Michael Cicconetti

Michael A. Cicconetti (born 1951) is a Municipal Court judge in Painesville, Lake County, Ohio, United States, who dispenses a unique brand of what he calls creative justice. The judge often leaves the choice of penalty to the defendant, who is faced with spending time in jail or undergoing one of Cicconetti's unusual punishments. These often involve placing the defendant in a similar position to that of the defendant's victim at the time of the crime. Cicconetti's first creative sentence, which involved a violation relating to a stopped school bus, occurred in the mid-1990s. Famously he offered 26-year-old Ohio housewife Michelle Murray the option (in return for a reduced prison sentence) of spending a night in the woods for abandoning 35 kittens in a forest in wintertime; he said: "You don't do that. You don't leave these poor little animals out and, yes, I wanted to set an example for her future conduct or anybody else who was contemplating doing such a thing". On other occasions he ordered noisy neighbors to spend a day of silence in the forest or listen to classical music instead of rock. In all cases the judge attempts to place a link between the perpetrated offense and its punishment. Due in part to the popularity of his actions, he has been re-elected since January 1994, and also won the presidency of the American Judges Association. He attributes his unusual approach to his background. He is an Eagle Scout, earning the award in 1964, as a member of Scout Troop 64 in Painesville, Ohio. He was the oldest of nine siblings who had to work on ore boats throughout the Great Lakes as a deckhand and deckwatch to fund himself through college. After graduating from St. Leo University, he became Clerk of the Painesville Municipal Court while attending Cleveland State University Law School at night.Many of the victims, but also defendants, claim that his unusual approach has helped them to cope with their problems and the judge is reportedly inundated with letters from