Navy vet dad says was ‘worst 24 hours of my life’ – given orange jumpsuit and tossed in cell with criminals

  • Gregory Hahn, 47, was ordered to stay 24 hours in prison for refusing Judge Winston Charles Gilchrist’s order to wear a mask inside his courtroom 
  • Hahn, of Harnett County, North Carolina, was held in contempt of court, but said there was never any prior warnings to wear a mask inside the courtroom
  • The father-of-one was attending jury duty summons with 97 other candidates 
  • Gilchrist is the only superior court judge in the county with a mask mandate, and nowhere else in the building is such a rule enforced 

A North Carolina father-of-one spent 24 hours in jail for refusing to wear a mask as ordered by a judge despite no state or county mandates in place.

Gregory Hahn, 47, a US Navy veteran, was among several of 98 jury duty candidates called to Harnett County court who showed up not wearing a mask because there were no such rules or warnings in place, WRAL reports.

Despite the fact that masks aren’t required in the building, Judge Winston Charles Gilchrist mandated that everyone in his courtroom wear a mask.

When Hahn refused, the judge warned him that he would be held in contempt of court and could spend a month in jail, but the man refused to back down.

‘I said, ‘I’m not going to wear a mask,’ and he goes, ’24 hours in the Harnett County jail,” Hahn recalled Friday on Tucker Carlson Tonight.

Harnett County’s Clerk of Superior Court Renee Whittenton noted that Gilchrists is the only superior court judge in the county with a mask mandate.

‘You can go in any district courtroom without a mask, you can come into superior clerk court without a mask and the [district attorney’s] office without a mask, but with Judge Gilchrist he has a mandate that you must wear a mask,’ she told WRAL.

Despite the judge’s orders, Hahn said there was never a notice in the jury summons he received, nor were there any signs around the courthouse.

‘The irony of all this is the judge was talking to me without a mask,’ Hahn told the local outlet. ‘If safety was such a concern, I go to jail no mask requirements with inmates.’

Hahn said that he ‘felt there was some bias’ in the judge’s decision to jail him, saying he was clearly ‘bullied’ for standing up for what he believed in.

Recalling his day in prison, Hahn told Carlson: ‘It was the worst 24 hours of my life. I had to make a phone call to my minor child who was home.

‘I got motioned in. I got changed into an orange uniform. Got a roll of toilet paper, toothpaste, towel, grabbed a mat. And I’m walking with inmates to a cell.’

‘I never thought this could happen in this country,’ Hahn added.

Hahn works as the CEO of Construction Optimize, a local marketing and leadership consulting firm.