Sentencing for lovers: Florida judge orders date night with flowers, seafood dinner, bowling instead of jail

Thanks to Joe Palazzolo and this post at the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, I learned about a remarkable (and appealing story) out of Florida involving a creating sentencing.  This local article, headlined “Flowers, dinner, bowling — and counseling — ordered by Broward judge in domestic case,” provides the details:

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. “It was a minor incident, in the court’s opinion,” he said. “The court would not normally do that if the court felt there was some violence but this is very, very minor and the court felt that that was a better resolution than other alternatives.”…

A woman who identified herself as Bray’s wife attended the hearing and explained that the couple’s argument started on Monday after her husband didn’t acknowledge her birthday. Hurley asked her is she was hurt or in any fear of her husband. After she said she wasn’t, and Hurley confirmed that Bray had no prior arrests, the judge continued his questioning with a lighter tone.

“Do you have something you like to go to?” he asked. “Is there a restaurant you like to go to?” The woman answered that she enjoyed bowling and eating at Red Lobster. And so the judge made his decision accordingly. “Flowers, birthday card, Red Lobster, bowling,” Hurley said. He also ordered that the couple begin seeing a marriage counselor within a week.

Everyone must watch the linked video of the proceedings (available here) before commenting or coming to judgment on this matter.  Watching that video makes obvious why the judge is described as “perceptive” in the local news account and provides a good example of why I am often a fan of creative sentencing.  That said, I have a feeling there will be somebody (perhaps a reader of this blog or some public policy group) that will not be entirely pleased with how this matter was adjudicated.  Still, with Valentine’s Day only days away, I cannot help but have a warm feeling about this sentencing story.

UPDATE:  A reader in the comments has rightly noted that this proceeding was a bond hearing, not a sentencing.  That importance technicality does not diminish my appreciation and affinity for judges who creatively pursue alternatives to incarceration in the right settings.