The "Justice" system fails again

I have a bad rap with so-called "Law and Order" types because I won't bend to their fawning "our cops and prosecutors, right or wrong" view of law enforcement. This story (hat tip: Debra Farver) puts into perspective exactly WHY I think the system should be examined with higher scrutiny.

First, the basics of the story.

The festive atmosphere of Fourth of July celebrations turned somber as Tacoma police were called to investigate the kidnapping of a 12-year-old girl. Zina Linnik was last seen walking in an alley behind her parents house at around 9:45 p.m. on July 4, 2007.

A witness heard a girl scream, looked in the alley and saw an unknown Asian male get into an older model, gray van and drive away. Authorities issued an AMBER Alert. Police say that the Washington license plate of the van contained the numbers 677 or 667.

An Amber alert was issued the next day (more on that later). But it was for naught.

Tacoma Police announced they found the body of 12-year-old Zina Linnik in Pierce County. The information came from a sex offender arrested earlier this week.

Sad. Very sad.

But "sad" wouldn't be the dominant emotion for long. First, that little passage about Zina's death -- the information came from a sex offender. That's a story all by itself. Meet Terapon Adhahn, child rapist and murderer.

Thai national, Terapon Dang Adhahn, a 42-year-old construction worker, who has legal US residency on a green card...a convicted sex offender and pedophile

How'd he get the label "sex offender" in the first place?

Adhahn...was convicted of incest in 1990 for violently raping his 16-year-old half-sister.

Yeah. You read that correctly. He violently raped his own sister.

And how did our "Justice System" deal with Mr. Adhahn after he brutalized his sister? After all, he had committed a heinous, violent crime. And, while he was a legal alien, he was STILL an alien, subject to deportation. Not to worry, sez "Justice".

During therapy, when he was again diagnosed as having an “extremely problematic” personality, it is considered that the authorities were negligent in not recognizing the danger. He was only classified as a level I, or low risk sex offender.

Not deported. Not classified as a dangerous offender, notwithstanding the considered opinion of Psych professionals. Not given an appropriate jail sentence (only 2 months behind bars).

After he was arrested for the murder of Zina Linnik, he was linked with still more acts of violence and murder.

According to the Pierce County Proescutor’s Office , Adhahn was booked into the Pierce County Jail on one count of kidnapping and three counts of first degree child rape for the May 31, 2000 kidnapping and rape of an 11-year-old girl who was found duct taped to a tree at Fort Lewis.

Adhahn has also been booked on one count of first degree rape, three counts of second degree rape and three counts of third degree child rape involving a girl who lived with him in Spanaway between 2001 and 2005. Probable cause documents indicate the girl told investigators that she was raped once or twice a week and that the total number of rapes was somewhere between 150 and 200. In some of the cases the girl, who lived with Adhahn between the ages of 12- and 15-years-old, told police she would sometimes be restrained. She said she ran away after the last rape in which she allegedly told Adhahn “No, I’m not doing that anymore.” The documents say “the defendant pointed a gun on her and told her to ‘shut up and just do it.”"

More allegations followed.

The man suspected of killing 12-year-old Zina Linnik has been named as a person of interest in the death of Adre’Anna Jackson, who was found dead in a Pierce County field in 2006.

Lakewood Police Lt. Dave Guttu said officers went back and showed Terapon Adhahn’s photo to residents in the Tillicum neighborhood where Adre’Anna lived, and several people said they saw him in the area around the time Adre’Anna disappeared.

All this because he wasn't given an adequate jail sentence, nor was he deported, nor was he recognized by law enforcement as the vile sociopath he is.

Fail.

But the "Fail" had only begun by that point. Remember the Amber Alert? It wasn't issued until SIX HOURS after the girl was reported missing. Why? The official reason given back in 2007 was "continuing police work".

Uh, about that.

Police Department spokesman Mark Fulghum was on-call during the early morning hours of July 5, 2007, when he went back to sleep instead of issuing the [Amber] alert as requested.

You read that right. He went back to sleep. FFS.

Surely he was fired, or at minimum suspended without pay, or reprimanded, or something, right? NOT.

Tacoma Police Sergeant Mark Fulghum won't be disciplined in any way following an on-the-job nap that delayed the issuance of an AMBER Alert for Zina Linnik by six hours after she was kidnapped and later killed by deranged sex-offender Terapon Adhahn in 2007.

It was only after the public outcry reached Biblical scale that a reprimand was issued. Sort of.

In a sudden about-face, Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson announced Friday that he has reprimanded Police Chief Don Ramsdell for withholding information regarding the Zina Linnik investigation.

The reprimand does not concern the chief’s misleading of the news media about why the issuance of an Amber Alert was delayed after the 12-year-old girl was abducted July 4, 2007.

A reprimand against the Chief for lying to the City Manager, NOT for lying to the general public. No reprimand against Sgt. Fulghum for sleeping on the job, either. Nice.

And what of Sgt. Fulghum? Has the public outcry caught up with him. Not exactly.

Fulghum...remains on duty while the internal investigation runs its course. He has not been disciplined for his handling of the Amber Alert.

Nor do I expect him to be. Lapdog local media will be complicit in it: his "exoneration" will be buried in the paper on page D-11, next to the Want Ads, where John Q. Public will be most likely to miss it. Local TV news might mention it 15 minutes into the broadcast in what should be about a 20-second news item. Not a knock on the media. It just won't strike them as news-worthy. Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen are out there doing something more important, after all.

