We have previously discussed the use of shaming punishments by judges around the country — a practice that I have previously denounced in columns and blog postings. I discussed a new case this week on BBC involving Edmond Aviv, 62, in South Euclid, Ohio. Aviv pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. Aviv, 62, had been feuding with his neighbor for 15 years, particularly over the smell of her dryer vent when she did laundry. He retaliated by hookup up kerosene to a fan to blow the smell on to the property of Sandra Prugh. Municipal Court Judge Gayle Williams-Byers (left) decided to impose her own brand of justice and ordered him to demean himself in public and wear a signing reading “I AM A BULLY! I pick on children that are disabled, and I am intolerant of those that are different from myself. My actions do not reflect an appreciation for the diverse South Euclid community that I live in.” For those of us who view this type of novel or shaming punishment to be unprofessional and abusive, it is Judge Williams-Byers who is in serious need for corrective measures. Indeed, many view judges who entertain the public with shaming sentences to be the ultimate bullies.
Aviv certainly does not sound like a nice man. He was long accused of harassing his neighbors and has three prior convictions for harassing conduct. Prugh is also a highly sympathetic victim, a women who has two adult adopted children with disabilities and a paralyzed son. Prugh accused Aviv of previously spitting on her and calling her a “monkey mama.” She also said that he threw dog feces on the windshield of her son’s car and on a wheelchair ramp.
Williams-Byer ordered Aviv to serve 15 days in jail, seven months on probation and 100 hours of community service. He was also ordered to attend anger-management classes and psychological counseling. Then she decided to get “creative” with her own brand of justice.
I have previously written about the rise of shaming punishments in the United States in both blogs (here and here and here and here) and columns (here and here and here).
If these allegations are true (and he does have prior convictions), the proper response is increased jail time, injunctive relief, and the possible escalation to a felony offense. These shaming punishments degrade our legal system and turn judges into little Caesars meting out their own justice to the thrill of the public. We have seen judges force people to cut their hair in their courtroom or clean their court bench with a toothbrush. These sentences make justice a form of public entertainment and allow judges to turn their courtrooms into their own macabre productions. While judges talk a good game about their effort to be creative, they clearly enjoy this role and the publicity that comes from making people demean themselves. It appeals to the lowest common denominator of our society and unfortunately there are many who enjoy to see others degraded. Indeed, some appear to be working through their own serious issues or yielding to their own emotional impulses in punishments like forcing people to cut their hair in their courtroom or wearing signs that the judge herself creates over the weekend (as discussing in prior stories). I believe this trend is a direct result of faux court programs like Judge Judy and Judge Brown (who was recently arrested himself) where people are yelled at or taunted by the court. We are losing the distinction between entertainment and the law. The result is a loss of professionalism and consistency in sentencing. I have long advocated for bar associations to move against judges like Williams-Byer and consider removal over such abusive sentencing. Little has been done. Judges bask in national coverage and develop a taste for the attention and accolades. Absent an effort by the bar, this trend will grow and our court system will increasingly add these circus like scenes for public enjoyment.
Williams-Byer is a former prosecutor who won her seat by a handful of votes in 2011. She oversees small cases involving misdemeanors but, with the publicity of this case, could well try to build on the popularity as did Judge Poe in his successful run for Congress.
“If the sentence is legal, stop carping about it, and lobby the legislature to set sentencing parameters.”
Wait a minute. Isn’t the whole point of sites like this one and the Op-Ed pages to carp about things that deserve the attention of ordinary people like many of the readers of this site. Isn’t the whole point to carp about matters in the hope that others will be motivated to take action like lobby the legislature?
If the carping stops, those doing the carping will never have the time and resources to follow up and other less informed or less involved people will never have the information to follow up.
Carping is a vital social function. And I think is is fair to say we have a pretty good group of carpers here.
Now, bickering – that’s the problem.
We all like a little karma to fall upon someone…. Maybe the judicial arena is not the area for this…..
