Judge of the Day: Jerk Chicken Judge
Way back in the day — I’m thinking circa 1,000 AD — most problems could be solved through an exchange of food. It was a simpler time when disputes were settled without interrogatories, and transgressors made restitution with meat and mead.
With that in mind, I applaud Joliet Judge Robert Livas and his truly old-school sentence. The Chicago Tribune reports:
The local legal community has been abuzz since Associate Judge Robert Livas accepted the Jamaican-style chicken from Darrius Logan this month over an objection from a prosecutor. Logan, 24, pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor battery and criminal trespass charges after an incident in Joliet.
Yumyumyum.
Rivas now claims he didn’t intend to convert Logan’s community service sentence into a chicken run. But I bet his court staffers are happy with the result.
More details after the jump.
Judge Livas says he made a bad joke that Logan took literally:
Logan told the judge in August he performed his community service by working 100 unpaid hours at Uncle Joe’s Jerk Chicken, a popular Jamaican restaurant chain on Chicago’s South Side. According to court transcripts, the judge told Logan to return in two months with either proof that he had completed the service hours elsewhere or with enough spiced chicken to feed the courtroom.Livas said he was surprised Oct. 6 when Logan carried in a tray of Uncle Joe’s jerk chicken, bread and two sides of hot sauce. …
Livas, a former prosecutor and Chicago police officer, said it was simply a joke gone awry.
“A defendant took something I said as a joke literally,” Livas said. “It forced me to keep my word and accept his original (community service) letter. I give him credit — he made me eat my words.
Was Logan being obtuse, or does the fault lie with Livas?
But let’s not let facts get in the way of a good story. Is there anything inherently wrong with non-traditional methods of community service? Some people have special skills or special access. Can they not benefit the community (however defined) in ways other than picking up trash in a park? Couldn’t some people be sentenced to 100 hours of SAT tutoring for low income students, while others have to coach a little league baseball team for a season?
I’m just saying, sometimes the old ways — the really old ways — were best. Logan had the ability to furnish an entire courtroom with a fine meal. What’s wrong with that?
Court accepts barbecue chicken instead of community service [Chicago Tribune]
(46) 
Comments
first
Elie, you WOULD accept food as community service.
is it Rivas or Livas? How did you manage to finish law school?
I think it is interesting the article does not mention the race of any of the people invovled...
Mystal is the WALRUS!
Working at a chicken joint and contributing to your ongoing weight gain is not community service, Elie. Community service is supposed to help the community. Working in a fast food place does not help the community (however defined).
Only in Illinois
LOL ELIE IS FAT AND THATS WHY HE THINKS YOU SHOULD GIVE FOOD IF THE JUDGE SENTENCES YOU TO COMMUNITY SERVICE LOL
6
What you fail to realize is that the union day laborers in the parks and recreation department are in charge of cleaning the parks when they are not on break or calling in sick. The unions opposiiton to community service being done by cleaning up the trash that they don't clean up because they are lazy union workers has no peer. Hence the judges have to be createive in coming up with ways to have community service performed.
8 TYPES IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE HIS CAPS KEY IS LOUD
Wasn't there a bad TV series called The Guardian about 'non-traditional' community service?
Wow, black guy accepts chicken in exchange for something. This certainly needs documentation.
Capslock: are you ready to unleash the fury...?
That Judge, he muss be O'beast!
How did I get here? Oh lawdz, I is not good on the internets
this really is not a big deal. i once had a judge sentence one of my clients to be another guy's butler.
- J.C.
Elie, get the jerk off your hands. Paragraph 4 - Rivas?
I got to say "jerk off your hands"!
- 17
Walruses loves them some chicken.
I got to say "jerk off your hands"!
- 17
Another great post Elie! Keep up the great work!
21 = Someone Elie gave chicken too.
Now I'm in the mood for jerk chicken for lunch. New Yorkers, check out the Jamaican Dutchy cart on 51st and 7th. To die for.
23 is credited. That place is delicious!
How does Law volunteer? A spur surrounds a north leak inside a joy. Law suffers opposite the prerequisite. Law supplies Law. The satisfactory joke slides before the grandfather.
Anyone who uses the word "credited" is a xoxohth crossover loser.
Community service is not just about giving back to the community, it is also an attempt to give the individual an opportunity to reflect on the importance of not being a douche bag.
If people could just supply goods or pay money to get out of community service, well you know the rest.
Elie Mystal to court: "I didn't get fat by accident."
Elie is advocating a return to the days of the indulgence. Bravo, Walrus.
26 - 174. Would have been a 180 if you had written "anyone who uses the word "credited" is a ttt xoxohth crossover loser who lives in his mom's basement. Ttiwwp
I hear that H&H has released an internal memo regarding the proposed merger with Lovells. Why isn't ATL writing about this, instead of delicious trays of jerk chicken?!
OK PE has officially lost his damn mind.
6, Jerk Chicken is not fast food.
Thanks god there were no Jamaicans involved here.
Hey, 25, green shoots have shot. I'm sure you read it, arms flamboyantly akimbo, in your fancy lithographed banking pamphlet while riding the 1/9 from your Washington Heights hovel this morning. What say you?
Suck my ass, Mystal, you obese, race bating, chicken devouring WALRUS!
Of course ATL would hand a story about chicken to MysTTTal.
You bitches crack me up!! Especially 14,15,34 !!
--BB
You bitches crack me up!! Especially 14,15,34 !!
--BB
You bitches crack me up!! Especially 14,15,34 !!
--BB
You bitches crack me up!! Especially 14,15,34 !!
--BB
this shit sucks it probabbly posted a few times already...get on it mystall..
Community service by coaching little league- isn't that the premise of the movie Bad News Bears?
It's not the "real" PE, note the divergent spelling of his username. If it were the Great Bloviator, he would have made sure to reference a) his vast wealth and b) he would have blamed this on Obama. Once again, we are spared his ignorant blather. Oh, and Go Die In A Fire, you asshole. Now, as for the article itself, I applaud "thinking outside the box." I realize the judge did not intend to substitute a meal for community service, but he did well to stand by his commitment. The world is not black and white, it's colored in many shades of gray.
The fake PE needs to go away. We get enough of PE as it is, but the other guy (girl?) is a retard. Seriously, please go away.
9--Please explain how a day laborer can call in sick.
CHICKEN TETRAZZINI
43
pretty easily it would appear.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/1848025,CST-NWS-streetssan27.article
-9
To 30: everything about your post reeks of douchebaggery. Please throw yourself off the nearest bridge or tall building.