Woman Sentenced for Friend's Cell Call

Michigan Woman Gets 30 Days in Jail After Friend's Cell Call Outside Home
ABC
Dec. 08, 2006

A 23-year-old woman ticketed by police after a friend was talking on a cell phone outside her home following a barbecue has landed in jail for violating the city's noise ordinance.

Judge Norene Redmond of 38th District Court last month sentenced Carmen Granata to 30 days in jail after she pleaded guilty to the violation. A petition signed by neighbors complained that the home was the site of frequent parties.

Granata was ticketed after her friend was talking on her front porch about 4 a.m. Nov. 5. Police in the Detroit suburb had been to the home twice in the previous 12 hours and at 1 a.m. had told people to go into the home.

Her family calls the punishment outrageous, The Macomb Daily of Mount Clemens, the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News reported. The family has hired a lawyer to try to have the plea thrown out.

"If my daughter had done something to deserve to be in jail, I wouldn't have a problem with it," said Granata's father, Joe Granata, 50, of Warren. "But this is insane."

Lori Shemka, the court's administrator, said neither she nor Redmond will comment on the case because it was still pending.

Carmen Granata also was sentenced to two years of probation with daily breath tests for alcohol and two years of drug tests on a random date each month.

She has been allowed to leave the Macomb County Jail for work as a veterinarian technician and is scheduled to be released Dec. 15.