A marital spat that began when a Plantation man didn’t wish his wife a happy birthday and then escalated into a domestic violence charge, resulted in an unusual bond court ruling by a perceptive judge.
Instead of setting bond or keeping Joseph Bray locked up, he ordered him to treat his spouse to dinner, a bowling date and then to undergo marriage counseling.“He’s going to stop by somewhere and he’s going to get some flowers,” Judge John “Jay” Hurley said during the first appearance hearing. “And then he’s going to go home, pick up his wife, get dressed, take her to Red Lobster. And then after they have Red Lobster, they’re going to go bowling.”Hurley emphasized that he would not have ordered such whimsical conditions for Bray, 47, if his domestic violence charge was more serious, or if his wife appeared to be injured or in danger of being harmed.
The video is worth watching so you can see that the Judge handles this just right.
WRONG RULING!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I appreciate the creativity and King Solomon wisdom behind the Judge's ruling, I feel that the husband's rage issue was ignored. Just because he didn't actual hit her he did push her, grabbed her throat and raised his fist. The next time he may actually go through with it and hit her. Anger Management would also have been appropriate along with the Marriage counseling.
Letting someone off for this kind of violence to his wife sends the wrong message-- it tells people you can assault someone, but as long as you don't actually hit them, well, then you just owe them dinner and a movie. Thanks for setting women's rights back two decades, Judge Idiot
David,
ReplyDeleteYou are way off on this one - ordering a guy arrested for DV to take the victim to dinner...whether she wants that or not, is very very foolish and displays a complete lack of understanding of domestic abuse.
Perhaps this guy has never been abusive before, perhaps he has, but if you know anything about the cycle of violence, you would be disgusted by the judge's actions. The judge's questioning pushed the victim into making the classic 'it was my fault for calling the cops...I love him, etc.'
If you listen to the video, you will hear that it is not the first time the cops have been called, the guy chocked her and almost clocked her with a fist while pinning her down on a couch. Not a minor incident.
This is actually quite disturbing.
-D
Being forced to eat at red lobster is a fate worse than death for me an the rarified air in which I travel and dine. Cruel and most unusual. No woman is worth squandering a dining opportuntiy on re frozen shell fish fried and drowned in butter.
ReplyDeleteWho let the f'ing women's studies majors on the computers? Sheesh.
ReplyDeleteExcellent ruling! Very well done!!! We are the most litigious, over incarcerated country in the world. The judge here did absolutely good work. We need more judges willing to stand up and take chances on defendants like this.
ReplyDeleteThis kind of order likely defused anger and will go A LOT further towards resolving the underlying issues at work than anything else.
Maybe ordering anger management in addition to marital counseling would have been good. But this Judge still gets a 9.9 out 10 from me.