SALISBURY, N.C. -- A local attorney was held in contempt of court Wednesday after the judge said he caught the man reading an inappropriate magazine during court.

According to the Salisbury Post, Judge Kevin Eddinger wrote in the contempt order that he saw attorney Todd Paris reading a Maxim magazine with a topless woman on the cover in Rowan County District Court.

When Eddinger called Paris to the bench, the lawyer "stated in his view the magazine was not pornography, was available at local stores and that he did not intend contempt," the order said.

Paris was fined $300, given a 15-day suspended jail sentence and placed on unsupervised probation.

Eddinger showed the magazine to those in the courtroom, causing the room to erupt in laughter. He then gave it to the clerk and identified it as exhibit A for the contempt case.