Judge Donates $250 to Halt Couple’s Eviction

Typically on a Friday, Fairfax County, Va., Judge Donald McDonough operates at assembly-line speed: 150 landlord-tenant disputes, one right after the other. But at 10 a.m. Friday, McDonough’s efficient system of justice paused. Something about the middle-age deaf couple standing before him and facing eviction for falling $250 behind in their rent got to him.

Though no one yet knew it, this dispute would be different from any of the thousands McDonough had heard in more than a decade on the bench. When the landlord insisted on a judgment against the deaf couple, McDonough abruptly left the courtroom, returning a minute later with two crisp $100 bills and a $50 in his hands.

“Consider it paid,” he said, leaning over the bench and handing the money--his own money--to the landlord’s stunned attorney. As a sign-language interpreter translated for defendants Deborah Morris and Louis Swann, Morris pressed her hands to her chest in unaffected rapture, according to several people who were present.

“Only in America,” said Fairfax Commonwealth’s Atty. Robert F. Horan Jr., adding that in his 33 years in office, “I’ve heard of judges suspending judgments. I’ve never heard of a judge chipping in.”

Bailiff Erin Cox, who was in the courtroom when the scene took place, agreed. “Not something you see much. Not something you see ever.”

After McDonough handed over the money, another strange thing happened: Four attorneys present for other cases spontaneously whipped out their checkbooks to give more, according to Cox.