George McCovery dropped 25 pounds in 20 days on the “lose-a-pound, gain-a-day” plan suggested by Lake County, Florida Judge Donna Miller, but he wouldn’t necessarily recommend the diet to others.
Miller, who sentenced 37 year old McCovery, earlier this month for driving with a suspended license, promised the 345-pound hypertensive man that she would shrink his stay at the Lake County Jail by one day for every pound he lost while in custody.
After 20 days in the slammer, where he limited his intake mostly to vegetables on his dinner tray, he weighed in Monday at 320 pounds, and Miller cut him loose early — in time for turkey-day sweet-potato pie at home in West Palm Beach.
“It’s not easy to lose weight. I thought he’d lose 5, maybe, 6 pounds — not 25,” said Miller, 64, who has often dished out creative sentences during her 17 years as a county judge. “It’s like [sentencing] someone in a drug case. I’d much rather have them stop doing drugs than send them to jail. I hope I can help.”
“She gave me a chance to prove myself, and I didn’t want to let her down,” he said. Judge Donna Miller, whose courtroom proceedings are replayed in the TV show “Lake Courts,” is famous for her unusual sentence deals.
In her 17 years as a judge, Miller has ordered defendants to start jogging, take a dance class, tutor math and write Christmas cards.
“I do what I do to try to change the person in front of me,” she said, acknowledging that her self-improvement sentences won’t be doled out to everyone. “If the person needs jail, they get jail.”
McCovery, who takes medication for high blood pressure, said he wanted to lose weight during the trial. But it isn’t easy. Although McCovery lost more than a pound a day, experts say slow and steady weight loss is the best way to shed the pounds for good.
Good for him!
What do you think? Is this a good program?
via BlackMediaScoop
