Judge’s Design for Probation Suits Thief to a T-shirt

A Tulare man with a long criminal record avoided a prison term for stealing beer from a grocery by agreeing to wear a T-shirt that reads “I’m on Felony Probation. . . . My record plus two six-packs equal four years” at all times for a year.

The shirt was designed by Visalia Superior Court Judge Howard Broadman, who in a hearing earlier this week also ordered Russell Allen Hackler, 29, to check in with the court daily and to attend three Alcoholics Anonymous meetings a week.

Hackler’s prior convictions include robbery, burglary and auto theft.

Broadman said he did not want to impose another prison term.

“I am horribly bothered by the prospect of spending $80,000 for putting you in prison for stealing these two six-packs of beer,” the judge told Hackler. “(Regular) probation hasn’t worked. And we have sent you to prison before.”

Broadman admitted that he was using humiliation to punish, as was done in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s early American novel, “The Scarlet Letter,” in which adulteress Hester Prynne had to wear a red “A.”

“If you are willing to be Hester Prynne for the next year, I am going to give you probation,” the judge said.