Judge Milich cites attorney for wearing Black Lives Matter botton

YOUNGSTOWN

An attorney cited for contempt of court in municipal court Friday and given five days in jail for wearing a Black Lives Matter button has promised not to wear the button in court while her case is appealed.

Judge Robert Milich issued the citation against Atty. Andrea Burton after he met with her for a few minutes in chambers and she refused to remove what the judge termed a “political button” when they came out and her case was called.

Burton, who is black, was handcuffed by a bailiff and taken to the city jail for transportation to the Mahoning County jail. A Vindicator reporter was the only member of the media present.

As representatives of the Youngstown branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People came to the courthouse, lawyers J. Gerald Ingram and Desirae Dipero worked on securing an appeal for Burton with the 7th District Court of Appeals.

They had asked Judge Milich to stay the sentence but he refused, telling them to take the case to the appeals court. The appeals court agreed to stay the citation and sentence until her appeal can be decided.

Burton’s mother, Dawn Burton, a former bailiff for Judge Milich’s colleague Judge Elizabeth Kobly, said she was stunned by Judge Milich’s actions.

“I’m so flabbergasted,” she said. “In a place where justice is supposed to be doled out, you don’t have freedom of speech? It’s a bit over the line. You don’t have to agree with it. It’s a statement.”

Judge Milich said he issued the contempt citation because the U.S. Supreme Court banned political buttons in the courtroom in the 1997 case Berner v. Delahanty.

Read more about the case in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.