Cop's Outburst After Man Escapes Petty Marijuana Charge Lands Him In Contempt of Court

A Kernersville police officer was suspended with pay Wednesday after a Forsyth County judge found him in contempt of court for an incident in which he burst out of the courtroom after a trial and loudly confronted a defense attorney.

Officer S.P. Senor, who joined the Kernersville Police Department in 2000, was ordered to pay a $100 fine by Forsyth District Judge David Sipprell. Senor had become upset after Sipprell had found a man not guilty of misdemeanor possession of marijuana after a trial in Kernersville District Court.

Senor was the officer who had stopped the defendant, Dennis Bowyer, for a broken license plate light. A K-9 dog sniffed around the car and Senor searched the car, finding a small amount of marijuana in a compartment in the car.

Bowyer denied that the marijuana was his and said that he did not own the car. Sipprell found Bowyer not guilty after determining that prosecutors had failed to prove under state law that the marijuana belonged to Bowyer and that Bowyer was in possession of it, according to John Barrow, Bowyer’s attorney.

When the trial ended, Senor stormed out of the courtroom and angrily confronted Barrow, Barrow said.