The Iron Judge Laughed at No One Until a Little Girl Touched Her Knees

People who had never missed a meal wrote cruel comments online about personal responsibility.

Strangers called him a criminal who used a child as an excuse.

The local prosecutor filed the case with unusual speed because the store wanted to make a point.

The point, as it turned out, landed in Judge Catherine Westbrook’s courtroom.

Long before people called her the Iron Judge,