"Our cops and prosecutors, right or wrong"? Not me. Law enforcement needs to get its house in order before that will ever happen for me or anyone thinking past the end of their nose.

Law and Order UK

The other evening I was relaxing in Vulture Manor with Deadeye watching an episode of Law and Order UK. The BBC version of this venerable franchise is, IMO, every bit as good as if not better than the original was back in the 90's.

Okay, I watched TV. What does that have to do with anything?

The episode in question unfolded with what police at first thought was a copycat murderer mimicking a convicted white supremacist serial killer (hereinafter referred to as "Whitey"). When they found the killer, they received quite a surprise: the murderer was a black Jamaican, the murders weren't racially motivated at all (the killer was channeling "commands from God"), and, the biggest bombshell of all, he wasn't a copycat. He was the killer behind all of the murders for which Whitey was convicted!

This is where the course of justice, UK version, diverged sharply from the course of justice, USA version.

Whitey was freed right away. That makes perfect sense, right? Except that in the US, once it's been established that you're innocent, you're lucky if you don't wait months for someone to get around to issuing orders for you to be freed. If at all.

Then the solicitor (attorney) for Whitey dropped an accusation that the Crown Prosecutor (DA) had spiked exculpatory evidence in Whitey's original trial that would have cast doubt about his guilt in the murders. The CP was actually brought up on criminal charges of perverting the course of justice as a result of this single accusation. Stop for a moment and ponder that. A prosecutor was charged with the crime of perversion of justice as a result of an accusation of withholding exculpatory evidence. Whoa!

It got me thinking. Why in the name of all that is holy is there no such statute on the books in any jurisdiction in the US for the crime of perversion of justice? Why is it that DA's in the US can run roughshod over the rights of the accused, prosecute individuals they know to be innocent, and hide or manufacture evidence without fear of any sort of consequences? Lest you think I'm exaggerating or simply spewing hyperbole, I suggest you take a nice long look at actual evidence of prosecutorial mischief. Spend a half hour at Will Grigg's place. Or at William Anderson's place.You'll swear that I've understated the problem by half.

Until US prosecutors are held to the same high standard as Crown Prosecutors, we can expect innocents to continue to be sacrificed on the altar of some scumbag prosecutor's career aspirations. One day it might be you.

Let the punishment fit the crime

There are numerous - far too numerous - cases where the punishment flat out doesn't fit the crime. Murderers who get 8 years. The guy who sells a bag of weed with just over an ounce in it gets 15 years.

But this is clearly a case where the proposed punishment is more than appropriate.

Lawmakers and residents engaged in heated debate Tuesday over a bill that would make random airport security pat-downs and body scans criminal in New Hampshire.

The bill (HB628-FN) "makes the touching or viewing with a technological device of a person’s breasts or genitals by a government security agent without probable cause a sexual assault," according to the introductory text of the bill.

"Let's put their name on the sex offender registry, and maybe that will tell them New Hampshire means business," said bill co-sponsor Rep. Andrew Manuse, R-Derry.

"That is a crime in this state, and we should charge them every single time," said bill co-sponsor Rep. George Lambert, R-Litchfield.

Yes! Let's brand those TSSA* perverts with the scarlet 'S' for 'sex offender'! Let's make sure that those trolls understand that "No means no"!


* You can't abbreviate Schutzstaffel without the double 'S'

Once again, NWA was right

'cause a cop think a badge give him the authority to kill a minority.
NWA, F*** tha police

Some time back, I referenced a tragic shooting in the Seattle area of a Native American man by a police officer donut-eating self-important bully. John T. Williams is still dead. And the tax-fed waste of oxygen who killed him is still a free man, as per standard procedure in this type of case.

“If you’re going to prosecute a cop for excessive force amounting to manslaughter or homicide, you have to prove that the officer acted with malice,” says Strait. “(The standard requires proof) that (the officer) acted with intent to harm (the victim). You have to prove he really wanted to get the guy.” Birk has presented the shooting as an act of self-defense.

The inquest brought out the cloudy nature of some of the aspects of the case. Witnesses and Birk presented several different versions of the afternoon’s events — Birk believed that Williams presented a threat to passers-by, while civilian witnesses perceived Williams as a normal pedestrian.

The jury leaned somewhat toward the witnesses’ version of events. Four jurors out of eight believed that Williams “pose(d no) imminent threat of serious physical harm to Officer Birk.” Three jury members were undecided and one agreed that Williams was a serious threat.

Several other key points of the incident are in dispute: Jurors were split on whether or not Williams was facing Birk when he was shot, if Williams was able to put down his knife before he was shot, and whether or not Williams’s knife blade was open or closed.

With a demanding burden of proof, Washington prosecutors are often loath to pursue prosecutions of police officers who have fired on citizens.

Often loath? OFTEN?!?!?! How about 'virtually never'. Cops literally get away with murder in over 90% of these cases. Why? Because cops and prosecutors are on the same "team", and it's bad form to throw a member of your "team" under the bus.

The reactions of citizens and local officials to the decision not to prosecute are telling. The few private citizens quoted are foursquare in the Williams camp. The tax feeders and union hacks are foursquare behind Birk. And the prosecutor does his best Pilate.

The policy of this state is to give police officers this special protection. The underlying policy, passed 25 years ago, is a sound one. My first and foremost responsibility is to follow the laws in the state of Washington. I had to look and see, 'Is there malice, is there a lack of good faith?'

