Mary Waters got a courtroom lecture Wednesday for phoning her former lover and alleged attacker Sam Riddle despite a judge’s repeated “no-contact” orders.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Gregory Bill said it would “not be in order or lawful” to punish Waters for the call, but he told her that as a former state representative, she should know that “it’s an offense to the court when people don’t follow its orders.”

Riddle remains jailed for taking Waters’ call. On Friday, Bill is to hear a defense motion to lift the no-contact order.

Waters’ lawyer, Richard Convertino, said Waters called from his office and Riddle, a Detroit political operative, could not have known it was Waters on the line.

Waters and Riddle are codefendants in a federal corruption case dealing with the relocation of a Southfield pawnshop. And Convertino said Waters called Riddle to discuss a motion in their federal case.

He said the mixed roles of Waters and Riddle — victim and alleged attacker in one case, but codefendants in another — makes Bill’s no-contact order impractical and probably unconstitutional.

The phone call is just one part of the Riddle-Waters legal do-si-do. The couple is former lovers who lived at her Lafayette Park townhouse near downtown Detroit. Waters called police in December when Riddle allegedly pulled a shotgun on her when she found him with another woman at her home.

But since then, she has written numerous letters to her former boss, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, and pleaded with Bill that she wants to drop the charges.

Source:freep.com/JOE SWICKARD