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What began as a young South Florida woman’s defiant profanity and waving of the middle finger to a judge earlier this week turned into an etiquette lesson Friday — when the tearful woman publicly apologized for her behavior.
Penelope Soto’s flipping the bird at Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jorge Rodriguez-Chomat on Monday had landed her a 30-day jail sentence for contempt of court, and it drew national headlines as a video of it went viral online.
But Friday, 18-year-old Soto was solemn as she acknowledged to Rodriguez-Chomat that she was wrong for insulting him. Her lawyer and relatives stood next to her as she apologized.
"My behavior was very irrational, and I apologize not only to the court and you, but to my family,” Penelope Soto told Rodriguez-Chomat.
Responding to her apology, Rodriguez-Chomat dropped the 30-day contempt sentence he had imposed on her when she first appeared before him on a Xanax possession charge.
Among the reasons he cited for dropping her contempt sentence were her being a first-time offender, her admission that she had abused Xanax, her willingness to overcome her addiction by attending a drug-treatment program and her apology.
Rodriguez-Chomat said Soto wasn’t entirely to blame for her behavior.
“I should not even call you as totally responsible. We live in a society where if you listen to music, every other word is a profanity,” Rodriguez-Chomat said. “We live in a society where young people like you feel like it’s perfectly OK to call all kinds of names to their teachers and their professors and their friends. And they think that’s OK.”
Rodriguez-Chomat continued: “We live in a society where police officers are abused on a daily basis, mostly by young people who believe it’s OK to call policemen all kinds of names. That’s totally unacceptable.”
Rodriguez-Chomat also did away with the $10,000 bond he had set, enabling Soto to be released from jail straight from the courtroom.
Soto’s lawyer also publicly apologized on her client’s behalf and said Soto was impaired by her ingestion of drugs and alcohol before she acted out in court Monday.
“That impairment, even though I don’t condone her actions, led her to the conduct that was contemptuous before you,” Soto’s lawyer said.
Soto’s legal case began Sunday, when authorities arrested her after she allegedly told them she was “on Xanax bars” and three green baggies filled with Xanax were found in her purse, an arrest affidavit said.
At Monday’s hearing, Soto smiled and stroked her hair, and laughed when Rodriguez-Chomat asked her about her jewelry and other assets for the purposes of setting her bond amount.
"It's not a joke, you know. We're not in a club now," Rodriguez-Chomat told her at the time. "We are not in a club. Be serious about it."
"I'm serious about it. You just made me laugh," Soto replied. "You just made me laugh. I apologize. It's worth a lot of money."
Rodriguez-Chomat had initially set her bond at $5,000 and said "bye-bye," and Soto laughed and replied "Adios." Rodriguez-Chomat summoned her back and raised her bond to $10,000, shocking Soto.
"Are you serious?" she asked.
"I am serious. Adios."
Soto started to walk away when she flipped Rodriguez-Chomat the middle finger and blurted "[expletive] you."
She was called back again, and Rodriguez-Chomat handed down the 30-day contempt sentence.
At Friday's hearing, Soto paused as she apologized because she began to tear up.
“Don’t cry,” the judge told her.
With tears, Soto smiled briefly at the judge.
“Oh, I made you laugh, but it’s all right,” he said. He asked her to keep going with her apology. “Go ahead, tell me,” he said.
She said, “I normally don’t act like that,” then she sighed.
The judge asked whether she took any Xanax the day she was arrested. She said, “Yes, I did. Two.”
The judge told Soto he hoped she had learned several lessons since Monday.
“Lesson No. 1 is that drugs can put you in a very difficult situation,” he said. “It is because of your use of Xanax -- which I understand is a party drug -- can put you, convert you, make you a felon, a convicted felon.”
He continued: “It can put you in a county jail like you have been.”
As Friday’s hearing concluded, the judge wished Soto well.
“Good luck to you, Miss Soto,” he said. “I really do hope that you learned your lesson.”
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I never read all these microcephalic mentality posts but I feel her Attorney should be sentenced to $10,000.00 in fines and 30 days in jail. Why on earth if she was arrested on sun. would her Attorney even let her appear before any Judge whatsoever on mon. the very next day when she was still under the influence of Xanax and alcohol? Her Attorney even admitted it according to this article.
Now therefore it appears that her testimony should/could have been ruled legally inadmissible in any court of law if she was still under the influence of neuroleptics, psychotropic, psychoactive meds. such as Xanax I believe related to Valium and also if her blood alcohol level was still over 0.08. Surely if she was on both of them at same time frame she could have been given until wed. or thursday to sober up a bit before appearing before any Judge. Dependent on how much Xanax and alcohol was in her body it takes time for these drugs to get out of the system (and how long she has been ingesting drugs and the condition of her liver and kidneys). Geez give the teen a break, put her in a drug rehabilitation program.........but not in front of a Judge only a few hours after she was arrested while still under the influence of these powerful drugs.......................
