Two recent misd cases.

Suspect #1: charged with Driving on suspended license (3rd offense), possession of stolen property (2006 year tab), registration fraud and possession of marijuana.

Plead guilty to unlicensed driver, $50.00 fine.


Suspect #2: Charged with lewd conduct for performing an oral sex act in a public bathroom in a city park.

Plead guilty to disturbing the peace, suspended sentance, no fine/jail.


I guess the DA's are following the any conviction is a conviction school of thought. More worried about their win loss record than appropriate sentences.

And this is different than anywhere else how?

Haven't you heard.  The Prisons and Jails are overcrowded.
Either we, society are slipping into total decay and moral breakdown, or we are getting better at catching bad guys.

Quoted: And this is different than anywhere else how?

In some states you actually get booked into jail for driving on a suspended.  In Texas & Arizona you serve jail time for those crimes.

Hell even in my home state of Michigan you would do at least 10 days for either of those.

We had a guy here in town who was an Associate Athletic Director at the University and a Borough Assembly Person.

Well story brakes that for years he has been posing as a famous female bodybuilder on line and offering advice to females looking to get into shape.  
He would go to the College fitness center and spy attractive young ladies.  He would say "You know I know Person XXX she was a 3 time XXX and a 2 time XXX.  We dated all through College and remain very close friends.  If you would like I could put you in touch with her so that she can give you some advice.  
The young lady would say hey, sounds good thanks.  He would give them an email address that was this famous person name @hotmail.com.  These girls would sned an email to this address that, you guessed it went to this guys computer.  He would then respond back and eventually would say something to the effect of it sounds like you are making great progress.  I need to have my great friend Mr. XXX take some measurements and evaluations for me.  Please call him at XXXXXXXX and he will send it to me and tehn I can give you some more advice.
Well Mr. XXX would meet with these ladies and measure them in every way possible.
Eventually tells some lady at the gym he can put her in touch with MS. XXXX.  Tihs young lady knew of this lady and knew that she had dies over a year earlier.  She contacted authorities who posed as this female and went through the process.

He shows up for work one day and finds that his lock has been changed to his office.  
Hold a press conference denies anything inappropriate though admits that there are probably some things on his work computer that he doesnt want people to see.
Well after a year he was finally sentenced.  He plead no contest to criminal impersanation

Sentence....
96 hours of community service and he had to be finger printed.
No Fine
No Jail time
No Appology

Complete Bullshit

Oh, don't get me started...

Suspect #1 should be strung up.

Suspect #2... Well, if she was cute, you'd have been in the bathroom with her, too.  

Quoted: Suspect #2... Well, if she was cute, you'd have been in the bathroom with her, too.

Suspect #2 was a dude!  so was suspect #2a who hasnt appeared in court yet for his half of the "party."

Quoted: Quoted: Suspect #2... Well, if she was cute, you'd have been in the bathroom with her, too.   Suspect #2 was a dude!  so was suspect #2a who hasnt appeared in court yet for his half of the "party."

thats terrible man.  I agree it is really getting out of hand, but it keeps the system going and doesnt slow it down, so that is all they care about.

I'm to the point now that I don't care what they do with them  and don't call me about it because you won't listen anyway.

GR

We rolled up on a B/E call at a restraunt on night.  We surround the place and see one of the local shitheads inside the place cleaninbg out the crash drawer.  When he comes out the back, I take him down and cuff him.  During the search incident to arrest we find the money he had taken, a calculator he stole, 2 boxcutters, and a crack pipe.  We charged with felony B/E, larceny after the fact, 2 counts of CCW, and PDP......... case gets to court and they let him plea to the crack pipe.

We were like "WTF!!!!!"

I guess I'll be the one to stand up for the DA's.  

Don't know what to say.  There have been times when officers have been upset with my plea offers and there have been times when they've thanked me for sticking with a case...regardless of the result.

Either way the reason I've known about it is becuase they talked with me afterwards.  Which is something I've tried very hard to cultivate.  Hey, there are some county attorneys that just want to move cases.  I handle 90-100 felony cases and a justice court.  So sometimes I might sell one cheaper than I'd like.  But anytime an officer has cared enough about a case to call me on it...I've pushed it as hard as I could.