Translation from lawyer-speak: Cops get special treatment. Go pound sand if you don't like it.

I, for one, don't like it.

Apparently, a badge DOES give a cop the authority to kill a minority...or anyone else...and will continue to do so until right-minded people demand that policies like the Seattle area "the cop is innocent unless we say so...and we won't say so" policy are abolished and cops are treated the same as ordinary citizens who commit acts of violence.

Police Story

I was driving to Columbia to see the chiropractor last week when I espied one of the People's Republic of Maryland message boards that have sprung up over the state's highways in the past several years.  The message on it read:

Slow traffic warning
Police funeral - 12 PM to 4 PM

I had to reread the message to make sure I understood.  You're telling me that traffic is going to be FUBAR for 4 hours just because a cop died?

This isn't an unusual occurrence.  This past year a Frederick County Sheriffs Deputy died "in the line of duty" and was given one of these lavish traffic-nightmare taxpayer-funded funerals.  He died during a high-speed chase when the perp was able to negotiate a left turn and he wasn't.  He died because he couldn't drive.  Heroic.

Then there's this tool, who died "in the line of duty" when he learned first-hand that giving a "halt" hand signal won't stop a vehicle going 70-MPH.  Heroic.

There's no telling how the officer whose passing was going to cause a 4 hour traffic nightmare died.  Perhaps he was in high-speed pursuit of a dozen donuts.

"Damn, Vulture!  That's harsh!  Why do you hate on the cops so much?"

Why?  Because NWA was right.  And because of cops like this.

The sentencing hearing for former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge recessed for the day after a University of Chicago professor testified that torture allegations against Burge are unlike any other police misconduct in the city's history.

“This is an unprecedented instance,’’ said Adam Green, who specializes in African-American history. “What happened at Area 2 is really a singular chapter.’’

Green said abuse by police strikes at entire communities, but a sense of worth and respect can be restored if the misconduct is addressed.

Earlier today, one of Burge's alleged victims took the stand and asked Burge, “Why would you do this? … You were supposed to be the law.”

Before a packed courtroom, Anthony Holmes told how he still dreams he is inside the now infamous room at the Area 2 station on the South Side where Burge allegedly used electric shock and suffocation to coerce confessions from suspects.

Holmes, saying it was difficult for him to testify about the abuse, took a deep breath before he started. He said his wrongful imprisonment shattered family relationships and caused constant fear of police and re-arrest.

Officer Burge tortured young black men who may or may not have been involved in any crime in order to extract a "confession". He then turned the young man over to the grasping, politically ambitious Prosecutor, the one person less concerned with guilt or innocence than Officer Burge.  What's the big deal, right?  It's just one more po' nigga in the system.

Except that an innocent person has their life and freedom robbed from them just so law enforcement can bump their statistics.  With the exception of murder and perhaps rape, there is no more heinous crime than that.

I'd love to attend the taxpayer-funded police funeral for Officer Burge.  What I'd leave on his grave site wouldn't pass for flowers.

Speaking of getting fired...

Yesterday I wrote about Steven Screamin' A. Smith losing his gig as the Fox Sports Radio morning drive host.  Today I wish to write about a different individual losing a different type of job.

The Pharisee reported on Monday that the Caput a Palos, AKA TxBluesMan, AKA Sgt. Gregory Prickett, AKA The Prickette (pictured at left), has left the employ of UNT-Dallas.  It is unknown at this time if he jumped or was pushed.  Regardless of how or why, he is no longer employed by UNT.

I'm an empathetic person at heart, so I have a certain feeling of sadness for the Caput a Palos.  There is nothing more damaging to a man's self esteem than the loss of his employment.  Most of us feel somewhat defined by our occupation ("I'm a doctor", or "I'm a lawyer", or "I'm a glorified mall cop", for example).

That stated, I have to admit to a certain schadenfruede over the news.  After all, Mr. Bigshot has wrongfully maligned me and blogger friends of mine with the vilest of accusations, and did so under cover of anonymity.  That his cover has been blown and his shady acts of cowardice exposed is a satisfaction ranking right up there with a 49ers Super Bowl victory for me.

When The Prickette was outed, he lashed out against those most prominent in the exposure of his identity by filing a bogus lawsuit against them.  The Pharisee reported on Tuesday that the lawsuit is effectively kaput.  Given that it was strictly an intimidation ploy by The Prickette all along, Hugh has filed a criminal complaint against him.  It seems that in Texas -- and pretty much nowhere else -- it is a felony crime to engage in Barratry - the act or practice of bringing legal action solely to harass. The complaint also details The Prickette's harassment of Hugh's daughter, an innocent bystander in this particular pissing contest.

Hey, if this is a pissing contest, has Hugh succeeded in making it halfway up the 30' pole (as compared to The Prickette's measly 2 feet)?  I always suspected that The Prickette was a little...uh...lacking...in the man-plumbing department.

I hear that every time a cop gets fired a member of NWA gets his wings. Could be.  All I know is there's one less goon out there busting teeth today than there was last week at this time.

Law (?) and Order (?!?!?!?) - Caput Penitus Culus Edition

I have to admit that when it comes to the legal system I'm a fish out of water.  The terminology.  The prosaic phraseology.  The BS preambles with their legal buzzwords ("hereinafter referred to as The Plaintiff", "party of the first part", etc.).  The BS Latin and Latinate words and phrases ("pro se", "ad litem", "dominum dictum", "ex nihilo", etc.).  Truth is, it's a foreign world to me.

