The worst punishment most children endure for cursing is getting their mouths washed out with soap. For LaRue Ford, a 49-year-old woman, the punishment was much steeper: 11 days in jail.
Ford visited the county clerk's office at the courthouse in Niles, Mich., on Dec. 4, to pay off all her old parking tickets before she moved to Indiana. WOOD-TV reports she cursed to herself after learning her fine would be $50 more than she anticipated -- words which landed her both in contempt of court and in the slammer.
According to the the Herald Palladium, Ford posted a $500 bond that day and walked free, only to be re-arrested on Dec. 18 when she couldn't provide a permanent address, and Judge Dennis Wiley raised her bond to $5,000 cash.
Unable to secure the $5,000, Ford spent almost two weeks in jail, a stint that kept her locked up over Christmas, and would have lasted longer were it not for John Targowski, an ACLU lawyer who filed an emergency motion Dec. 28 seeking to reduce Ford's bond requirements and drop the charges, according to the report.
The motion liberated Ford that day, but her case is far from over. Raw Story notes that she'll be back in court in January to face down the "contempt" accusations.
The profane words were reportedly "F--k this s--t," according to WKZO, which also reports Ford has a master's degree in social work and doesn't have a prior criminal record.