Buhran Chowdhury, 72, faced court last week via Zoom regarding a ticket that he was issued last year because the grass and some small trees in his front yard were infringing on the footpath.
Mr Chowdhury – who is currently battling lymph node cancer – explained to Judge Alexis G. Krot that he is very sick and that cancer treatments had left him feeling “too weak for yard work”, but the Judge displayed no compassion for the man’s health issues.
Although completely inappropriate, the disgruntled judge continued belittling the elderly cancer patient and instructed him to clean the yard, before issuing him a $100 fine to be paid by February.
Flabbergasted onlookers who witnessed the online court proceedings were left stunned by the Judge’s heartless outbursts, while Mr Chowdhury’s son Shibbir attempted to provide reasoning for his father’s minor yard indiscretion.
“I usually take care of the stuff in the backyard and everything, but at that time I was out of the country,” Shibbir explained to Judge Krot.
“Do you see that photo?” Krot questioned, referencing a picture of Mr Chowdhury’s yard as it appeared on-screen during proceedings.
“You have got to get that cleaned up,” she stated.
In a recent interview, Shibbir told reporters that the Judge’s attitude towards his father was ‘really shocking’ but has since been overwhelmed with the support that they have received since the video went viral.
“She was telling my father, a sick person, that he should go to jail. That’s ridiculous,” Shibbir told the Washington Post on Wednesday.
He added: “You can’t give a 72-year-old person jail time for not cleaning an alley.”
