Judge jails man for wearing ‘inappropriate’ shirt to court

A western Kentucky man spent the night in jail for wearing an inappropriate T-shirt to court.McCracken District Judge Chris Hollowell said he was conveying a message Tuesday when he sent James Hinman to jail for wearing what he felt was an obscene shirt to court.

“I’m not trying to be the fashion police, but what he was wearing was extremely disrespectful and inappropriate,” Hollowell said.

The T-shirt used an altered spelling of an expletive that implied an obscene phrase.

In an interview with The Paducah Sun, Hinman said he “just grabbed a shirt when I got dressed.”

“The shirt isn’t really obscene, but it does imply something obscene,” Hinman said in a jailhouse interview.

Hinman received the sentence after appearing in court late on Tuesday a contempt of court charge for failing to pay a traffic fine. He apologized and said he had been in the wrong courtroom.

Hollowell said he could forgive that mistake and added, “What I’m most concerned about is the shirt you are wearing in my courtroom.”

Hinman asked if he could go outside and turn it inside out, but the judge refused and told Hinman to sit down. The judge then ordered Hinman to be taken to jail on a new contempt of court charge.

Hollowell did not set bond and Hinman stayed in jail until Wednesday afternoon.

Hinman’s sentence on the contempt of court charge was “time served,” Hollowell said.

Hinman, 27, said being sent to jail for the words on his shirt caused him to think about his constitutional rights of free speech, but he said he didn’t plan to take any action.

“I’m not really sure what rights a judge has regarding what people are wearing,” Hinman said. “But we do elect judges to make decisions even though we might not always agree with them.”