Associated Press
LEBANON, Pa. — A woman who had been ordered to wear a badge that read "convicted shoplifter" can throw away the label, a state court ruled.
The Superior Court said the 4-inch red badge was not "reasonably related" to Regina Zimmerman’s rehabilitation.
Zimmerman, 27, had already been convicted three times of shoplifting when she admitted in January 2001 to taking hair care and facial products worth $66 from a grocery store.
Besides demanding that she wear the badge, Judge Bradford Charles sentenced her to one year of probation and ordered her to undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation.
Her attorney, Scott Stein, had compared the badge to "The Scarlet Letter" in his appeal. In the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a woman is forced to wear a large "A" as punishment for adultery.
Zimmerman never wore the shoplifting badge, instead having others do her shopping after she left prison.
Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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