'I don't want him': Chaos erupts in courtroom as woman tries to fire her attorney during sentencing hearing by repeatedly criticizing him until she is held in contempt by judge

A Nebraska woman earned a judge’s ire — and a contempt charge — during a sentencing hearing that went off the rails.

On Friday, Sirena Schroeder, 45, appeared before 7th Judicial District Judge Michael Long to settle her criminal case.

In August, the defendant was found guilty by a jury of her peers in Madison County on one count of theft by unlawful taking.

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The conviction stemmed from an October 2024 incident in which she stole some $2,200 from a former employer in Norfolk — a medium-sized city some 45 miles due north of Columbus.

During the sentencing hearing, Schroeder repeatedly interrupted and criticized her court-appointed attorney, Marty Klein, according to a courtroom report by the Norfolk Daily News.

“I don’t want him to represent me because he’s not doing his job,” the defendant told the judge at one point, reportedly speaking over both Long and Klein as she made demands for a new lawyer.

To hear Schroeder tell it, her attorney lacked proper legal judgment and failed to represent her interests after her conviction.

Specifically, the defendant took issue with how the District 7 probation office completed her presentence investigation report and said Klein had not sufficiently reviewed the report with her.

Klein, for his part, told the judge that he and his client had recently spent two hours going over the report. As Schroeder pressed the issue, Long took a recess to allow the defendant and defense attorney more time to review the report. But that was seemingly not enough.

Once the hearing resumed, Klein attempted to take stock of his client’s objections to the report, but Schroeder maintained her desire to change attorneys, according to the paper. The defendant accused her counsel of withholding information and ignoring instructions — Schroeder interrupted Klein over and over to make those claims.

The judge often weighed in, stressing the need for the defendant to speak through her attorney and obey courtroom procedure.

Over time, the court’s patience ran out.

“You need to understand this is not a town hall meeting,” Long told Schroeder. “You don’t get to get up and yell and speak out of turn because it makes it impossible for us to take down what is being said.”

In the end, the defendant was sentenced to 18 months in prison for her theft conviction, with an additional 30 days after being held in contempt. The court assessed those sentences to run consecutively, or one after another.

As for the request to switch attorneys, the judge forced Schroeder to maintain Klein as her attorney for the hearing, but said that if she wanted to fire him afterward, she would have to represent herself. In response, the defendant said she wanted “competent counsel.”

Schroeder was also ordered to pay the full amount she stole back to her former employer as restitution. Klein said his client intended to appeal both her conviction and sentence.

The post ‘I don’t want him’: Chaos erupts in courtroom as woman tries to fire her attorney during sentencing hearing by repeatedly criticizing him until she is held in contempt by judge first appeared on Law & Crime.