A man already facing an indecent exposure charge allegedly pulled his pants down to his ankles and burst into an Arkansas courtroom, where he announced to the judge and others present that, “Court is back in session!”
As detailed in a Jonesboro Police Department report, Derrick Thomas, 18, was hit with several new charges following the bizarre incident Wednesday morning in District Court.
Thomas, seen above, has been in custody since his arrest last month for lying naked on a Jonesboro sidewalk.
Thomas was in court Wednesday on that charge when an officer allowed him to get a drink from a bathroom sink adjacent to a set of holding cells. As Officer Jamie Seaborn was dealing with another inmate, Thomas emerged from the bathroom and “pulled his pants down around his ankles and took his shirt off.”
The teen then ran into the courtroom, where Judge Keith Blackman was on the bench. Thomas proceeded to hold up his hands and yelled, "Court is back in session!" Blackman, the report notes, “had to stop court and everyone was looking at” the naked defendant.
Thomas was corralled by police and brought back to the holding cells, where he laughed and told another inmate, “I told you that I would do it.” Seaborn reported that Thomas also remarked that, “They will put on his tomb stone that he was the one that was naked in the courtroom.”
Thomas was subsequently returned to the Craighead County jail, where his docket now includes new charges for indecent exposure, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and obstructing governmental operations.