Video: Former Ohio judge dragged from courtroom after sentencing

CINCINNATI (WJW/AP) -- A former juvenile court judge was jailed Monday, taken out of the courtroom with her feet dragging in an end to years-long legal challenges to her sentence.

A deputy with her arms under the defendant's shoulders pulled Tracie Hunter across the courtroom after she went limp. Supporters stood and yelled in anger, and deputies intercepted a woman who tried to rush to her.

There were more demonstrations outside the Hamilton County Courthouse, and civil rights activists said there will be boycotts or other actions in protest.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Patrick Dinkelacker ordered her six-month jail sentence carried out after a contentious hearing in which he read from postcards with critical comments sent to his home in Hunter's support. He called them an apparent intimidation attempt that “flat-out failed.”

Hunter, 52, had gone to multiple courts to challenge her 2014 conviction and sentence on a felony count of unlawful interest in a public contract, which charged that she provided a confidential document to her brother when he faced a disciplinary hearing in his court job. A federal judge in May rejected her bid to avoid jail.