Penelope Soto, Fla. teen who flipped off judge, apologizes and avoids 30-day sentence

[arely staircase]

(CBS) MIAMI - Penelope Soto, the Florida teen who was jailed after flipping off a Miami-Dade judge, avoided a month behind bars Friday after she apologized to him in person, reports CBS Miami.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57568468-504083/penelope-soto-fla-teen-who-flipped-off-judge-apologizes-and-avoids-30-day-sentence/

[geomon666]

1. Good for her.

Hope she can get her life together.

[AverageJoe90]

5. Me too geomon, me too.

[kestrel91316]

2. She wouldn't have done this if he hadn't brought the hammer down.

He took her down a few pegs and taught her not to smart off in court. I applaud what he did.

[arely staircase]

4. i really like how they both ended up handling it

he brought the hammer down but when she came to her senses and performed a simple ceremony of public contrition, he showed mercy. very civilized in the end.

i still think his original sentence seemed stiff, though her reaction innapproriate.

[AverageJoe90]

6. A good ending, indeed! =) n/t

[X_Digger]

11. Both are pretty common (30 days for contempt and dismissing it w/ apology) n/t

[arely staircase]

12. seems fair, and i guess common

still a good lesson after all the attention the original video got, imho

[X_Digger]

13. Absolutely. Maybe this young woman can get her head on straight after this reality check. n/t

[davidpdx]

20. I agree

The original clip I saw only had that part from when she said "adios". I looked on Youtube and found the full clip when starts when she first came up and gives the charges and what her bail was set at before that part took place, then went on to cover what happened after she came back up the second time. I think without seeing the whole clip it's difficult to put it into context.

The public defender was nice about putting his butt on the line and politely saying to the judge (paraphrased) yes you didn't deserve to have that said to you, but you over reacted. The judge agreed and it was resolved.

I do think she was quite snotty and disrespectful to him though. Hopefully in the end she'll see the situation as a reason to clean up her act and turn her life around.

BTW here is the full clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=Y3H03BhVe8E&feature=endscreen

[Logical]

8. Idiot judge who got his feelings hurt so sentenced her to 30 days when DUI drivers get none. Idiot!

[elias7]

9. Can you define "idiot" for me?

On one hand, I see a man who over decades has risen through the ranks of the legal field to become a judge, and who acted in a manner commensurate with the disrespect the court was being treated.

On the other hand, I see a girl pissing her life away, busted and on drugs, being flippant and obscene in a court of law.

On the third hand, I see someone inexplicably defending the latter with unfounded ad hominum attacks on the former.

[reorg]

21. "risen through the ranks"

Born in 1945, he was "elected without opposition in April of 2010". A long and steady rise, I suppose, in the "ranks" of the legal field, despite "his reputation for having a short fuse and a sharp tongue" (Miami Herald, 1998).
http://randompixels.blogspot.de/

In a Bar poll shortly thereafter, he got the second lowest ranking: "another fresh face to the judicial elections process also received low scores. Circuit Judge-elect Jorge Rodriguez-Chomat, a former state legislator who was automatically elected when the incumbent stepped aside, was rated unqualified by more than 46 percent of respondents."
http://is.gd/jNe0zP

From the St. Petersburg Times, April 10, 1998:

[Carlos] Valdes said [Jorge] Rodriguez-Chomat had walked over to him and repeatedly called him a jackass.

"By the third or fourth time (he said it), I just said, "You must be looking at yourself in the mirror,' " Valdes recounted. "He grabbed my tie, and I was just trying to keep him away." He said Rodriguez-Chomat also tried to punch him.

So, on the fourth hand, we see a grandfatherly newcomer to the bench with a history of unashamedly picking fights in public demeaning a diminutive young woman to show off his might.

[cherokeeprogressive]

15. Your generalization is just a bit too broad. I got 30 days for a DUI in 1997. n/t

[pipi_k]

16. Are you saying

that drunk drivers who have appeared before this judge have been released without penalty?

[dballance]

17. Seriously? "Got His Feelings Hurt?" I Call Bullshit on Your Opinion.

That's a crock of crap. I suspect the good judge has had a lot worse said to him than a simple "F**K YOU" and being flipped off.

When one is in court, having been charged with a felony, one is expected to behave with some sense of decorum, realize the seriousness of the event and show respect for court officers - most especially the judge. This young woman didn't behave at all. She showed great disrespect for the court by throwing an expletive at the judge and flipping him off. She deserved to be thrown in jail for contempt.

Would you support teachers ignoring students in K-12 grades that told them "F**K YOU" and flipped them off? I doubt it. I hope you'd think it was okay for the school to suspend a kid that did such a thing for a couple of days.

[rl6214]

18. Right

[RudynJack]

19. She got 30 days for Contempt of Court

not for her drug violation.

And she was contemptuous, and she deserved the sentence. She apologized, seemingly sincerely, and thus deserved the lifting of the sentence. The judge was entirely right, and he taught her a valuable lesson. A win/win.

[JI7]

3. but i thought she was our hero who stood up to authority

or some shit like that

[arely staircase]

7. imho those who found her original tantrum heroic were few but vocal

and probably young, not that there is anything wrong with that.

i can see myself posting the likes of that 25 years ago if i had had the intertubes, which thank god i didn't for lots of reasons.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

10. I saw this one coming.

More often than not this is how cases like this are resolved. I'm glad it turned out well in the end.

[reorg]

14. Woman who flipped off judge goes viral

Youtube video has more than 8 million views, 38,000 comments.

Soto's case has captured national attention, even spawning a Facebook fanpage and a "Free Penelope" Twitter feed.

http://is.gd/9pA5Bf

See also the interesting comment from poster Jonathan Corbett in the comments section of the article.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b28_1360360812

Facebook page Free Penelope Soto