Don't Play Chicken With Judge Tracy Sheehan

John Barry: TAMPA — The game: chicken. The opponents: a judge versus a woman with 12 homeless children and 12 suitcases of attitude.

State agencies had a rent-free house ready for the mother and kids. All she had to do was answer one question from Family Court Judge Tracy Sheehan: Was she pregnant again? The mom and the judge had battled through 31 hearings over two years. At hearing No. 32, when the judge asked if she was pregnant, she simply gazed at the ceiling.

But if she had peeked inside the judge's office, she might have figured this was a standoff she couldn't win.

Beyond the 2008 breast cancer calendar (the judge was Miss May), the dozens of snapshots of small kids, the Harley photo,…