Your Afternoon Pick-Me-Up

Today’s Afternoon Pick-Me-Up, model Maria Velkova, is dedicated to Todd Paris, an attorney held in contempt by a North Carolina judge for reading a copy of Maxim with “a female topless model” on the cover during a court session.

Via The Wall Street Journal:

The story quotes a cop who was in the courtroom and said Paris came in after the lunch break and sat down on the front bench. He started looking at Maxim while Eddinger was hearing cases, the paper says. Eddinger saw him reading it and called Paris to come to the bench and bring the magazine.

Paris reportedly offered to leave the courtroom and discard the Maxim, but Eddinger refused to let him leave and demanded the magazine. After some reported banter, the judge slapped him with a contempt citation, handing the magazine to the clerk and identified it as Exhibit A for the contempt case.

When [Judge] Eddinger gave Paris a chance to respond he apologized and “stated in his view the magazine was not pornography, was available at local stores and that he did not intend contempt,” the order said.

Eddinger fined Paris $300, gave him a 15 day suspended jail sentence that remains in effect for a year and placed him on unsupervised probation, according to the order.

Bra-vo.

More photos after the jump!