The start of a sex offender sunglasses jurisprudence

Thanks to How Appealing, I saw this fascinating article from the New Jersey Law Journal headlined “Judge Spooked by Sex Offender’s Donning of Sunglasses Is Dressed Down on Appeal.”  Here is the start of the NJLJ article (which includes a link to the opinion):

A New Jersey judge’s apparent obsession with a sex offender’s wearing of sunglasses in court is ground for a new hearing on whether his involuntary civil commitment should continue, a state appellate court ruled on Wednesday.

The Essex County judge’s repeated insistence that the man remove his glasses despite his and a doctor’s assertions that they were a medical necessity puts her fairness into question, the panel said in In re Civil Commitment of S.B.M., A-2384-07.

I wonder if Corey Hart should be called as an expert witness in the next big sunglasses case.