Municipal Court Judge Paul Sacco, 45, is a firm believer in making the punishment fit the crime. "Sentencing is an art," he says, "not a science." So whenever a teenager—or even an adult—violates the town's ordinance against loud music, Sacco sentences them to a dose of their own medicine—a full hour of listening to music they hate.
"We have a lot of boom boxes in town and a lot of seniors who can't handle rap," says Patrice Red Earth, Fort Lupton's court coordinator and Sacco's collaborator in making young offenders face the Muzak. "There were a lot of complaints."
Not anymore. Last month, the room where Sacco's cruel and very unusual punishment is meted out didn't have a single customer. "We were never real serious about this," says Sacco, "but we felt that if they would respond to it, it would be perfect justice." In four months, more than 50 people have opted for what Sacco calls the Music Immersion Program, in lieu of paying a $65 fine, and there hasn't been a single case of recidivism.
The one-hour tape that makes kids think twice before they crank up the volume runs the gamut of non-hipness from Manilow to Wayne Newton, interspersed with classical and New Age music and, most feared (shudder), Barney.
That's scary enough for David Mascarenas, 17, who went through the program in February after being pulled over for blasting his car radio. "If I ever get caught again," he says, "I'd rather pay the $65."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
