Ulanda Watkins

Ulanda Watkins, a Clackamas County Circuit Court judge in Oregon, invited eight visiting second-grade students to serve as "special jurors" in an actual criminal hit-and-run trial. Watkins swore in the students, seated them in the jury box, and gave them supplies to take notes during the real proceeding against 56-year-old defendant Samuel Varvara.

The presiding judge intervened once the arrangement came to light, and the students were removed from the courtroom. Watkins ultimately acquitted the defendant — an outcome the Clackamas County District Attorney called "probably a foregone conclusion under such unusual circumstances." District Attorney John Wentworth filed a formal complaint over Watkins' handling of the trial with both the county's chief judge and the Oregon Chief Justice.