Orlando Melendez - (Springfield Police Department)
During a pretrial hearing at a Springfield District Court, a clown was denied the request to show off his juggling skills for jurors at his upcoming trial.
Orlando Melendez, 20, is charged with using a toy gun during an attempted robbery of a convenience store last December.
He pleaded not guilty to two counts of attempting to commit a crime and was held on $5,000 bail.
The defendant wrote his juggling motion in the third person, saying:
"The keystone to his defense is: He's literally a clown."
The judge simply wrote:
"Denied."
Melendez wanted to juggle three wads of paper for 20 seconds to show jurors that he's a "serious clown," and prove that the attempted robbery was just a misunderstanding.
The motion added that the juggling would be:
"Not only the simplest, but the only possible proof that the defendant is a jester."
A jester!