US:The unwarranted intrusion of a mobile phone ringing at a critical moment has led to some famously strong reactions.
British actor Richard Griffiths, for example, stopped a performance at the National Theatre in London and ordered the offending party to leave.
US judge Robert Restaino went considerably further. He was hearing a session of domestic violence offenders in a court in upstate New York when proceedings were interrupted by 10 or 11 rings of a phone. "Everyone is going to jail. Every single person is going to jail in this courtroom unless I get that instrument now," he bellowed at the court. He wasn't joking.
Over the next two hours on that day in March 2005, the judge entered what a state commission on judicial conduct yesterday concluded was a period of "inexplicable madness". He began by ordering the doors of the court locked and set the officers to searching for the phone. When that failed he asked each of the defendants if they knew whose phone it was. When each in turn said they had no idea, he sent them all to jail. All 46 of them.
When a defendant protested that the judge's actions were not fair, Judge Restaino replied: "I know it isn't." Court transcripts show that when another told him "This ain't right", the judge shot back: "You're right, it ain't right. Ain't right at all."
Later, however he cooled off and released all 46.
The "two hours of viral lunacy", as one member of the commission described it, has probably cost Judge Restaino his job. The commission ruled that he should be removed from his $114,000 position for "an egregious and unprecedented abuse of judicial power".
His lawyer pointed out that until that moment he had served 11 years as a judge without any disciplinary issues. "With the exception of two hours, his record is spotless."