Man Busted In Virtual Court Hearing, Found To Be In The Same House Of Victim

With COVID-19 restrictions still strictly enforced, most have been forced to adjust to the new normal – that of which is turning to technology solutions like Zoom or YouTube to carry out their work. This would include court hearings that may give some accused people a bit of a chance to weasel their way out of charges.

But this is with the understanding that they carefully map out their plan. Unfortunately for a 21-year-old man accused of assaulting his girlfriend on Feb. 9, he found his status go from bad to worse.

Coby Harris was ordered to have no contact with his girlfriend for the assault last month that occurred in Sturgis, Michigan. This was about 45 minutes from south of Kalamazoo, meaning he could easily travel there despite a restraining order.

In the hearing that was held on Mar. 2, a Michigan prosecutor could not help but notice something a bit off. She noticed the victim looking off-camera to her right with the attorney of Harris objecting to a question made by prosecutor Deborah Harris.

It was here when Davis interrupted the defense lawyer and told the court that she had reason to believe that the defendant is in the same apartment as the witness.

To verify, St. Joseph County District Court Judge Jeffrey Middleton asked the man and the woman where they were. To make sure, he asked Harris to walk outside the house with his phone and show the address. Harris tried to make an excuse, even claiming that his phone was running low on charge. Unknown to him, authorities were already sent to the woman’s home during the back-and-forth debate.

Their Zoom feed of the man and the woman went off, only to return later with Harris speaking to the judge with police handcuffing him at the woman’s apartment. He tried to plead his case and said that he and the woman did not want to have the no-contact order.

From there, Middleton advised Harris to stay quiet since he was already in a bigger mess than can only get worse. Harris will appear again in court on Mar. 16.

"It's the first time I ever had anybody sitting in the next room, potentially intimidating a witness," Middleton said. "This is an issue we didn't have when we had live court."