Inset left: Sandra Page (East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office). Inset right: Colette Greggs (19th Judicial District). Background: The East Baton Rouge Parish jail in Baton Rouge, La. (Google Maps).
A Louisiana judge recently had a criminal defense attorney thrown in jail after the attorney called the judge a name borrowed from a Dr. Seuss character, according to authorities in the Pelican State.
On Monday, 19th Judicial District Judge Colette Greggs found attorney Sandra Page, 36, in contempt of court and subsequently had the lawyer spend the night in the East Baton Rouge Parish jail.
The attorney was still in the lockup facility as of Tuesday but was no longer listed as an inmate as of Wednesday, jail records show.
On Tuesday, the judge ordered the attorney to complete a mental health evaluation, according to court documents obtained by Baton Rouge CBS affiliate WAFB.
Greggs cited Page for allegedly being disrespectful, failing to appear, leaving before matters were addressed, and continuing to defy a court order.
"On numerous occasions, counsel consistently made derogatory statements after being directed to maintain courtroom decorum," the Aug. 24 contempt order issued by the court reads.
The trouble dates back to a court date in July.
On July 20, the judge called one of Page's cases, to which the attorney replied, "I have no idea what's going on in this case," before saying she had to deal with something in another courtroom, according to the contempt order.
Before she left the courtroom, the attorney handed a staffer a funeral program to give to the judge, and allegedly said, "Give this to the Grinch," in reference to Greggs, the contempt order alleges.
"I'm not coming back," Page allegedly said in open court as she left.
The order alleges the attorney left the courtroom that day without notifying the court or receiving permission to leave during a client's case and in defiance of a directive ordering her to return to court.
The court's contempt finding is not just based on that day. Greggs referred to several additional incidents in the order.
The order alleges that Page simply missed court on 10 separate occasions throughout 2025 and 2026. Each of those allegedly missed proceedings is counted as a separate count of contempt.
During a hearing on Tuesday, Page's own attorney told the judge his client will be writing an apology letter, WAFB reported.
"That's fine," the judge said. "I came in here this morning after the events and the behavior of your client yesterday, prepared to give her the maximum of whatever I can give her, as I told you all at the bench, this is not the first time this has happened, it has happened repeatedly."
The judge said she had been considering a 10-day jail sentence and a $200 fine, but delayed punishing the lawyer so her defense could mount a case, according to a courtroom report by The Advocate.
"She's been talked to," Greggs reportedly told Page's attorneys on Tuesday. "I had a conversation with her in my chambers to no avail."
The judge went on to say she received calls to "do something different" regarding the lawyer.
After the hearing, Page's lawyer spoke with local media.
"We'll get more acquainted with the facts of the case and we'll see what happens," the defense attorney's lawyer told WAFB.