Creative sentences: Chicken suits, kiddie pool, blindfold, jackass offense sign, pigs

CLEVELAND - A woman ordered to hold an “idiot” sign is not the first time a judge has handed down an unusual sentence in northeast Ohio.

Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Pinkey Carr said she thought about creative sentencing after some of the penalties thought up by Painesville Municipal Judge Michael Cicconetti.

Cicconetti is widely known for several controversial sentences:

In 2011, he made a couple stand in a pool and hand out water safety pamphlets or face jail time after they lied to officials looking for the owner of a raft. (Read more at http://on.wews.com/PU29u5 )

In 2008, a woman who was convicted of stealing from an area church was sentenced to spell out an apology in coins. "I stole coins from this church and apologize to each worshipper as they enter the church." (Read more at http://on.wews.com/UCUByx )

In 2007, three men had to wear a chicken suit and carry a sign for three hours at the PMC parking lot on Richmond Street. The sign said, "No Chicken Ranch in Painesville." (Read more at http://on.wews.com/QGughQ )

In 2005, a woman was sentenced to spend a night in the woods for dumping 33 kittens. Cicconetti said he wanted her to feel the same pain as the kittens she neglected. (See the sentencing handed down at http://on.wews.com/W5nlQJ )

In 2004, a blindfolded teen sat out his sentence with a sign reading "See no evil."
"I'm thankful that Judge Cicconetti gave me an opportunity instead of jail time." The 18-year-old sat quietly across the street from the adult video store where he was caught stealing porn. (See his picture at http://on.wews.com/T1jjps )

In 2003, a couple who destroyed a church's statue of the baby Jesus was sentenced to lead a donkey through the streets with an apology sign saying: "Sorry for the jackass offense." (Read more at http://on.wews.com/SVqJs4 )

In 2002, a man who hollered "pigs" to police officers had to stand on a Painesville street corner next to a pig after he made obscene hand gestures when police were in his neighborhood on a disturbance call. He also yelled "pigs." (Read more at http://on.wews.com/UoOU1f )

In the past, Cicconetti has made a man charged with playing his car stereo too loudly sit in the woods in order to appreciate silence.

He also made a group of high school students who vandalized school buses throw a picnic for a group of grade-school students whose picnic was canceled because of the stunt.

Cicconetti also made some teens who threw rocks at cars from a bridge hold a giant sign on a busy road at Christmas saying what they did and that they were sorry.