But there are certain legal concepts I understand completely.  'Hot check' is one of them.  And 'hot check' is the latest development in the sorry case of Mall Cop a Palos v. Bloggers.

When all the legal challenges to bloggers over one being classified as a “Rent-A-Cop” came out, the first place checked was the court records.

Still there today, as you can see in the image below, were the records indicating that an employee of the University of North Texas, a Gregory J. PRICKett, had evidently obtained the services of Natalie Malonis to file and PAY the fees necessary to get the process started.

Go on.

Now that you’ve seen the financial records which started the ball rolling, along with a couple more payments made by Gregory J. PRICKett to keep it headed just where he hopes it will help him the most, let’s move on to the latest under the “Events & Orders of the Court” in those records from the District Civil Court in Texass.

Ooh! Tell me more!

10/27/2010 HOT CHECK

Natalie Malonis, Attorney At Law – Refer to Acct Dept x7260

Oh how the mighty have fallen!  Attorney Natalie Malonis, once a featured "expert" on the Nancy Grace Show, has now been reduced to passing bad checks on behalf of her partner in calumny, Sgt. Gregory Prickett, pictured at top, hereinafter referred to as The Prickette, a known hostis humani generis (you like that, pretend lawyer asshole?).

I don't need to remind you of the enmity I (and frankly, all people possessed of human decency) have toward the foul pretend lawyer behind Coram Non Judice, ah, excuse me, Caput Penitus Culus.  That he and his particeps criminis, Ms. Malonis, have been exposed and put in a position where they are on the defensive is extraordinarily gratifying.  That Ms. Malonis is reduced to passing bad checks in the shadow of accusations that she "misappropriated" child support payments intended for a client is absolutely....priceless.

By their fruits ye shall know them.  I smell rotten apples.  And Noxzema.  And mall cop.

I'm not the only one...

...who thinks that NWA was right.

When the police are shooting military vets with MBAs in public and pregnant women in their own bedrooms, the war is not on drugs. It is on the American people.

Warren Jeffs freed

The Modern Pharisee messaged me yesterday afternoon with the good news.  His post about it can be found here.  The Salt Lake Tribune (probably grudgingly) wrote:

The Utah Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned polygamist Warren S. Jeffs’ convictions on rape as an accomplice and sent his case back for a new trial, finding there were “serious errors” in instructions given to the jury that deprived Jeffs of a fair hearing.

The justices unanimously ruled 5th District Judge James Shumate erred when he rejected a defense request to instruct jurors that in order to convict they had to find Jeffs knew when he performed a 2001 marriage that unwanted sex would take place and intended for a rape to occur.

Unanimous.  Let me repeat that so that it can sink in.  The decision to vacate Jeffs' conviction was UNANIMOUS.  Unambiguously unanimous.

The wheels are falling off the witch hunt against the FLDS, it would appear.  Good, says I.  The whole effort on the part of the so-called "Justice" system has been driven by pure, raw bigotry, and nothing more.

It looks like the "Justice" system is running out of ways to persecute the FLDS and has effectively boxed itself into a corner.  Let's hope this will result in the Texas FLDS men convicted in the aftermath of the YFZ raid being freed as well.

---

Continuing on the same general theme of the bigots who hate the FLDS.  There was additional good news breaking just today.  Flaming anti-FLDS bigot Ron in Houston (who, I believe, is the proprietor of FLDS Texas, the most virulently bigoted of all of the bigotry blogs) has been outed by the Pharisee.  Only one thing would make me happier: for the Caput a Palos (TxBluesMan) to be outed.

It turns out that self-proclaimed smart guy Ron is a middling lawyer in Houston.  By "middling", I'm implying that he's not very good or very reliable.  Keep in mind that this is one of the people who accused me of being "not too bright". 

Hey Ron!  Sux when you can't call names and accuse real people of being pedophiles when you can't hide from the consequences, doesn't it.

Asshole.

Another out-of-control Prosecutor

Normally, this would be a story for Toes at Sore Toes and a Bleeding Heart.  She is a tireless advocate for the reform of CPS (Child Protective Services).  But Toes passed it to me because (a) she knows my opinion of Prosecutors, that they are over-ambitious weasels intent on parlaying their position into a future political career without regard to the human wreckage left in their wake, and (b) it happened in my neck of the woods.  In Harford Country, to be exact - just a couple of hours northeast of humble Frederick.

Toes knows me entirely too well. The story got the predictable reaction out of me - I'm PISSED.

I can't do the story justice with a few random quotes. You can find it here in its entirety (major hat tip to Bill Medvecky who, like Toes, is a champion in the fight against out-of-control CPS). This is the money quote.

We want to see how she reacts when we tell her her kid is dead.

Classy. I hope there's a special place in hell where assholes like this can be subjected to horrors beyond imagination.

The Imperious Maryland State Police

I wrote previously about the Maryland State Police and their "attitude" problem.  A more imperious group of a-holes you'll never find, not in any law enforcement or non-law enforcement group, not ever.

Now, it seems, they've decided that the act of recording them while arresting you is illegal.

Several Marylanders face felony charges for recording their arrests on camera, and others have been intimidated to shut their cameras off.

A man whose arrest was caught on video faces felony charges from Maryland State Police for recording it on camera.

