Attorney removed from courtroom after judge says he couldn’t be ‘fair’ with him

QUINCY (WGEM) - Our news-gathering partners at the Herald-Whig have reported that an attorney was kicked out of an Adams County courtroom Wednesday, after a judge said he couldn’t be “fair” with the attorney.

The newspaper reported that Judge Robert Adrian told Josh Jones, lead trial attorney for the Adams County state’s attorney’s office, that his wife saw Jones had liked a Facebook comment that attacked him.

“I can’t be fair with you. Get out,” Adrian said.

The exchange happened while Jones was appearing for the Natasha McBride case. McBride is charged in connection with a 2020 crash that killed four people.

Critics of comments Adrian made in a sexual assault case last week have been speaking out about their disgust with the judge’s reversal of a previous guilty verdict.

Adams County State’s Attorney Gary Farha told the Herald-Whig he was “mystified” with what happened in court.

“We’ve never had a problem with Judge Adrian,” Farha said.

Farha declined to comment on any specific action the office would take.

Reached by phone by WGEM Wednesday afternoon, Chief Judge of the 8th Judicial Circuit Frank McCartney said he had been made aware of the situation Wednesday morning, and said the court would be addressing it.

According to the newspaper report, Jones said he liked a post in support of victim rights on Quanada’s Facebook page.

Court proceeded normally after Jones exited, but Adrian was not on the bench later in the morning for cases that had been assigned to his docket.