Judge Orders Cutting of Ponytail as Punishment - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.

In an unusual and controversial decision, a judge in Utah ordered a 13 year old female to have her hair cut in court as punishment. Kaytlen Lopan and a friend had become friendly with a three year old child in a local McDonald’s restaurant, when the two obtained some scissors and took turns chopping the young toddlers hair off. While in court, the judge offered Lopan’s mother, Valerie Bruno a deal: cut her ponytail off and she will receive a shorter sentence. Bruno took the deal using court appointed scissors and cut the hair while a judge and crowd watched. The story doesn’t end there; now the mother has filed a complaint against the judge claiming she felt ‘intimidated’.

In recent years judges have tried alternative forms of punishment. A Florida woman was ordered to stand in front of a court house with a sign reading ‘I stole from a local store.’ after being caught as lookout for a friend stealing from Wal-Mart. A woman from Ohio was ordered by a judge to live in the woods for one night without food or water after abandoning kittens in a park.