photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

John Timothy Price is pictured at a sentencing hearing on May 15, 2023, in Douglas County District Court. Price was convicted by a Douglas County jury of felony aggravated assault for throwing bricks at passing cars and smashing windows at businesses.

Just days after a defendant was deemed competent to stand trial in one courtroom he was ejected from another courtroom for a profanity-laced outburst against the court and his own attorney.

The defendant, John Timothy Price, was in the courtroom of Judge Stacey Donovan with his attorney, Razmi Tahirkheli, for a pretrial conference Friday on one of his battery on a law enforcement officer cases when he became belligerent to Donovan, refusing repeatedly to stand when she told him to and launching into a tirade of insults and cursing — culminating in calling Donovan a “stupid a– b–” and shouting “f– the court!”

Donovan had given Price repeated warnings, even threatening him with contempt of court, and eventually she had deputies escort him out of the room, saying, “He has given up his right to be here.”

Just days before, as the Journal-World reported Tuesday, Price was deemed competent to stand trial in Judge Amy Hanley’s courtroom involving a different case of battery on a law enforcement officer.

In one of the battery cases, Price is accused of attacking a deputy in court; in the other he is accused of spitting in a corrections officer’s mouth while at the jail.

Price’s attorney had asked Hanley to declare Price incompetent to stand trial based on his inability to assist in his own defense and to control himself. Hanley, citing reports of two psychologists deeming him fit, determined that Price was able to understand the proceedings against him and to assist in his own defense if he so desired.

After Price was ejected from the room Friday, Donovan, Tahirkheli and Senior Assistant District Attorney David Greenwald discussed precautions for Price’s upcoming trial, which Donovan set for May 20.

The parties agreed that the case would almost certainly go to trial because Price had refused to participate in any conversations that might lead to a plea deal.

Tahirkheli asked Donovan to consider having Price appear remotely, but Donovan was not willing to go that route just yet, saying she would take the matter under advisement.

“I’m concerned that I have to watch over my shoulder,” Tahirkheli said of sitting next to Price at the defense table, and he said a jury seeing Price having outbursts would be detrimental to his defense.

“If the jury sees him acting up … I cannot undo that prejudice,” he told Donovan. “No one can.”

Greenwald asked the court to consider swapping defense and prosecution tables so that Price would be farther from the jury if he became unruly. He also suggested having a plain-clothes deputy sit at Price’s table during the trial to closely monitor Price.

Donovan mentioned that another option would be to have Price wear a stun cuff, as he was required to do when he stood trial in an earlier case. That trial and another the same week in December 2022 were interrupted by violent outbursts from Price, who struck and spit on his attorney, had to be carried aloft from the courtroom by five deputies, and finally had to be fitted with a stun cuff, which can deliver shocks during disorderly behavior.

The 2022 trials ended in multiple convictions, including for aggravated assault, criminal damage to property, battery on a law enforcement officer and other crimes, as the Journal-World reported.

Donovan scheduled a hearing for 8:45 a.m. on May 20, the day of the upcoming trial, to discuss Price’s behavior with him before the jury is brought in.