Harshest Punishment of the Year Award
December 8th, 2006 by Alex
Carmen Granata, a 23 year old Michigan native, likes to party. In Eastpointe, where she owns a house, Carmen decided to have a BBQ and invite friends over. I’ve had plenty of BBQ’s before, and as most people know, some are relaxed and some can get a little rowdy every once in a while. Carmen’s was definitely the 2nd of the two options.
Neighbors called police on her two times between 12AM and 1AM. At close to 4AM, one of Carmen’s friends went outside her porch to talk on a cellphone. The police were called a 3rd time and Carmen was given a ticket for violating the city’s noise ordinance.
This is where it turns weird – thinking that she’d just get a simple fine, Carmen plead Guilty to the noise violation. Biiiig mistake. Judge Norene Redmond gave her 30 days in jail for the infraction. It turns out neighbors had signed a petition saying her house was the site of frequent parties and this heavily swayed the judge.
Surprisingly, her punishment didn’t stop there. Carmen was sentenced to 2 years of drug testing on random date’s each month. Then, she was handed another 2 years worth of probation with daily breath tests for alcohol.
I’ve never heard of or read about such a horribly out-of-place punishment for what is a relatively minor infraction. I can understand the neighbors frustration, but putting a 23 year old girl behind bars for 30 days? That’s just cold.
Carmen’s family has hired a lawyer to get the Guilty plea thrown out of court, an hopefully repeal the sentence handed to her. For her sake, let’s hope it works.
[via Newsvine]