AFA driving on suspended licenses goes...here the fine is usually $550.  However, if they show up to the JP court with a renewed license...I'll make 'em pay $50.  Or give them 90 days to get a new one for greatly reduced fine.  My theory is I'd rather have them out there with a valid license than take a whack at them for a couple hundred bucks.  And, AFAIK, none of the officers I work with mind.

Another thing I know that bothers officers out here is the public's opinion of aggravated assaults on officers and resisting arrest.  I even tell cadits at the academy I teach at....people assume that since you signed up for the job and have the training and the badge and the body armor and the back-up and whatever...a little push or hit or struggle is just part of the job.  I won a few of those trials that no one thought I'd win.  And others I cut a deal for.  

And after awhile we get to know how a judge will sentence.  So if we know that one is going to give a guy probation...then we'll just let them plead to that in the first place.  Becuase that's what the judge is going to sentence them to anyways.  

Like I said...I'm not sure what to say.  There are some prosecutors who really don't care about the case or the victim.  Or at least not as much as they should.  Just as there are officers who may do a half-assed job on a case that doesn't excite them, won't show up for interviews, write bad reports and won't ever get back to you on follow-up, etc.  But I think that the majority of prosecutors in my office desire to have a team/on the same side relationship with our officers and try to work just as hard for the right result as our officers.

Quoted: Two recent misd cases. Suspect #2: Charged with lewd conduct for performing an oral sex act in a public bathroom in a city park. Plead guilty to disturbing the peace, suspended sentance, no fine/jail.

They say its not who you know but who you blow.

Quoted: I guess I'll be the one to stand up for the DA's.   Don't know what to say.  There have been times when officers have been upset with my plea offers and there have been times when they've thanked me for sticking with a case...regardless of the result. Either way the reason I've known about it is becuase they talked with me afterwards.  Which is something I've tried very hard to cultivate.  Hey, there are some county attorneys that just want to move cases.  I handle 90-100 felony cases and a justice court.  So sometimes I might sell one cheaper than I'd like.  But anytime an officer has cared enough about a case to call me on it...I've pushed it as hard as I could. AFA driving on suspended licenses goes...here the fine is usually $550.  However, if they show up to the JP court with a renewed license...I'll make 'em pay $50.  Or give them 90 days to get a new one for greatly reduced fine.  My theory is I'd rather have them out there with a valid license than take a whack at them for a couple hundred bucks.  And, AFAIK, none of the officers I work with mind. Another thing I know that bothers officers out here is the public's opinion of aggravated assaults on officers and resisting arrest.  I even tell cadits at the academy I teach at....people assume that since you signed up for the job and have the training and the badge and the body armor and the back-up and whatever...a little push or hit or struggle is just part of the job.  I won a few of those trials that no one thought I'd win.  And others I cut a deal for.   And after awhile we get to know how a judge will sentence.  So if we know that one is going to give a guy probation...then we'll just let them plead to that in the first place.  Becuase that's what the judge is going to sentence them to anyways.

Hey probation is great as long as it has search & seizure as one of the terms.  Here we have to catch you with meth 3 times withen 18 months to get informal probation with S&S. I'll take probation over a monetary fine anyday becuase it makes my job easier and the crooks lifestyle harder.

Like I said...I'm not sure what to say.  There are some prosecutors who really don't care about the case or the victim.  Or at least not as much as they should.  Just as there are officers who may do a half-assed job on a case that doesn't excite them, won't show up for interviews, write bad reports and won't ever get back to you on follow-up, etc.  But I think that the majority of prosecutors in my office desire to have a team/on the same side relationship with our officers and try to work just as hard for the right result as our officers.

I guess my biggest complaint is when the DA lets to suspect plead down to a crime they didnt commit.  In the lewd conduct case about the suspect was not guilty of Disturbing the peace.  The elements of that crime were not there. The lewd conduct would have better been plead down to drunk in public or loiter at night in public park.  at least the elements of those lessor violations were there. How can a judge even let a suspect plead down to something they didnt actually do?

