorce case in front of a new Judge.
Let us hope that is not the case. One suspects that the judges will stick together on this one. I have no love for the gender pandering judiciary but I believe this was a wake up call to Judge Jennifer Upchurch Edwards and woe be it to the judge who exonerates the biatch.
The sad thing is, I believe everything you have just typed. And likely, the above video, story and transcript of the court hearing will be barred from any future litigation against her.
This is the best thing that could have happened to the husband. It leaves no doubt that she is guilty of domestic abuse. My husbands ex wife did the same thing to me in our driveway (in front of her two children whom we have custody of) Her boyfreind, thankkfully, acted quickly & restrained her. Same type of woman. May they both get their due.
I wonder if Dr. Phil still contends that men cannot be abuse in a relationship? This is clearly abuse and she clearly has a pattern. Does not seem like she will stop even after this! Some scumbag attorney will take up her cause. Paint her the victim! You know, I was abused as a child, but I didn’t choose the wrong path. I got help. I don’t use it as an excuse in my everyday life to lash out at the world and, in particular, men. These women are making a choice. I could maybe have some empathy if they actually fell through the cracks of the mental health system, but most don’t try that hard to get better. It’s too uncomfortable. Too inconvenient.
Dr. Phil did recently do a show about female domestic violence perpetrators… but he was pretty wishy washy. It was kind of a disappointing episode.
It’s just smart (for him) TV, don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
As I have shared here before, many years ago I was a cop in the Air Force. I can tell you from experience that in many ways women are MUCH harder to restrain. As a general rule while men may have more physical strength they also give up quicker. As soon as they see they wont win they quit fighting. When it is a woman it wasn’t over at times until we had both the hands & feet in cuffs. Even then they would keep trying to fight, bite etc.
Same with a fight between two men & two women or a woman & a man. Generally the 2 men would calm down in a matter of min & you could even get them to shake hands & not have to press charges as long as nobody was hurt. Most of the time the next day the two guys would be all buddy, buddy.
With the women it was a different story. You get them apart & they keep lunging at the other woman or in some cases a man. I HATED having to break up two women or a woman & a man. I never once got hurt breaking up two men. With women I usually ended up with brusies & scratches….SHEESH!!!
I worked in a secured facility for kids where we occasionally had to perform physical interventions during crises. I restrained a 220 pound teenage boy by myself, but it took two of us to do the same intervention with a girl half that size.
I still have scars on my wrist from another situation where an adult female resident clawed me, and I recall being bitten once as well. All the boys would do was throw stuff and hit.
Yea as a general rule it takes more to get a woman to that point (normal women..not cluster b types) but when they reach it….WATCH OUT!!!:-)
heh heh.
I wish we could all be so lucky to have our ex-wives or husbands ex-wives act like this with so many witnesses.
“Hey Judge, can we just call that Exhibit C for crazy?”
I hope he gets away from her and stays away.
“Exhibit C for Crazy.” Now that is funny.
Welcome to Shrink4Men, Refinnej. I’m glad you’re here!
So Ms. Harvik…you’re willing to argue with a judge, get nasty, attack the judge physically and call her by her first name while issuing a direct threat (ON TAPE)…yet we are supposed to believe that you CAB (Crazy-A** Bi***) did ‘nothing’ to your husband behind closed doors when there was no judge, no camera, no baliffs to keep you from lunging at him.
Where’s that ocean front property and bridge I’ve been looking at in the real estate ads again?!? ;P
God help him and I hope he gets counseling so he will know we’re not all like that.
He should make her take her maiden name back.
Interesting thought. I wonder if it is possible to force an ex wife to go back to her maiden name?
In some countries women must, by law, relinquish their husband’s name once they are divorced.
About the video: The woman in the video is the exception to the rule in such cases. Most crazies can hold it together in the courtroom and be very convincing. I bet her husbnad was happy this happened!
Thanks. I didn’t know that.
I think it’s a case of her seeing control slipping away from her. Courtrooms are a very controlled environment and, particularly family court, defer to women (consider in other proceedings the use of closed circuit tv, victim supports and other protections for “vulnerable” witnesses – not that I’m slagging that, just pointing it out) and women in divorce proceedings are automatically assumed “vulnerable” and so have a leg up from the get go.
In this case, Ms. H saw control slipping away. The judge was letting her husband say his piece. She wasn’t playing according to the program, so it was time for Ms. H to call in reinforcements.
Same thing happens with a cluster B when a man leaves, threatens to leave or, gawd forbid, actually defends himself from her assaults. At the point where she decides she’s lost control of him, she needs to call in reinforcements, which usually takes the form of the police and a false DV complaint.