Susan
Dredd, really? Do you think this bully man felt bad for all he did to his neighbor?
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One of us does not know what one of us is talking about:
So which one of us is it?
Who is the dude or dude lady in the blue jean jacket? Is that the judge?
I think a point that is being missed is this: If he has three other convictions for the same offence, he HAS no shame. He will wear his sign as a ‘badge of honor’. That’s what ‘bullies’ do. By the way, I wouldn’t consider him a ‘bully’.He might be a sociopath, but the word ‘bully’ implies an action or set of actions that really don’t rise to the level of actual ‘crimes’ as I understand the term.
J.T. “…particularly over the smell of her dryer vent when she did laundry. He retaliated by hookup up kerosene to a fan to blow the smell on to the property of Sandra Prugh.”
So, it’s OK for her to blow her dryer fumes onto HIS property, but what he did is unacceptable? This guy doesn’t appear to be playing with a full deck, but you can’t punish HIM for what he did and not recognize that she was, in essence, doing the same thing. Her dryer vent was sending fumes over HIS property, and while his was a deliberate act and hers the by-product of the laundry process, it amounts to the same thing.
J.T. “Prugh is also a highly sympathetic victim, a women who has two adult adopted children with disabilities and a paralyzed son.”
Was this necessary? This makes a difference HOW? This is between Prugh and Aviv. Dragging the others into things is totally unnecessary.
“…and shame on you Dredd for being so short-sided.” -Susan
Susan,
I believe you mean short-sighted. (:
Anthropologist Janice Harper’s thoughts on shaming:
“It may be tempting to shame someone who has hurt or disturbed us, it may even bring perverse delight in watching their public downfall. But peace-building … requires each of us to develop empathy for others. Shaming … by pointing fingers and telling the whole world that they are bad people and deserving of bad treatment, is no way to build healthy workplaces or communities. …
The secret to the shame game is that no matter how it’s played, it can’t be won, except by those who choose not to play it.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janice-harper/bullying-shame_b_3936623.html
We had an appointed judge in Parker County, Texas. His name was Trey Loftin. He was a prosecutor but had to resign. Then his family arranged for him to sit on the bench for the remainder of a retiring judge’s term. He liked to bully and embarrass people. Come election time the citizens of Parker County got rid of him. He has never been elected to an office before or since.
guy Sounds like I need to move there. In my neck of Texas, they elect the fool to Congress or keep re-electing him to the bench.
I think this type of punishment makes people feel that he is really getting some pushback – without actual physical cruelty- it is true that if he is mentally ill then this would most likely resolve nothing – his real problem is his psychotic hatred of other people he perceives as his enemy. He needs training on what he is allowed to do to protest other’s behavior or actions, and then if he persists in the same type of behavior, he THEN needs to be treated as mentally incapable – but there is nowhere to send people like this that is the problem, and there are borderline folks in every neighborhood. So we need a new type of incarceration / punishment ? Hopefully it would be all the threat that people like this guy would need to stop what they do !!
Hope I never have him living next to me !