Here the probationer does give up search and seizure rights.  It's a part of any probation agreement, supervised or not.  We are lucky in that our probation officers are very good and do their job.  We work very closely with them.  In fact, I'd say it's a 60/30 ratio of probations who go to prison rather than be reinstated for a violation.  Of course our violations are usually dirty UA's or failures to report.

Of course one of our problems is the Prop. 200 Personal Possession law.  On any personal possession case, the first offense can't be sentenced to jail or prison unless they refuse treatment.  On the second they can go to jail, but not prison.  Only on the 3rd one can they be sent to prison.  (Unless they have a violent felony conviction)

And no, a judge shouldn't take a plea to something where the defendant can't admit to the elements.  I don't mind pleading a person down to something they weren't charged with, as long as their confession meets the elements.  For instance, here a felony flight is a class 5.  However, providing the person deserves it, I will let them plead to a class 6 endangerment.  The problem is you can't use the attempt statute to reduce the felony flight because attempt is part of the elements.  You can't "attempt an attempt".  So they plead guilty to endangering the lives of the officers involved in the pursuit and any other motorists by not stopping.

Mark Elkins is a 23-year-old career criminal getting ready to dance away from the courthouse with another slap on the wrist.


Let's start at the beginning:

At age 16, two tickets for speeding.

At age 17, one ticket for failing to yield.

At age 18, a misdemeanor conviction for leaving the scene of an accident and two speeding tickets, including one for speeding in a construction zone.

At age 19, one ticket for speeding and two tickets for driving without a license.

At age 20, one ticket for speeding, one for running a stop sign and one for driving without a license.

At age 21, one ticket for speeding, one for no registration and one for failing to wear a seat belt.

At age 22, one ticket for tinted windows.

At age 23, one ticket for running a red light and one ticket for driving without insurance. (No surprise there. What idiot would sell insurance to this guy?)

You know how hard it is to get 15 traffic tickets in this town? How about 15 in your first seven years of driving?

On June 27, 2004, Elkins capped his career by driving away from a rollover on O'Malley Road that left Gail Fejes dead and her 10-year-old son Hunter injured.

Members of the Fejes family make a strong case that Elkins caused the rollover by "brake-checking" Fejes. Brake-checking, for those unfamiliar with road-rage techniques, means slamming on your brakes to irritate and frustrate the driver behind you.

The only witness to the crash was Hunter, who in the days after the crash, while in the hospital recovering from surgery, talked about a man in a gray truck who harassed his mother.

Months later, Elkins was charged. In at least one interview, he admitted brake-checking Fejes because, he said, she was honking and gesturing at him for pulling in front of her from a side road. When the car flipped and the Fejeses were thrown from it, Elkins kept driving.

And now Elkins has a deal with prosecutors. He agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident. The state agreed to drop manslaughter and assault charges and recommended a three-year prison term, with all but 90 days suspended.

90 days.

Now it's up to Judge Mike Wolverton to decide on Tuesday -- two days before Elkins turns 24 -- whether to accept or reject this disgrace.

If the judge signs off on it, Elkins will be out of jail in plenty of time to keep his streak alive by racking up a couple of violations as a 24-year-old.

Makes you feel safe to be on Anchorage streets, doesn't it?

The deal in front of Wolverton won't take Elkins off the road for very long.

Elkins' record as a habitual behind-the-wheel offender demands that Wolverton reject the deal. Nothing in his history suggests Elkins will change his ways. When Elkins drives a car, which he seems perfectly happy to do with or without a license, with or without insurance, he puts us all in jeopardy.

On the day of the Fejes crash, he'd been off probation for just eight months. The crime that had put him on probation?

Leaving the scene of an accident.

And since the Fejes crash, he's added to his lengthy record by running a red light and driving without insurance.

The maximum sentence for the crime Elkins is prepared to plead guilty to is 10 years.

Judge Wolverton, send this man to prison for years, not days. You can't spare the Fejes family its sorrow, but you can give them justice, and you might save the life of one of the rest of us.