Several Homeowners In Foreclosure Win Unexpected Extension In Cases As Judge Gets Trapped In Elevator, Causing Hearing Cancellations

In Sarasota, Florida, the Sarasota Herald Tribune reports:

• A judge was stuck in an elevator at the Sarasota judicial center for more than 30 mintues Monday morning. Several foreclosure hearings scheduled for 9:30 a.m. were cancelled after Magistrate Deborah Bailey could not get off the elevator to go to her 5th floor courtroom.

• Bailey said the elevator car went up to the fifth floor, and the doors only opened slightly as she tried to go to the courtroom. Then the elevator went up to 10th floor — the building’s highest floor — before again opening only a slight amount.

• The elevator is behind the scenes and unavailable to the public, one of two that provide service from the secure judge parking to the judges offices and back doors to courtrooms. After elevator workers removed Bailey from the elevator car, they told her the problem would have to be repaired. Bailey got to court in time to hear the rest of the cases on her morning docket.

Source: Judge trapped in elevator.