North Carolina dad spends 24 hours in jail for refusing to wear a mask in front of a judge

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.    

Gregory Hahn, 47, of Harnett County, North Carolina, was ordered to stay 24 hours in prison for refusing Judge Winston Charles Gilchrist’s order to wear a mask inside his courtroom

Hahn was held in contempt of court, but said there was never any prior warnings to wear a mask in the courtroom  

Gilchrist (above) is the only superior court judge in the county with a mask mandate, and nowhere else in the building is such a rule enforced

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.   

Hahn slammed the judge for the ‘biased’ ruling and said his time in prison was ‘the worst 24 hours’ of his life. He said he is considering filing a lawsuit against the judge

He also lamented that none of the other 97 jurors joined him in standing up to the judge. 

Hahn has said he might consider filing a lawsuit against the judge over the incident. 

‘I’m jailed for doing my civic duty and not doing anything,’ Hahn told WRAL. ‘It’s mind-boggling.’

Gilchrist’s office did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.  

Gilchrist, a Democrat, is a judge for North Carolina’s Third Superior Court Division, having first run for office in 2012, winning with 65 percent of the vote. 

The University of North Carolina graduate ran unopposed for re-election in 2020, according to Ballotpedia, and is set to remain in his position until 2028. 

Gilchrist’s most notable case was surrounding an appeal attempted from convicted murderer Daniel Green, who was charged in 1996 for the killing of Michael Jordan’s father, James Jordan. 

Gilchrist blocked Green’s attempt to revisit the case in court as the convict has long-maintained that he is innocent of the murder.