Judge sacked for jailing 46 in phone row

A US judge who "snapped" and jailed 46 people after none of them would admit that a mobile phone which rang in his court was theirs has been sacked.

Judge Robert Restaino "engaged in what can only be described as two hours of inexplicable madness" during the 2005 session, Raoul Felder, chairman of the New York state Commission on Judicial Conduct, explained.

Mr Restaino, who became a judge in 2002, was hearing domestic violence cases in Niagara Falls, New York when a phone rang in his courtroom. When no-one present would own up to carrying the offending mobile, he lost his temper.

"Everyone is going to jail", the judge said. "Every single person is gong to jail in this courtroom unless I get that instrument now. If anybody believes I'm kidding, ask some of the folks that have been here for a while. You are all going."

Everyone in the court was then taken to the city jail, searched and packed into crowded cells. Fourteen people who could not post bail were shackled and transported to the county jail, a 30-minute drive away.

After being told the media had found out about the case, the judge ordered the defendants be released later that afternoon. Mr Restaino told authorities he was under stress in his personal life at the time of the incident.