Open-and-Shut Contempt : Courts: Brice Traynor, 83, complained too loudly about a $106 traffic fine. So Judge John J. Hunter sentenced him to five days in jail.

Brice Traynor’s legal problems started when he ignored a school crossing guard in Ventura, and they escalated when he was sentenced for contempt of court after telling off a judge.

But after serving five days on his contempt citation, the 83-year-old Ojai man isn’t showing any signs of remorse.

In fact, Traynor said Monday, he has as much contempt as ever for a judge who would put a man as old as he is behind bars just because he might have complained too loudly about a $106 fine.

He doesn’t recall exactly what he said to prompt Ventura County Municipal Judge John J. Hunter to jail him for contempt of court, Traynor said Monday. But whatever it was, “I did have contempt, and I showed it.”

And under California law, people who display “disorderly, contumacious or insolent behavior” toward a judge can be jailed for up to five days--no matter how old they are.

Traynor, who was held in contempt on March 6, described his five days in the Ventura County Jail as a harrowing experience.

First, he said, there was a seven-hour wait in a cramped holding cell while the jail’s “bloated bureaucracy” completed paperwork.

“I had to write my name about six times and was fingerprinted twice,” he said. “I haven’t stood that long on my feet since I was 65 years old.”

After he was finally booked into jail, Traynor said, jail officials told him that if he wanted a mattress to sleep on, he would have to haul it to the cell himself. He did, for what seemed like a city block, and then up a flight of stairs, he said.

“They enjoy seeing people harassed,” Traynor said.

When his emphysema acted up, he said, a guard told him “that’s your problem.” Unable to breathe, Traynor said he finally stood on top of a toilet to reach a ventilator, ignoring a guard’s demand that he get down.

“The only human beings in there seemed to be the ones who were locked up,” he said, adding that his fellow inmates called him Pops and helped him adjust to jail.

“It was like we were all from the same family,” he said.

During his stint, he made collect calls to his 79-year-old wife, Ruth, almost every day and she sent him a letter, which he received the day before his release.

A former dry cleaner, apartment manager and musician who still plays the clarinet and other horns, Traynor said he had not seen the inside of a jail since the 1930s. And that was only for a few hours, in what he said was a case of mistaken identity.

The confrontation that landed him behind bars this month followed a 15-minute trial when Hunter found Traynor guilty of ignoring a school crossing guard and fined him $106.

As his wife watched, Traynor reminded the judge that he is 83 and living on a fixed income.

“Why don’t you just take us out and shoot us? We haven’t got the money,” he said, according to a tape of the proceeding.

“If you need time to pay, I’ll give you time,” Hunter said.

“I don’t have the money,” Traynor repeated, pausing between words for emphasis. “Send me to prison.”

Hunter then offered him the option of working off his fine in jail at the standard rate of $81 per day. “When do you want to report?” the judge asked.

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” Traynor said.

While the judge asked him several times when he wanted to report to jail, Traynor complained that he and his wife have trouble enough paying for medicine, groceries and the rent on their mobile home.

“You raise revenue in the most dishonest ways,” he said. “It’s demeaning.”

The judge sighed.

“OK, sir, you’re remanded to the sheriff for contempt,” Hunter said, his voice rising on the last word. “I find you in contempt. Five days. You’re off to jail, sir.”

As his wife gasped, Traynor muttered, “Eighty-three years old. Shame on you. Shame on you.”

Then a sheriff’s deputy led him through a courtroom door that leads to the jail. A bailiff later handed Ruth Traynor a plastic bag containing her husband’s coat and hat, but she didn’t see him again until five days later.

“I don’t care about myself, but I was awfully worried about her,” Traynor said Monday, adding that his wife has high-blood pressure.

Hunter said he “tried everything I could think of” to work with Traynor before holding him in contempt.

“Then he called me a dishonest man,” the judge said. “That’s what I held him in contempt for. That’s insolent conduct.”

As for Traynor’s age, Hunter said, “I don’t think that’s an excuse. . . . He’s old enough to know better than to rant and rave.”

Hunter said he decided to release Traynor after he had spent a weekend in jail. “I figured he’d learned his lesson,” the judge said. But his written order apparently never made it to the jail. Traynor was not released until the end of his fifth day, according to jail records.

Bruce A. Clark, the presiding judge of the Municipal Court, said he has received no complaints about Hunter’s jailing of Traynor. While he is not familiar with the case, Clark said, judges take an oath to maintain the dignity of the court.

“Even though you may be offended by something a judge does, you must respect the institution,” Clark said.

But Hunter’s contempt order has been criticized as excessive by Municipal Judge Ken W. Riley, his opponent in the June 2 primary for a seat on the Superior Court.

“There are times when people are going to argue back,” Riley said. He said most judges would have taken a break to cool off rather than put an 83-year-old man in jail.

Traynor said he has received several calls from outraged friends who had heard about Hunter’s action.

“I don’t think he’s going to get the senior citizen vote,” Traynor said.