Ashanti's alleged stalker shouts at judge during court hearing
A man accused of stalking R&B star Ashanti launched into a rant in a New York courtroom on Tuesday (11Mar14), demanding the replacement of the judge overseeing the case.
Devar Hurd is facing a string of harassment and stalking charges amid allegations he bombarded the singer with lewd messages on Twitter.com after completing a two-year prison sentence in 2012 for sending explicit texts to Ashanti's mother, Tina Douglas.
The 35 year old, who pleaded not guilty to the claims last year
(13), returned to Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday with a new
defense lawyer, Glenn Hardy, but he grew angry as Justice Charles
Solomon began asking questions about new evidence, which reportedly
included incriminating texts and tweets.
Losing his temper, Hurd shouted at the judge, "You know I didn't do
nothin' (sic). Why are you not honouring the simple fact of what's
going on? Isn't that part of your job?"
He then declared, "I want to switch judges", before adding, "I feel
like there's a conflict of interest. You're talking about text
messages. There are no text messages. You're talking about emails.
There are no emails."
Justice Solomon became visibly annoyed by Hurd's outbursts, but
refused to argue with the defendant and instead ended the hearing
by asking police officers to escort him out of the room, stating,
"OK, Sergeant. He's finished."
A new court date has been set for 15 April (14), according to the
New York Daily News.