LEBANON - People who dress down in a Warren County courtroom are being told to dress up like criminals. Veteran Domestic Relations Judge James Flannery says he's fed up with people showing up in shorts and tank tops. Since mid-July, he's been telling plaintiffs and defendants in the wrong attire to put on khaki jailhouse scrubs, or have their case delayed or postponed.

        “Some people come in here dressed like they are going to a picnic. They are supposed to show some respect for the law,” Judge Flannery explains.

        He says he has offered jail pants at least three times - to two men and a woman - since he instituted the policy. And courthouse staff say the judge's three domestic relations magistrates call for an inmate outfit nearly every day. The judge says he will allow people to go home and change if they live close enough to court.

        For Christopher Cheek, of Aurora, Ind., that wasn't an option. The 34-year-old roofer appeared at his dissolution hearing Friday in work shorts.

        He was surprised when a bailiff asked him to don jail pants. He slipped them on.

        “It's the judge. You have to respect them,” Mr. Cheek said after the brief hearing. “At least there were no stripes.”

        Judge Flannery, who has spent 16 years on the domestic relations bench, says he got the idea from a similar and long-standing practice in Warren County Juvenile Court.

        Still, the unusual policy has raised eyebrows in nearby domestic relations courts.

        Officials in neighboring Butler, Clermont and Hamilton counties say they've never taken such a step - although they've seen their share of muscle shirts, halter tops, short shorts and cut-off pants.

        When that happens, the person is reminded to wear something more respectful the next time, they say.

        Debbie Cadwallader, domestic relations court administrator in Clermont County, could think of only one exception.

        “If they came in a bikini, I suppose we would ask them to go home and put some clothes on,” she says.

        But Judge Flannery says he isn't forcing anyone.

        “We tell them, "If you want to come in, here's the pants. If you don't want to come in, you don't have to come in,' ” Judge Flannery says.

        “I'm not trying to embarrass or humiliate anybody. It's a chance to avoid coming back again and to not delay the hearing. Most people like to get it over with.”

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