"We are enforcing the law, and we don't make any apologies for that," said Greg Shipley, MSP.

Get a load of the 'tude displayed by the MSP spokesmouth! It's exactly what I've come to expect from those tools.

First, Mr. Spokesmouth, you are wrong.  The law which you cite involves SECRETLY recording a person.  When the asshole officer is aware of the recording being performed, there is no secret.  Given the recent spate of brutality on the part of police in Maryland, it's a very good idea to record any contact with them around here.

Second, if it isn't legal to record the particulars of an arrest, how to you justify dashcams in cruisers recording...wait for it...people being arrested?

What we have here is an arrogant group of bigger-than-the-law jerks throwing their weight around in an attempt to intimidate.  If the State Attorney General doesn't step in and put a stop to this patently unconstitutional activity on the part of the MSP, it will show him to be in accord with the MSP's thuggish behavior.

Which wouldn't surprise me.  Not one bit.

Naivete shattered

They believed in him.  They REALLY believed.  He was going to ride into Washington on a white steed and undo all of the evil things perpetrated by their enemy, King George the Dim.  He was their candidate.  He was their guy.

Funny how "change" (or, as I called it during the election cycle, the DoublePlusGoodHopeChange) didn't change a thing.

The Justice Department's decision to subpoena a New York Times reporter this week has convinced some press advocates that President Obama's team is pursuing leaks with the same fervor as the Bush administration.

James Risen, who shared a Pulitzer Prize for disclosing President George W. Bush's domestic surveillance program, has refused to testify about the confidential sources he used for his 2006 book "State of War: The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration."

"The message they are sending to everyone is, 'You leak to the media, we will get you,' " said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. In the wake of the Bush administration's aggressive stance toward the press, she said, "as far as I can tell there is absolutely no difference, and the Obama administration seems to be paying more attention to it. This is going to get nasty."

Waaaaa! The nerve of Il Duce!  How dare he and his dastard administration investigate a member of the Fourth Estate for something as petty as the exposure of classified information!

It's no secret that I am no fan of Il Duce.  But he scores a win here.  I've been waiting for years for SOMEONE in Washington to take leaks of classified information seriously.  It started with Daniel Ellsberg and The Pentagon Papers and has continued unabated since.  And never, EVER, has the Justice Selective Prosecution of Only Those We See Fit to Persecute Department had the cojones to prosecute.  If you or I...you know, the mundanes, as William Grigg has aptly named us....were to leak classified information, we'd spend the rest of our lives in Leavenworth sharing an intimate cell with a guy named Bubba who considers himself our "boyfriend".

But the press, the Sainted Protectors of our Nation, THEY can leak classified information with impunity and, rather than receive punishment, they become famous.

I, for one, hope that has changed.  Congrats, Duce.  You got this one right.

And, to Big Media, let me just say, "Bubba says hi."

Stop me if you've heard this before

A woman is killed.  A likely suspect is found.  Cops zero in like a laser beam on this one lone suspect, seeing only that suspect and no one else.

Eventually a case is assembled and presented to prosecutors.  Prosecutors, those pathologically ambitious bastards, have no problem proceeding with the case.  To prosecutors, winning is everything, so key exculpatory evidence is withheld.  The suspect is convicted and condemned to a lengthy prison sentence that will consume most of the remainder of his life.

Later, the exculpatory evidence is unearthed, and, as it turns out, that evidence, along with new advances in DNA analysis, prove categorically that the convicted man is innocent.  Absolutely innocent.

Say hello to Tim Masters. What I just described was his reality.

The state confirmed the Dutch DNA results, and with that, the prosecutor takes bold action, instructing his deputy to move for Tim's immediate release. With that, the hearing abruptly ends. The states' witnesses never even testify. And, after more than nine years, Tim is suddenly a free man.
[...]
Three days after his release, the state drops all charges against Tim, but prosecutors still won't officially clear him of Peggy's murder. "They still have him on a leash, I mean even though - just because your case is dismissed nobody’s ever come out and said, 'Tim Masters did not commit this crime,'" Liu says.
[...]
The Colorado attorney general now has the Hettrick case, but won't comment on it.
[...]
If the original prosecutors are upset, they're not talking. Both were publicly reprimanded and fined for failing to disclose information to the defense.
[...]
By then, they had been promoted to judges. But Tim doesn't blame them for what happened. "It's pretty obvious who did this to me. It was one detective, Jim Broderick."

Aside from the obvious, there are some troubling things that jump out at me and should jump out at everyone.

• The prosecutors, notwithstanding the weight of the evidence, will not drop the bone.  The guy is free, his conviction vacated, but those foul bastards still won't say the words, "He's innocent".


• The original prosecutors were reprimanded.  Reprimanded.  Are you effing kidding me?  An innocent man languishes in prison for nearly a decade and they get an MF'ing slap on the wrist?!?!?!  THEY should be in prison, minimum sentence the 9 years served by Mr. Masters.  Short of that, each of them should be summarily kneecapped.


• Prosecutors, continued.  They were promoted to judges.  Again, are you effing kidding me?  These rapacious, soulless devourers now administer the justice they denied Tim Masters.  God help us all!


• Mr. Masters blames one detective for his plight.  But is Detective Jim Broderick really different from other detectives?  What he did happens every single day.  Every single MF'ing day.  He locked in on a single suspect and couldn't be bothered to exercise his "Body by Dunkin' Donuts" physique or his torpid mind to look anywhere else.

