ATLANTA (Web Desk) – A sanitation worker in an Atlanta suburb has been sentenced to 30 days in jail for working too early.
Kevin McGill had been working for only a few months for a company contracted to do sanitation work in Sandy Springs when he was cited for picking up trash just after 5 a.m. one morning, according to WSB-TV.
That violated a city ordinance which limits trash pickup to between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. The statute is in place because residents have complained that early pick-up disrupts their sleep.
When McGill showed up to court to answer the citation, Sandy Springs prosecutor Bill Riley sought the maximum punishment against him — 30 days in jail.
And in a trashy move, a judge granted Riley the request.
“Fines don’t seem to work,” Riley told WSB. “The only thing that seems to stop the activity is actually going to jail.”
Riley, who jailed another sanitation worker for the same infraction last year, said that residents swamp 911 with calls when trash pick-up occurs too early in the morning.
“The solicitor said it’s automatic jail time,” McGill told WSB. “He didn’t want to hear nothing I had to say. I said it’s my first time.”
“I was stunned. I didn’t know what to think. I was shocked,” he added.
McGill, a family man, did not have an attorney during his sentencing. He pleaded no contest and took the punishment, agreeing to serve his 30 days spread out on the weekends. He began serving the sentence last weekend and will do so for 14 more.
“I just want this to be over with,” McGill told WSB. “I’m away from my family, my wife, and she’s got to take care of the two little boys and I have four dogs.”
McGill has an attorney now, and she believes the sentence is too harsh.
“Give him a warning,” the lawyer, Kimberly Bandoh, told WSB. “I mean he’s the employee. He’s not the employer. Sentencing him to jail is doing what?”
But Riley appears to be unmoved, saying that McGill, and not his employer, is responsible for operating his own garbage truck.
“The company doesn’t start that truck up,” Riley told WSB. “The company doesn’t drive that truck down the street.”
