Hawthorne v. State

PATTERSON, Presiding Judge.

The appellant, Frank H. Hawthorne, Jr., appeals from Circuit Judge Joseph Phelps’s order holding him in direct criminal contempt of court. He was sentenced to complete 10 hours of continuing legal education (CLE) courses. He now raises two issues on appeal; however, because we are reversing the appellant’s conviction, we need only address whether the trial court acted properly by holding the appellant in direct criminal contempt of court.

The act that is the basis for this appeal occurred during the closing argument phase of State v. Long (CR-91-371) on November 5,…