Detective Broderick, in his own defense.

Broderick, the man who pursued Tim over the decades, is under investigation. Looking back, he makes no apology for his actions. "I believe that I followed the evidence, OK? And the evidence pointed to Tim Masters."

"They find the ex-boyfriend's DNA inside her underpants, on the cuffs of her blouse," Spencer points out. "Does that not give you any pause?"

"Well, you can find DNA evidence and it may have an innocent explanation," Broderick says.

Are you effing kidding me?  Are you effing kidding me? DNA evidence from an ex-boyfriend has an innocent explanation.  In the name of all that is holy please tell me how ANYONE with an IQ above room temperature could believe this?

Our legal system is broken.  Beyond broken.  Guilty people with connections walk.  Innocent people lacking connections languish in prison, victims of lazy cops and soulless prosecutors.

This is American Justice.  Pray you never fall into its gaping maw.

Law abuse

This is exactly the sort of story that makes it clear why people despise lawyers.

The 62-year-old Ogletree, you see, was headed to Las Vegas on December 30 when he stopped at a pizza place in the Houston airport. Upon departing the food court in Terminal C, Ogletree somehow forgot to take his "expensive black leather coat," an XL Polo model (with a fashionable plaid lining) worth $800. Not surprisingly, the coat subsequently disappeared. Now Ogletree is threatening to sue the City of Houston, Continental Airlines, and the food court's management company for failing to have "collected the coat, kept it in a secure place and held it for a reasonable time" until he was able to reunite with the garment. These prospective defendants, Ogletree reasoned, "breached their duty" in connection with how they "manage lost and found items for which they are responsible." In his January 18 litigation threat letter, a copy of which you'll find below, Ogletree, pictured at right, noted that "further legal action" could be avoided if he simply was paid $800 "for the cost of the coat."

To summarize:

• Lawyer enters airport


• All parties in the airport are immediately libel for any damage or loss involving his person and possessions

And to think! Once upon a time it was understood that personal responsibility requires one to be RESPONSIBLE for one's PERSON. By extension, one is also to be responsible for one's PERSONAL EFFECTS.

Mr. Ogletree, you're the recipient of the Wiener Award.

There is one lingering question, however. Could this possibly be the Caput a Palos, TxBluesMan himself?

Not amusing

Okay. I’ll admit it. I laughed when I heard the story.

Two Tennessee women who accused a man of rape have admitted to cops that they had consensually agreed to sex with him in exchange for a pack of cigarettes. One woman told investigators that the duo filed a phony police report because they "didn't enjoy the sex," according to cops.

You have to admit, the image of these two heinous water buffaloes prostituting themselves for cigarettes, then claiming rape before owning up to their fraud is chuckle-worthy. That is, until you think through the consequences that potentially faced the poor gentleman (and, boy, do I use THAT term loosely) who managed to achieve and maintain arousal with those two fugly hosebags.

Two counts of rape. The average sentence for an individual convicted of rape is 11.8 years. A casual interwebs search found sentences between 11 and 20 years for two counts of rape.

"Oh c’mon, Vulture! There’s no way he would have been prosecuted!" Really? You’re telling me that some Mike Nifong wannabe wouldn’t press charges? You’re telling me that some unscrupulous prosecutor wouldn’t hide exculpatory evidence to ensure that their "won-loss record" wouldn’t take a hit? You’re telling me that a jury of "his peers" (read: people not smart enough to get out of jury duty) couldn’t be persuaded by an emotional pair of women tearfully recounting how this man had "deflowered" them?

In 21^st century America there is NO situation where being charged with a crime is the slightest bit funny. Because in 21^st century America our tangled legal system seems to be designed to make criminals of us all rather than to assure the safety of the citizenry. And in that sort of legal system, no one is safe from malicious, fraudulent, or mistaken prosecution. No one.

So laugh if you will at the hideous HURTings now charged with filing a false police report. But I’m not laughing. Not as long as our system of laws is as effed up as it is right now. Not as long as innocent people can have their lives ruined by false allegations in a system run amok. And certainly not as long as people like this can practice law.

Zero tolerance = zero sense

It started in the 80's because the "Law and Order" crowd was dismayed at the way that "lenient liberal judges" were "coddling" criminals. They were also upset that small-time offenders were summarily given probation or even a walk. The result was a slew of laws to "rectify" the situation.

To deal with "lenient judges": mandatory sentencing guidelines.
To deal with small-time crime: zero tolerance.

While zero tolerance in law enforcement didn't really catch on, the concept had a certain appeal to other authoritarians of all stripes.

Everywhere you look now, zero tolerance rules are popping up like zits on a greasy teen. Zero tolerance rules in schools have resulted in honor students being expelled for giving Motrin to a classmate. They've resulted in students being suspended for pointing a stick at a classmate and saying "bang". That's not the worst -- one little boy was suspended for the "crime" of drawing a gun! No, he didn't remove a weapon from its holster. He drew a PICTURE of a gun. That's right, an effing picture.

I thought that the suspension for drawing a picture was the biggest example of ass-headed unthinking zero tolerance up until I saw this story on HLN.

A birthday celebration that culminated in a trip to catch the blockbuster movie "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" could land 22-year-old Samantha Tumpach in prison for three years.

The Chicago, Illinois-area woman captured three minutes of the film on her videocamera while taping part of her sister's surprise party at a Muvico theater in Rosemont.

