The kids were a foil, a shield that he could throw up to a sympathetic federal judge.

A sympathetic judge permitted her to bring up the child.

On his side, Rudy has several supporters and a sympathetic newly-appointed judge.

He is saved by a sympathetic judge and a loving adoptive family.

And then maybe I get a sympathetic judge, or judges, and they give me a break.

Her statement was well prepared, and she had a sympathetic judge on the bench.

Others said the American lawyers who filed the suit were looking for a sympathetic judge.

A sympathetic judge merely bound the squatters over to good behaviour.

He'd need a sympathetic judge to make it stand up in court, but he happened to know where he could find one of those.

A sympathetic judge Graham sentences the two men to a day in jail.