Ohio Man Holds 'Idiot' Sign as Punishment for Threatening Police Officers
A man who called 911 and threatened to kill several officers while in a drunken stupor was ordered by a judge to be publicly shamed and humiliated as part of his sentence.
Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Pinkey Carr thought the best punishment for 58-year-old Richard Dameron after he called 911 to threaten a retired police officer and four other police officers in the beginning of this year.
To fulfill the terms of the punishment, Dameron was ordered to stand outside the Cleveland Police's Second District Headquarters bearing a sign that read: "I apologize to officer Simone & all police officers for being an idiot calling 911 threatening to kill you. I'm sorry and it will not happen again."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Dameron did admit to threatening he officers and gave an honest answer as to why he acted in such as way.
"I was drunk. I was drinking," Dameron said.
"I was under the influence of alcohol, very deeply into it," he told WKYC. "We just got to rambling, acting like fools. I do feel bad about it, cause the man's never done nothing to me."
Judge Carr handed down the punishment back in May, but sent him to jail when he failed to fulfil the obligations of his sentence. Once released from jail, Dameron now has to wear the sign for three hours every day this week.
Carr has handed down similar punishments before. In November she ordered Shena Hardin to bear an "idiot" sign after the 32-year-old swerved onto the sidewalk to avoid a school bus.
"Only an idiot would drive on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus," that sign read.
