I kid you not, a Judge in Florida had to deal with what he characterized as “very minor” domestic violence between a husband and wife.
The Judge’s sentence???
Red Lobster
The Husband is to buy the wife some flowers, take her for a nice meal at Red Lobster, and then take her bowling!
(There was no indication as to whether the Judge expected the man to pay for the meal, or to let her win at bowling!)

You can find the Article here:Judge orders man to take his wife on a bowling date.

I’m not one to minimize domestic violence, but the article describes the guy as grabbing his wife by the throat!
I can guarantee that Judge Haendiges in Erie County, NY’s IDV part (that’s Integrated Domestic Violence… pray you never have to appear there) is not quite so forgiving with people who grab their spouses by the throat, and rightfully so!

But another part of me thinks this might not be such a bad idea in some cases. The ones that come to mind are for Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree. This diabolical law says that you can basically be found guilty for communicating with a person for the sole purpose to harass or annoy by telephone in a manner likely to cause annoyance. That’s a class A Misdemeanor (A crime punishable by up to 1 year in prison).

I will go out on a limb here and say I think it would be difficult, nay… impossible, to find a single marriage in the USA, of more than 2 years, where one spouse has not called the other on at least one occasion, pissed about something, with the specific intent to cause annoyance to the other spouse! This is a stupid law. It is on the books and people get slammed by it every day in IDV.

 

A number of these cases might just benefit by a sentence of flowers, Red Lobster & Bowling. Maybe Courts should try to HELP a relationship instead of sending people to jail for making a telephone call? What do you think?

 

P.S.   I like Red Lobster!  Try the Lobster Chops, they melt in your mouth!