And this is news why exactly?
It's time to decide. Is an 18 year old an adult or not? Maybe we need to rethink it. There was a time when it was 21. Looking at the way our society is coddling so called adults, maybe we should bump it up to 26. After all that's what the ACA thinks is the maximum age you can cover your, "child", under the parents medical insurance.
I'm glad I made my children understand that 18 was there time to take charge of their Life. They had serious choices to make. At 18 either they needed to be working 40 hours a week, going to a university full time or both in order to remain at home. If they chose to work and needed to remain at home, than they would need to pay rent, utilities and food. Full time university and maintain a B average or better to remain at home.
I began telling them about the choices that they needed to make at a early age. As they grew older both realized that going to a university and living away from home was the best choice. They succeeded at school and are now following their dreams. In addition they can be proud that they did it on their own.
This 18 year old in the article? She has the odds against her that she'll live to 21. If she does the odds are even greater she'll be a repeat offender.
The odds of her getting her act together and staying sober. For all addicts and alcoholics the odds are not in their favor. It takes a real desire and effort to stay clean and sober especially at her age. The fact our society calls the medication xanax, xanax bars is part of the problem. Glorifying illicit drug use only keeps the undertakers and morgues that much more busy. Good Luck to her.
A couple of low level spIks,,who cares
"I'm sorry". . . that's it ??? That's all it took??? Sentence suspended. Save me. This judge not only caved . . . he contributed to the likelihood that this kid never owns up.
Agree....30 days would have taught her something, and maybe sobered her up.
A punk kid
There are two issues here. The young woman's use of "adios", though a bit informal for use in a courtroom setting, is very possibly common usage for her as she is Hispanic. Literally translated, it means "go with God".
That said, there are some things you DO NOT DO when in front of a judge. Obscene gestures and language are two of the biggies. Both show disrespect not only for the judge, but for the court itself. The judge has the option of imposing a contempt sentence not merely out of perceived personal offense, but out of the lack of respect for the court and by implication everyone else who will appear there. Few judges will tolerate that. I once watched a local "take no prisoners" judge hand down a six month sentence for contempt after a defendant behaved in a similar manner. Said defendant had gotten a raw deal from an incompetent attorney, but that was NOT the judge's fault, or the court's. I hope he learned his lesson.
I do have to question the amount of bail imposed. I have seen violent offenders released on less--even on "supervised release" without bail. Common sense has little to do with the conditions imposed on defendants who are arrested for the possession of drugs. Certainly doubling someone's bail over an "adios" is excessive.
This judge should not have backed down.This young lady needs a reality check and 30 days may have done the trick.She'll play the drug rehab game and go right back on drugs.Shame on her and shame on her parents for raising this little snot nosed brat.
Wise? A wise judge would not be so arrogant in the initial encounter that triggered the reaction from the girl. I would fire the judge if I could. It seems the judge was more interested in being witty than in being wise. The judge redeemed himself in the second encounter but it need not have gotten that far. People in authority need to stop with the power trip and respect citizens. It's judges, cops, politicians.
Let me guess, you work and have children (or did) in daycare while you worked on your career? CHILDREN need to be taught to respect others period. You are a jack***.
I wonder if Phantom got caught parking in a handicapped parking space.
This is the youth that will be taking care of us when we are old. Good job parents who decide to have children and both work then put them in daycare and in front of the TV or video games. If you cannot afford to have children, DO NOT HAVE THEM!!! Tax payers end up taking care of them in prison and welfare....that is if they do not kill us outright.
No, they'll be stealing our pain medication when we're old. When our discs have failed, and our pain is a solid "10", they'll be pursuing jobs in geriatric care, because it gives them access to drugs that make them giggle- at someone else's cost.
It's already happening. If your loved ones are in care facilities and seem to be in pain even though they are prescribed serious narcotic pain medication, it's probably not because they just spontaneously "got weak" in their old age when it comes to dealing with pain- remember, The Greatest Generation did not get that name by accident- they really are as tough as the stories.
Sure, anything to get out the higher bail and jail sentence then will later brag about how she dissed the judge and schmoozed her way with no jail time afterwards. At this point she was willing to say anything to stay out of jail, her apology was well crafted by her ambulance chaser.
It won't seem quite as cute after she's pooped out a rainbow of four off-spring over the next three years with no husband in sight, and she's tucking her banana boobs into her belt. Not to mention the "wide load" sign strapped across her double-sized cellulite-riddled butt.
Of course, she's to blame for her own behavior! There's this little thing known as 'personal responsibility.' She was a rude, disrespectful brat. Letting her off will just teach her that it's all right to act that way.
She should have been made to serve every one of those 30 days. Saying 'sorry' and crying is worthless.
I can almost guarantee you all she learned was to say the right thing and you'll get what you want..saying im sorry doesn't mean anything if you back off from the consequences...all its going to teach her is if you say you're sorry then you wont receive any punishment