“Only an idiot would drive on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus.”
Criminal sentencing is a hot button issue, and probably will be for the foreseeable future. Are judges being too hard, are they being too lenient? Does the punishment fit the crime? It’s a debate that goes back probably to time immemorial. However, there are punishments that almost everyone agrees fit the crime in question. Novel, appropriate and some might say amusing penalties.
In 2012, Shena Hardin, of Cleveland, Ohio, was convicted of driving onto a sidewalk to get past a stopped school bus. The judge in that case sentenced Hardin to a $250 fine but also required her to stand in public for two days holding up a sign that read “Only an idiot would drive on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus.” Hardin was reported as saying she “learned her lesson.”
Andrew Vactor, of Urbana, Ohio, was convicted in 2008 of multiple violations of a noise ordinance by blasting his music too loudly. The judge in the case fined Vactor $150, but gave him a choice: Pay the fine or listen to 20 hours of classical music and receive a reduced fine of $35. Vactor’s probation officer said he listened to about 15 minutes of Beethoven before giving up and paying the $150 fine.
Another Ohio pair, Jessica Lange and Brian Patrick, defaced a baby Jesus statue at a nativity scene outside of a Catholic church. The two potentially faced prison sentences, but the judge ordered the 19 year olds to replace the statue and to parade around the town of Fairport Harbor with a live donkey which bore a sandwich board sign that apologized for their actions.
Creative sentencing isn’t limited to Ohio. Here in Missouri, David Berry Jr. was involved in December of 2018 in what the Department of Conservation called “one of the state’s largest-ever poaching investigations.” Berry and his cohorts were convicted of poaching hundreds of deer, mostly just to take their heads or antlers. They allegedly boasted they had killed more than 1,200 deer.
The group was given combined fines of $51,000, and Berry was sentenced to a year in the Lawrence County Jail. The judge ordered Berry to watch the Disney movie “Bambi” once a month during his 12-month sentence.
These kind of punitive measures probably make you smile. They seem fitting. But Berry’s case represented an outlier from typical poaching cases in Missouri. Until now, fines and costs for poaching a deer fell somewhere between $250-$325. Poaching fines for other animals were often less than that. The cost of buying a nonresident, any-deer hunting permit is $225, and you can see the problem. This, coupled with the low fines for poaching other animals, has emboldened poachers who would steal or waste our game and wildlife.
This year, we put a stop to this practice. Last week, the governor signed House Bill 260, which imposes stiff restitution penalties on poachers. The bill, which I handled in the Senate, substantially increases the penalties for poaching turkey, paddlefish, antlered white-tailed deer, black bear and elk. The restitution amount for deer, for instance, will now be $1,000-$5,000. It is my sincere hope this makes anyone who would steal our game animals think twice.
I’m a hunter and fisherman, and I’m glad we’ve got so many opportunities to hunt, trap and fish here in Missouri. However, there’s a right way to do something and a wrong way. This law will ensure poachers get a stiff and justified penalty for abusing our natural resources, and ensure that those of us who do things the right way can continue to enjoy the sporting opportunities offered in our great state.
State Sen. Mike Bernskoetter, R-Jefferson City, represents the 6th District, and shares his perspective on statehouse issues twice a month.