Ponytail chopped off to reduce sentence - fair?

A CBS News report has revealed that a mother cut off her daughter's ponytail in court in an odd sentencing offer.

However, after chopping off her daughter's hair in court, the mom, Valerie Bruno, has filed complaints against the judge for offering the sentence.

Bruno's daughter was facing all sort of problems in court, the teenager and an 11-year-old friend were referred to juvenile court for cutting off the hair of a 3-year-old girl with scissors.

The two were also under charges of harassing another girl in Colorado by telephone.

For cutting the hair of the 3-year old, the judge decided he would offer an eye for an eye type of proposal to Bruno.

The crime...

The older girls reportedly cut off the 3-year old's hair at a McDonald's.

When the toddler's mom noticed her daughter's hair was chopped off, she called police.

"I didn't want them to think they got away with it ... It was malicious," Mindy Moss, mother of the 3-year-old whose hair was cut off, said.

Surveillance video from the McDonald's helped identify the 13-year-old.

In court...

The 13-year old was ordered to serve 30 days in detention and to perform 276 hours of community service - which the judge said he would reduce by 150 hours if the ponytail was cut in his courtroom.

Mom agreed, but now has had second thoughts.

"I guess I should have went into the courtroom knowing my rights, because I felt very intimidated," she told the Deseret News.

"An eye for an eye, that's not how you teach kids right from wrong."

Chop, chop...

The 3-year old's mother said she approved of the sentence and even spoke up during the hearing when she felt Bruno had not cut off enough of her daughter's hair.

7th District Juvenile Judge Scott Johansen then directed Bruno to cut the ponytail all the way "to the rubber band."

It is unclear why, but the 11-year old girl also cut her hair short for a sentence reduction, but she was allowed to go to a salon.

Criticism...

Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University doesn't like the offer.

"I fail to see how the court reducing itself to the level of a 13-year-old teaches a moral let alone legal lesson," Turley said. "The court was doing precisely what the 13-year-old did to a child."

What do you think of the punishment offer by the judge?