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School resource officer charged with child neglect

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by hondo, Jun 4, 2019.

  1. CD Boogie

    CD Boogie Well-Known Member

    comma, comma, comma, comma, comma-chameleon, he comes and goes, he comes and goes.
     
  2. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    That's the only crime I see here.
     
    justgladtobehere and poindexter like this.
  3. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    Ir's been, what, 16 months since the shootings, and are we even close to putting the suspect on trial? Is this unusual in such cases?
     
  4. britwrit

    britwrit Well-Known Member

    So much for the free market. For $104.000 a year in public money, this is who I want guarding my (ok, non-existent) kids:

    [​IMG]

    This is what we got:

    [​IMG]
     
    poindexter likes this.
  5. maumann

    maumann Well-Known Member

    As the resident convict on here (and yes, I've promised to write that story but it's actually difficult to revisit it -- and I remember everything while trying to forget it ever happened), let me explain what the District Attorney's role is.

    As a public official, his No. 1 priority is to get re-elected. That's it in a nutshell.

    In order to do that, he has to not lose cases, particularly high-publicity ones like this, because that's the kind of thing that voters don't like to see. In fact, the DA is the government official's version of a car salesmen. His primary goal is to settle as many cases as possible without trial, by piling up as many charges as he can given the reports and accounts, getting the county's grand jury to rubber-stamp it, then negotiating from a position of strength via plea bargains with defense attorneys.

    In my superior court circuit, the four county DAs probably plea bargain 98 percent of all cases where the defendant doesn't immediately plead guilty. With one judge, there's no way you'd ever get a "fair and speedy" trial. Even in my case, the DA took nearly two years to finally bring the case to a preliminary hearing where we even knew what the possible maximum sentence might be: six felony counts, $30,000 restitution and 15 years max in a state penitentiary. Needless to say, we didn't agree to anything near that.

    Side note: There's not a correctional facility in the country where inmates are "behind bars." But I digress.

    The Broward County DA isn't stupid. He knows putting this guy on trial is probably a lose-lose situation. Even if he gets a jury to convict, there's no way the judge agrees to full sentence for a first-time offender (particularly an ex-deputy) and DA will appear as if the guy got off light. If the jury acquits Peterson on any of the charges, it's even worse for the prosecution. So the DA tosses the maximum sentence as a starting point and expects to work a deal that gets a "no contest" plea on lesser counts with little or no time served.

    What the district attorney cannot do is add civil penalties, with the exception of personal injury cases like assault. The judge, on the other hand, can do almost anything within limits at sentencing. He or she can accept or reject any plea bargain or add or subtract any number of requirements for Peterson to follow. However, because any case can be appealed, the judge has to be very careful not to set precedent that could throw the entire case out at a higher level.

    So the DA and the judge probably can't touch the guy's retirement benefits, even for restitution. However, if the Florida State Public Employee's Retirement Association wanted to file a civil suit against Peterson, perhaps they could be successful in eliminating or reducing his claim if there's a criminal conviction. Social Security, for one, will withhold benefits if you are incarcerated.
     
    Last edited: Jun 7, 2019
    Donny in his element likes this.
  6. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Gotta love the way Western media writes these stories.

    MOSCOW (AP) --- After years of increasing assertiveness by Russia’s military in waters and airspace around its borders, a Russian destroyer nearly collided Friday with a U.S. warship in the waters of the Philippine Sea.

    Russia is being assertive . . . around its own borders.
    And how close to the Philippine Sea are the borders of the United States?

    People write this shit with a straight face?
     
  7. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

  8. justgladtobehere

    justgladtobehere Well-Known Member

    Criminalizing inaction is very difficult and shouldn't be regarded lightly. This instance is quite distant from any example hat should be criminalized.
     
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