Naughty T-Shirt Lands Woman In Jail
By Marcus Gilmer in News on May 5, 2010 8:20PM
A Round Lake woman recently learned the hard way that it's not a good idea to wear a t-shirt with the word "pussy" on it to court, even if it's not your hearing. Not helping matters? An over-zealous judge. Jennifer LaPenta was attending the court hearing of a friend in Lake County court. According to LaPenta, she had been wearing the t-shirt - which says, "I Have The Pussy, So I Make The Rules" - at the gym when a friend called her needing a ride to court. But Circuit Court Judge Helen Rozenberg wasn't amused by the slogan and ordered LaPenta jailed for 48 hours. When the Rozenberg asked LaPenta if she thought the shirt was inappropriate, LaPenta said it would be if she were the one having the hearing. Later, LaPenta told the Sun-Times: "They should be out looking for people who are breaking the law, not arresting someone wearing a T-shirt." Well, she's right. Mostly.
Common sense should dictate you probably won't get a warm reception in court by wearing such a shirt. Would it have been too difficult to ask the friend for a fresh shirt to borrow? We're not talking church-on-Sunday threads, but just something a little more tasteful. That said, jailing a woman for two days over a t-shirt? There are far better ways to spend the money and resources. The state is in such dire need of money that Gov. Quinn actually floated the kinda crazy idea of letting inmates out early. And while offenders of far worse crimes do manage to finagle their way out of prison early, throwing a woman in the clink for a t-shirt that has a dirty word? She didn't throw an egg at the judge or even flip the judge off. Would it have been that hard for Rozenberg - who hasn't commented on the story - to issue a $50 or $100 ticket for indirect contempt of court? Hell, there's the cash the local government could use. But we digress. Guess we won't be wearing that Big Johnson t-shirt to our next traffic court appearance. [via]
