Judge’s Quick-Change Act Helps Redress an Injustice

When Municipal Judge Peggy Hora was faced with a woman defendant in an ill-fitting, khaki dress issued by the Alameda County Jail, she decided that was no way to appear before a jury.

The judge stepped into her chambers, slipped off the beige-and-black striped dress she was wearing and gave it to the defendant.

“You can never tell what a judge has on under the robe,” Hora said after the incident Wednesday. “I looked the same as I always look on the bench. It’s just that there was no dress there.”

The 34-year-old defendant had been unable to post bail at the time of her Jan. 19 arrest on a grand theft charge.

“I certainly wasn’t going to let a jury see a defendant sitting in jail clothes,” the judge said, “And I just couldn’t see hanging up three attorneys, a judge and a jury over her not having something to wear.”

But the quick-change act proved unnecessary when the defendant decided to plead guilty.