Theater managers contacted police, who arrested Tumpach. She spent two days in jail. Now she faces a felony charge of illegally copying a movie.

"The motion picture industry has encouraged theater owners to adopt a 'zero-tolerance' policy prohibiting the video or audio recording of any portion of a movie," Muvico Entertainment, which oversees the theater, told HLN's "Prime News."

Excuse me. Am I to understand that a young woman could spend 3 years in prison because the motion picture industry "encouraged" theater owners (read: told them in no uncertain terms) to exercise zero tolerance with ANY video filmed in a theater?

In a common sense world, the young woman would be reprimanded and sent on her way. Hell, in a common sense world, the motion picture industry wouldn't be dictating to private business owners and the judicial system how they should handles situations of this type.

The bottom line is this: zero tolerance = zero sense. It permits authoritarian types to throw their weight around like dime store Barney Fifes. Because zero tolerance takes all thought and reason out of the punishment process, mindless, robotic morons, acting in much the same way as a computer running bug-riddled software, simply process the instructions without regard or thought to the fallout or consequences.

It ain't right. It just ain't right.

Understanding people (read: I don't) - UPDATED

Friday I made the colossal mistake of wading into a hornet nest. Coram Non Judice, or as I prefer to call it, Capus Penitus Culus (Latin for "head inside ass"), is the hornet nest of which I speak. WHY I bothered to go there and try to reason with those people is beyond me, but go there I did.

TxBluesMan (or as I like to call him, the Caput a Palos - THAT, I will not translate; suffice it to say it's not very nice) is the proprietor of that blog. Who is he? Who knows? See, his thing is to blog anonymously. In what passes for his mind, he is simply following in the tradition of "Franklin, Hamilton, Adams, et al during the founding days of our republic". Yes, that is a direct quote from the egomaniac.

Of course, the Founders wrote anonymously because the things they wrote had the potential to get them arrested, imprisoned, or even killed by agents of the King. The things that the Caput a Palos writes certainly do NOT meet any comparison to the founders. Let me count the ways.

• He presents himself as some sort of legal expert. Of course, by blogging anonymously, his actual legal credentials are unknown.
• He slanders commenters who disagree with him. More on that follows.
  
• He writes horrible, ugly things about the FLDS and those who support them.
• He is extraordinarily rude, egomaniacal, and verbally abusive.
• He has "outed" (revealed the identity of another anonymous blogger) or attempted to "out" (in my case) others while treating his own anonymity as sacrosanct.
  

The truth is this: if the Caput a Palus wrote the ugly things he writes "in the clear", with his name, city of residence, and picture prominently displayed on his blog page (like, for example, MINE), I don't believe he'd write the way he does. He's not blogging anonymously in some sort of altruistic mission like that of the Founders. No, he's blogging anonymously because he's a coward and a bully.

Among the slanderous and abusive things the Caput a Palos has written about me (never mind others whose opinions he disagrees with) - in complete anonymity, remember - include:

• That I am pro-pedophilia and pro-polygamy
• That I am a wannabe lawyer (As if! I hold lawyers in utter contempt - and the Caput a Palos has done nothing to change that opinion)
• That I am a "religious nut"
• He mocked the very idea of a computer programmer like me expressing an opinion on legal matters - only the opinions of "lawyers" are valid in matters of law in his view
• Responding to a commenter who alleged that I was one of those people who are concerned about our own rights but tend not to want others to have rights, he wrote, "Only if they are Protestant - they tend not to be very tolerant."
• His latest: that I support the right of the FLDS to molest children
  

He, anonymously, writes vile accusations about me and others, who are not anonymous. If that's not cowardly, I don't know what is.

His sycophantic commenters are every bit as vile as he is; they've accused me of being menopausal, questioned my sexual preference, accused me of being a pedophile, and accused me of being a bad Christian.

That his commenters disrespect me is of little importance, except in this regard. They have made me even more aware of a basic flaw in human beings. When a core belief or deeply held prejudice is challenged by someone else, no matter how logical or persuasive the arguments against it, they will NEVER change their minds. N-E-V-E-R. They may not have counter arguments that make a lick of sense. It matters not. They will shut down the conversation by either fleeing or in the manner of an enraged ape, by flinging feces. There was lots of feces flying yesterday.

Reflecting on this tendency, I have to say that I'm VERY pessimistic about the future. If you can't convince someone that even unpopular minorities like the FLDS have rights under the US Constitution, how in the world are we going to convince the TV Generation that our government is engaged in fascistic takeovers of the automobile industry, the banks, and - coming soon - health care?

Am I wrong? I think not.

By the way, there IS one existing picture of the Caput a Palos - and I've found it.

UPDATE:

It seems that the anti-FLDS community is full of...well, something. I was over exchanging views at the FLDS Texas blog and had most of my comments purged because I was labeled a "troll" by the administrator.

Folks on that site accused me of misogyny, bigotry, supporting the molestation of young women, hating women, trying to inflict my "man" opinions on others, and, once again, I had my sexual preference questioned (if I EVER meet that c***s***er Stamp, I'll show him which way I go!). For this, I get flagged as a troll.

It sort of makes my point, doesn't it? Try to change the strongly-held beliefs and prejudices of some people and you'll only get feces in the face.

