Soven v. State

We affirm the trial court’s adjudication finding a criminal defense attorney to be guilty of direct criminal contempt for failure to obey the trial court’s order to approach the bench.

The finding of contempt occurred on the sixth day of an eight-day first-degree murder trial after the trial court had sustained several hearsay objections as to questions asked by appellant/attorney Alan R. Soven. Soven continued to ask these questions, despite repeated warnings from the trial court and more than six sidebars where the trial court instructed Soven on what constituted hearsay. During Soven’s…