Back in 2009, the unfortunate tale of a Biglaw receptionist who was allegedly forced to urinate in her seat as she performed her duties made the rounds on the internet. She desperately had to use the restroom on multiple occasions, but claimed that because the firm hadn’t provided anyone to relieve her, she had no choice but to relieve herself at her desk.

Fast forward about a decade, and another unfortunate tale of ill-timed urination is spreading like wildfire across the pages of the internet. This time, however, an attorney is the one who claims she was forced to urinate in her seat — and it happened as she sat at the defense table during her client’s murder trial.

Georgia’s Judicial Qualifications Commission is investigating Judge Courtney Johnson after allegations of gross (literally) misconduct were lodged against her by Maurice Kenner of the Georgia Public Defender Council after Jan Hankins, one of his public defenders, was denied several requests for a bathroom break. According to Hankins, “a high standard of conduct in civilized societies requires that a court grant urgent requests to use the restroom.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the details about the incident:

In her affidavit, Hankins said she raised her hand, caught Johnson’s attention and mouthed the word “bathroom.” But Johnson gave no response, Hankins said. About 10 minutes later, Hankins said, she was finding it hard to maintain her composure. So she wrote “bathroom” in large letters on a piece of paper on a legal pad and showed it to the courtroom deputy. The deputy then passed a note to Johnson, who read it, Hankins said. Twenty minutes later, when the prosecution was having technical problems playing an audiotape, Johnson excused the jury from the courtroom. She then looked at Hankins and told her she could be excused. But by then, it was too late. Hankins said she’d already urinated while sitting at the defense table.

Hankins didn’t pee her pants, per se; she was wearing a dress, which was completely soaked with urine by the time she’d fully emptied her bladder during trial. As soon as she was able to, Hankins ran to the bathroom, cleaned herself up (as best she could — after all, she was covered in her own pee), and as a proponent of the old adage of “if you sprinkle when you tinkle, please be neat and wipe the seat,” brought some paper towels back to the courtroom to wipe off the chair where she’d marked her territory. According to Hankins, after hearing about the incident, Judge Johnson seemed to care more about the state of the chair than the public defender’s predicament. “[T]he chair wasn’t soiled and there was no liquid around her. It’s very suspicious to me,” Johnson said.

In an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Judge Johnson claimed that the entire situation arose from a “miscommunication,” and that she “at no time told [Hankins] she couldn’t go to the bathroom.” Johnson claims she “couldn’t hear” Hankins as she attempted to get the judge’s attention, and that she later sent a note back to the public defender asking her if she could wait to use the restroom, but “never got a reply back.”

Unfortunately for Judge Johnson, she seems to be alone in her recollection of the episode. DeKalb Sheriff’s Deputy A. Owens, who was in the courtroom that day, wrote a report about the incident. Here’s his account:

Owens said he saw Hankins squirming in her chair, raising a finger to get the judge’s attention and appearing to say she needed a restroom break. “Judge Johnson shook her head from left to right as if she was saying, not at this time,” Owens wrote. Minutes later, Owens said, he saw Hankins holding up a legal pad with “bathroom” written on it. “Feeling uncomfortable being placed in an awkward situation, I wrote Judge Johnson a note explaining Mrs. Hankins would like to use the restroom,” Owens wrote. “Judge Johnson responded by writing to me that she could wait.”

The ethical inquiry into the case of a public defender having an “accident” during a murder trial may have turned into a she-said/she-said affair, but one thing is certain: Judge Johnson did a piss-poor job of managing her courtroom on the fateful day that an attorney was forced to use counsel’s seat as a toilet.

Judge accused of ignoring lawyer’s urgent pleas for bathroom break [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

Staci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.