Ethiopian Review

Scofflaws sporting signs is one thing – but public paddlings on Fountain Square?

If Hamilton County Municipal Judge Fanon Rucker gets his way, those and other alternatives to jail are in some criminals’ future.

“I’m looking at options,” Rucker said.

He’s already implementing some of them.

The judge gave Kyle Englert, caught running from police, the option of going to jail for 30 days or serving his sentence by dressing as if he were running a race and holding a sign announcing he had run from the law after police tried to arrest him for having drugs in his left shoe.

Englert, 18, chose public humiliation over incarceration.

Englert, in addition to serving one year of probation, stood on the corner of Bridgetown Road and Shady Lane in Miami Township wearing what Rucker described as “a track outfit” and wearing a sign that announced “I ran from police.”

“I’ve never had a judge do that before,” said Saul Fettner, Englert’s attorney. “It was by no means the worst thing that could have happened.”

That was Rucker’s hope, suspecting embarrassment might be – in some cases – more effective that a jail term.

“I do it to young guys who are charged with obstruction of official business where they’ve run from police,” Rucker said.

Thus far, Rucker has imposed this particular alternative sentence on three men, two of whom already have stood on corners with signs.

Englert was the first. He was arrested April 7, charged with underage drinking, misdemeanor possession of marijuana and running when police tried to arrest him.

In a June 2 plea deal, he was convicted of possession of drugs and disorderly conduct for running from police.

Rucker sentenced him June 26 to a year of probation and 40 hours of community service. For 10 of those hours, he was ordered to hold the sign.

The next was Roderick Martin, 22, arrested Feb. 5 after police tried to stop him because he fit the description in a robbery that just had occurred in Evanston.

He was convicted May 18. Rucker sentenced him to a year of probation and to stand on the corner of Rockdale and Reading roads in Avondale for 10 hours wearing shorts, a T-shirt and a #5 sign on his chest so he would look like he was a participant in a race. He also was ordered by Rucker to hold a sign that read “I ran from the police and this is my sentence.”

“I very much appreciate Judge Rucker’s creativity,” Monroe’s attorney, Terry Tranter, said. “He does what he can to help the defendants rather than just locking (them) up.”

The third man with this sentence – Cody Hahn – is scheduled to dress as a jogger and hold his sign Tuesday on the corner of Sherman Avenue and Montgomery Road in Norwood while wearing “track shoes, head band, tube socks and a sign” noting he ran from police.

Hahn, 18, was arrested April 28 in Norwood where police said he had four Xanax pills in his left shoe and ran from them when they approached him.

Originally, Hahn was charged with obstructing official business and possession of drugs. In a plea deal, the drug charge was dismissed. Rucker sentenced him July 15 to a year of probation.

Rucker admits he ordered each man to stand on a corner near where he was arrested for a specific reason – embarrassment.

“A lot of people try to hide what they have done,” Rucker said.

Rucker, who is up for election in 2011, insists he’s not doing this for publicity. An overcrowded jail frustrated Rucker, and other judges, to the point where he started considered alternative to jail.

Already, he said, budget woes have forced the closure of the Queensgate jail and its more than 800 beds. The Hamilton County Justice Center is so crowded that many criminals are told to come back months later to do their time.

“That’s not effective,” Rucker said.

Those he’ll consider for the alternative sentences “have to have little or no record,” Rucker said, and cannot have been involved in a violent crime. “The defendants haven’t been resistant to it,” the judge said. “(Police) like it.”

And if it embarrasses a young criminal so badly they give up crime, that’s ideal.

“I think it is, particularly for certain types of offenses,” the judge said. “It’s a discouragement issue.”

It wasn’t for Martin.

Three weeks after Martin stood on the Avondale corner May 27, he was charged with felonies. He’s now in the Hamilton County Justice Center on a $450,000 bond after being charged with abduction and armed robbery.

That may prevent Martin from being eligible for another creative sentence Rucker is contemplating.

The judge is considering allowing defendants to voluntarily be paddled on Fountain Square in lieu of jail.

“The (legal) research isn’t done yet but so far I don’t seen any legal impediment,” Rucker said.

He proposes letting “some ex-fraternity guy” wearing a mask impose the paddling.

He also knows it may bring some criticism.

“It wouldn’t be the first time,” Rucker said.

By Kimball Perry | cincinnati