Dredd, really? Do you think this bully man felt bad for all he did to his neighbor? Obviously not because look at what he did and for how long. He only felt bad when he had to sit there and receive honks from others. He was able to “feel the shame” that his behavior did to others. What he did to his neighbors was sick, cruel; plotting, mean behavior. The judge brought him out in the open-No more hiding. During the 5 hour sign holding I suspect he thought-felt I don’t like this; this is embarrassing. What the judge did was make this man “think and feel”, and was more thought-provoking and long lasting than jail time, with the citizens paying the courts more of their tax money to remediate this mean man. Superior creeps like this, and our children need to feel – go through physically and emotionally what they did (are doing) to others. Until they experience what they did; no screaming at the wrong doer, no more talk time, no more citizens paying . . . Simply stated, the sign communicated and gave him 5 hours of shame – a lot less than what he did to his neighbors to whom he was so proud to do, cleverly thinking of methods to “get them”. What the judge did was make this man think and feel. Good for this judge. If you feel sorry for the wrong doer; poor, poor him – the person who created this for himself, I think you Dredd need to volunteer your time to go into the schools, into the juvenile centers and be the receiver of hours of your heart, time and care to talk, talk, talk and feel sorry for the wrong doer as that person disrespects rules, laws; mocks tells you, others in authority to “F off” because no one can hold a person accountable (always a reason why they did what they did). The “Dumbing Down of a Nation” is not because of teachers, curriculums -we have the best of both. It is because of the behaviors that interrupt great teaching with not just one student, but 1/2 of students poor, rich, minority, pink, green, blue. After awhile students and parents learn what the government teaches them – rules don’t matter, laws don’t matter; just look at our leaders? Certainly you can’t expect any more from the citizens than what our leaders model, can you? Standards for right and wrong, accountability from those in power is everything to the country. Sad Dredd that you have such low standards for this cruel, mean man blaming everyone else. Your thinking Dredd has created the “dumbing down of our nation”. Good for the judge and shame on you Dredd for being so short-sided.
Whether they’re right or wrong, whether you like this or not, they are popular and they will continue. The Judge Judy reference is prescient. It started w/ Judge Wopner. Who thought it could go downhill from his bench, but it certainly has.
screw that, lets go all out. build some stocks in the center of town and let everyone throw rotten food and feces at him.
then we can find some witches to dunk
The problem had been going on for 15 years. A fine was not going to stop things. Shaming is an effective method of stopping activities like this.
Sometimes I see Judge Judy doing some bullying. Making sport of the court.
And then laughs all the way to the bank.
This will not end because such punishments entertain the voters, and one of our own former such judge rode his rep to a seat in Congress. That is Rep Poe who is also a Tea Party darling who has no shame. I will concede one thing to him, he can be funny at times, so at least we are continuing to get no so cheap entertainment if nothing else.
I agree in theory that these shaming techniques are offensive. However, Aviv had been terrorizing the entire neighborhood for fifteen years, not just the one family. This was his fourth conviction for the same conduct. I just can’t muster up a lot of sympathy for this guy. Still, if the law were changed to restrict abusive sentencing, I would be for it.
Are there any statistics on how often this type of sentencing is happening? I seriously doubt that it’s a trend; it may just seem like a trend because of how easy it is today for the most isolated incident to get a lot of media attention.
I wonder if Aviv was ever ordered to have a psych evaluation. A few days in a psych ward wearing a paper gown probably would have done as much as the public sign holding to change his attitude. One the other hand, that could be considered abusive as well.
What do we do with people like Aviv?
If the sentence is illegal, she should be reversed, and a dishonorable mention made by the appellate court.
If the sentence is legal, stop carping about it, and lobby the legislature to set sentencing parameters.
This guys main punishment is being himself.
He needs relief from that.
Shaming works. It used to be that reputations mattered; families, relatives neighborhoods kept children, adults, relatives in check. Now everyone can hide behind behind 4 walls – no one knows their neighbors. The cruel, mean, wicked can operate without anyone knowing. This was a method of “shame and accountability for one’s actions and words”. It is less expensive for the citizens to pay than more court time, jail tim, talk time. We need more of this type of remediation. Schools need more of this type, i.e. if a student destroys desks at school. He/she should spend a day (before and after school) cleaning fixing other desks. And if he/she complains “the time doubles”. This is less time consuming that having 25 meetings with the parent (who you cannot reach or set an appointment with). The wrong-doer is spending his/her time physically and mentally involved. Sad our society now say’s “no you cannot make the wrong doer accountable; can’t hurt their feelings”. Everyone else has to spend hours and money talking, talking, talking about why they did what they did, and poor, poor them- it is everyone else’s fault. We need more of this remediation, not less.
The judge is also a bully. -bettykath
Yep. And from where I’m sitting, we’re well on our way to becoming a nation of bullies.
The shaming is inappropriate. The judge is also a bully.