Posted on 01/31/2006 2:23:59 AM PST by freepatriot32
TROY, Mich. — A judge who sentenced three teenagers to probation for being drunk at their high school prom had them jailed after he saw them drinking and ridiculing him on a Web site one of them created.
"I told them, 'If you think this gives me any pleasure, you're wrong,'" Oakland County District Judge Michael Martone said after sentencing the last of the girls, Amanda Senopole, to 10 days in jail last week.
"You know, it's just a crying shame," Martone said. "I work my butt off trying to help kids like this, trying to figure out what works. And then they do things like this."
Senopole and eight other Troy Athens High School students were caught drinking at their prom last May. They were arraigned before Martone on misdemeanor charges of being a minor in possession of alcohol.
Martone, who had appeared at Athens High days before the prom to warn graduating seniors against drinking, sentenced the students to probation, fines, court costs, community service and alcohol-education classes. As a condition of their probation, he ordered them not to drink and to avoid places where alcohol is served or consumed.
Several months later, Martone was looking on the Internet for a news release on one of the many alcohol-prevention programs he has promoted during his 13 years on the bench. He entered his own name into a search engine and came to a site belonging to Mary Meerschaert, one of the Athens students he had sentenced.
His computer screen showed Meerschaert, Senopole and some of the other students who had appeared before him in court — making obscene gestures, chugging shots of Jagermeister liqueur, posing with beer cans stacked nearly to the ceiling and vomiting into toilets.
The Web site's headline included an abbreviated obscenity directed toward the judge.
Meerschaert, by now enrolled at Michigan State University, had used a digital camera to create an Internet photo gallery with students appearing passed out and couples playing a drinking game among its more than 400 images. Many of the picture captions were profane and directed at Martone.
The gallery also showed Senopole, Meerschaert's roommate, and another co-defendant in the prom incident, Rachel Stesney — enrolled at the University of Detroit Mercy — drinking at parties at Michigan State.
"They made a mockery of the legal system," Martone told the Detroit Free Press for a story published on Jan. 27. "I had to do something."
The judge showed the Web site to police and probation officers. It became legal evidence for charging the three women with contempt of court "for disobeying my direct order not to consume alcohol," Martone said.
Meerschaert and Stesney appeared before Martone on Dec. 23. Meerschaert admitted that her Web site did use profanity aimed at Martone, and that she had a drinking problem.
He sentenced her to 30 days in the Oakland County Jail, then sentenced Stesney to 15 days. They shared a cell during Christmas and New Year's Day.
Senopole appeared before Martone last week, telling him: "I have a new roommate now. She doesn't drink." She also said she earned a 3.6 grade-point average in the fall at Michigan State, and pledged she would introduce an alcohol-education program in her dormitory.
Martone doubled Senopole's hours of community service, to 100, but gave her less jail time than Meerschaert and Stesney — 10 days — and let her serve them one at a time, on weekends, "so it doesn't interrupt your studies."
Of the nine students who drank before the prom, two others also have served jail time for later alcohol infractions.
Cheryl Stesney would not let her daughter comment. Martone, she said, "let his anger get out of control. He was just so hurt and embarrassed by that Web site."
Meerschaert's mother, Polly, agreed. "I do feel this is all about vengeance. I won't say my daughter didn't make a mistake. But the minute it became personal, the judge should've removed himself," she said.
"Judge Martone's a fair man," Senopole's father, Tom, said outside the courtroom last week. "She was just in the wrong crowd, wrong time, wrong place."
I should also caveat that I believe the Judge acted correctly in this case.
That's because we don't allow them to exercise responsibility. The 21 year old drinking age is a perfect example. Adults today also have a nasty habit of micromanaging every second of their childrens' time rather than allowing them to supervise their own games, make their own rules, and solve their own disputes. I can recall playing pick-up baseball in the cow fields as a kid. We didn't have adults to select the teams or call balls and stikes. We came up with our own rules and solved our own problems. For example, if someone hit the ball too close to a cow to field cleanly, that was a ground rule double. If someone actually hit a cow with the ball on the fly, that was a home run.
Where the hell are these kids' parents?
Libertarian lunatic ping.
I like them rules! I think we should have cows in the field for major league games!
But then, what happens if you miss a catch because you slip on a pie? Something to think about!
:->
That logic would make contempt of court charges impossible. The perp could just call the judge a nasty name in court everytime they want another judge, and the judge can't charge him "because it would be personal". These idiotic girls are getting a badly needed wake up call to the real world. These "parents" obviously aren't taking their children's development very seriously.
To quote Nelson Muntz: "Ha ha!" Gals got what they deserved.
Lesson learned: Don't screw around with a judge. Not that difficult to learn.
"I blew a .02," she said -- the minimum needed for a violation under Michigan's zero-tolerance rule for minors. She said one officer offered her a break.
"He said, 'I'll give you another test later so that you can be under .02.' But our principal said no, 'It's school policy. We have to call your parents.' "
...
Martone, 58, has devoted his career to battling under-age drinking... Other judges have praised and emulated his crusade, especially his dramatic school assemblies in which Martone holds actual court sessions, marching guilty adult defendants off in handcuffs to the gasps of students.
She'd written a letter, asking for leniency. She handed it to the judge. "It was sad," he recalled. "In it, she said she wants to be a criminal justice major. I told her, perhaps you might want to consider another line of work."
...
He sentenced her to 30 days in the Oakland County Jail. She was marched off in handcuffs, to spend Christmas and New Year's Day behind bars.
Could have been worse, I suppose, but hardly an admission that his kid did WRONG herself. Instead, we have the "situational" excuse: she was, as it were, a victim of the company she kept. Unmentioned again was the fact that she CHOSE the company in question.
I think the cop was definitely wrong here.
The judge did what needed to be done. These kids violated a court order. THe violation wasn't an accident. It was the very definition of contempt. They thought they could get away with it and they got caught. Hopefully, they have been humbled by this experience. Bravo to the judge for doing the right thing!
Exactly. In my day, if you gave an older kid the finger or told them to go f themselves, you were dead meat, toast! Today, these little brats do that kind of thing with a cocky impunity. I say nail em and nail em hard.
This should make people be more careful what they say or do on the NET. It might come back to bite you in the ass.
Gee! I mean, this judge is all in there face actin like hes the boss or something.
(do I need to say "sic"?)
Seems like the mother is a big part of the problem. "MISTAKE", mistake about what? 12x12=143 is a mistake if you actually think the answer is 143. Doing something you know is wrong is NOT A MISTAKE.
The mother obviously does not believe in accepting responsibility for ones actions.
Yeah I suppose you're right. His explanation could have been worse and it also could have been better.
I'm so used to hearing: "She's a good kid and this judge is wrong!"
That was my first thought, too! Got a drinking problem? Moo U the Party U.!
I see your point. She was asking for it.
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