A little perspective on the Vick signing

Unless you are not a sports fan or are living in a cave, you know that the Philadelphia Eagles signed ex-convict Michael Vick to a 2-year contract late last week. There has been the predictable hullabaloo from the predictable sources.

A Web site, sackvick.net, quickly sought protesters to contact the Eagles' corporate sponsors, and it had posted many of them and their CEOs with e-mail addresses and phone numbers, from PepsiCo and Sprint Nextel to Lincoln Financial.

Philadelphia native Jan Garber spent Friday morning calling Eagles sponsors after finding them on the team's Web site, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

"This is my own campaign; the corporate sponsors are on the Eagles' Web site," Garber said in an e-mail to the newspaper. "I am not an Eagles fan, just a native Philadelphian who is shocked and dismayed by this clandestine signing of a criminal to the local franchise.

And, of course, what's a little hullabaloo without a token protest.

As a board member for the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Jennifer Utley, the wife of Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley,was among a group of protesters who stood outside the Eagles' practice facility Friday as the team introduced Vick during a news conference inside.

"We fight animal cruelty every single day in this city," Utley told Fox 29 of Philadelphia.

Okay, people. Take a deep breath. It's time for Uncle Vulture to shower a little perspective on you.

First, what Michael Vick did - running a dog fighting ring where the "losers" were drowned or strangled - is about the most heinous thing a person can do to an animal as loving and devoted as the dog. He's a disgusting turd of a human being.

Second, I'm no fan of his playing abilities, either. Vick is O-ver-Ra-ted *clap clap clap clap clap*. He is little more than the black Bobby Douglass. He's Vince Young with a slightly more accurate arm.

That stated up front, I find the reaction of fans to Vick's signing more than a little puzzling, especially given the reaction for offenses I consider far more appalling.

Take the case of Leonard Little. His little birthday celebration in 1999 ended up with an innocent women dead. Little was driving with a BAC of .19 when he crashed into and killed Susan Gutweiler. He served 90 days in jail and was suspended for 8 games by the league.

Donte Stallworth struck and killed a man just this past Winter. While it can be argued that the man was at least equally guilty as Mr. Stallworth (he was jaywalking), the 24 days in prison Stallworth received as a sentence for driving with a .126 BAC was laughable. The NFL has suspended Stallworth for the entire 2009 season.

Now look at Vick. He served 19 months in prison for his role in the dog fighting ring, as well as charges of animal cruelty. He voluntarily sat out the entire 2007 season waiting for the criminal justice system to deal with his case. And he's not cleared to play until at least Week 6 of the 2009 season, at which time the Commissioner will decide whether he can be activated again.

90 days in jail for vehicular manslaughter. 24 days in jail for accidentally killing a man while intoxicated. 19 months for dog fighting and animal cruelty? I'm a little confused at the priorities of the criminal justice system.

Now look at the relative suspensions. 8 games for vehicular manslaughter. 16 games for accidentally killing a man while intoxicated. At least 21 games - maybe more - for dog fighting and animal cruelty. Again, count me as perplexed.

Vick is a scumbag and a lousy player. But he's paid his "debt to society" and he's got every right to a second chance. So lighten up, people!

Besides, the dog in the inset picture has her eye on Vick!

Bad Law - Update

I received an email from a gentleman named Simon Owens who runs a blog called Bloggasm. He pointed me to an article he wrote in which he interviewed one of the lawyers who is defending four of the anonymous commenters (see previous post) whose identities Der Staat is attempting to subpoena.

Please check out the linked article; excerpts don't really do it justice.

And Simon: thanks for the heads up. The more people aware of this miscarriage of justice the better.

Bad law (and the Culusotti who love it)

I'm sure that the crowd over at Caput Penitus Culus will love this one. Or not.

A Nevada newspaper says it has been served a federal grand jury subpoena seeking information about readers who posted comments on the paper's Web site.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Tuesday that its editor, Thomas Mitchell, plans to fight the request, which the newspaper received after reporting on a federal tax fraud case against business owner Robert Kahre.

The subpoena seeks the identities and personal information about people who posted comments on the story. The newspaper said prosecutors told the judge in the case that some comments hinted at acts of violence and the subpoena was issued out of concern for jurors' safety.

Mitchell said anonymous speech is "a fundamental and historic part of this country." The newspaper would consider cooperating if specific crimes or real threats were presented, he said.

If the Review-Journal is unsuccessful in fighting this unquestionably unconstitutional request, it spells curtains for the entire concept of protected free speech. Because, as you know, Der Staat can find just about ANY reason to justify ANY action once "precedent" (or case law) has been established. Right, Culus?

On the one hand, you would think that the law fetishists at Caput Penitus Culus would be overjoyed at the prospect of law being defined. It's how they get their jollies, apparently. But there's a small problem with this particular issue: everyone, from the Caput a Palo to the n00biest commenter, posts at that site under cloak of anonymity (or at least pseudonymity). The lame-ass excuse offered by the Caput a Palo himself for not associating his real name with his blog was that he was afraid of the FLDS. Seriously? I'm MUCH more afraid of Culus and his proto-authoritarian jack-booted Hitler youth than I would EVER be of the FLDS. What are they going to do? Bore me to death with Book of Mormon readings?

Object lesson, Culusotti! Just because something becomes case law doesn't make it right, just, or constitutionally valid. Perhaps having a legal issue decided in a way that harms your precious anonymity might open your eyes to that fact.

Eh, probably not. They're not terribly bright over there...