[Vision2020] Sentence Appropriate?
Sunil Ramalingam
sunilramalingam at hotmail.com
Mon Jun 21 15:42:11 PDT 2010
Sure it's discretionary, but there's nothing uncommon about a person with priors receiving a withheld on a felony, particularly where the priors are misdemeanors. So I'm not sure why you're so emphatic about this defendant being unsuitable.
Sunil
From: deco at moscow.com
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:32:16 -0700
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Sentence Appropriate?
Having visited various criminal files, many are sealed or specific
documents are sealed without a written order or even a notation in the
minutes.
Isn't a withheld judgment within the discretion of the judge, especially
when there are priors?
W.
----- Original Message -----
From:
Sunil Ramalingam
To: vision 2020
Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 3:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Sentence
Appropriate?
I don't see an order sealing the file on the
repository.
What's the code section making him ineligible for a
withheld judgment?
Sunil
From: deco at moscow.com
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Mon, 21
Jun 2010 13:19:41 -0700
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Sentence
Appropriate?
Given the information in the news article and the Idaho Repository,
Heustis did not cop a plea:
"During the sentencing, Michelle
Evans, senior deputy prosecuting attorney for Latah County, asked for 10 years
probation and a 90-day jail sentence.
"I think that it's appropriate to
impress upon Mr. Heustis ... the seriousness of what he did," she
said."
Heustis pled guilty as charged, and the sentencing
was determined in a normal sentencing process and hearing, the same as if he
was found guilty in a judge or jury trial. See:
https://www.idcourts.us/repository/caseHistory.do?roaDetail=yes&schema=LATAH&county=Latah&partySeq=1684&displayName=Heustis%2C+Kendall+Wayne
Notice also the following actions:
Order for Evaluation
Presentence report
Addendum to Presentence Report
Paul writes:
"A couple of days later, he's in jail and scared for his
life. He's sees how many people out there assume he rapes
babies on a daily basis, and he desperately doesn't want to go to prison for
15 years labeled as a sex offender because he knows that could very well
happen if the prosecutor plays the "think of the children!" card and the jury
is not very sophisticated about this whole online thing. So he cops a
plea and gets off with a reduced sentence and carries the "sex offender" brand
on his forehead for the world to see and gets to read about how it's a crime
that he was let out so soon and that he should be made to suffer more on a
local mailing list."
Heustis was originally charged on 05/05/2009. His
guilty plea was entered on 04/09/2010. Hardly a couple of days
later. He agrees to plead guilty and go through the normal sentencing
process where an evaluation is made and both the prosecution and defense make
their recommendations to the court.
Paul's hypothetical case has vanished based on the
facts. In addition, if someone pleads guilty to something they did not
do, that would be perjury.
The problem now is that most of the case has been sealed
since Heustis was given a withheld judgment. The original complaint
and part of the Judgment of Conviction may be available. The part of the
Judgment of Conviction which deals with the meat of the matter has
probably been sealed. The public is now prevented from examining the
facts of the case in order to judge the actions of the prosecution (which also
recommend a weak sentence) and of the judge. Very convenient. A CYA
move by the judge and prosecution since a withheld judgment is hardly
appropriate for Heustis given his prior criminal convictions.
W.
----- Original Message -----
From: Paul
Rumelhart
To: Garrett Clevenger
Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com
Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 12:12
PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Sentence
Appropriate?
We know absolutely nothing about this particular case
("jack shit" is, I
believe, the technical term). Yet we're willing
to judge the leniency
of his sentence and to call him a pedophile and a
creep on a public
mailing list.
Here's a hypothetical
situation:
Maybe this guy went to an adult chatroom, where adults
talk with other
adults about sex. This guy strikes up a
conversation with a person who
later claims that they are 13.
Since he's on an adult chatroom, he
figure that this person is
role-playing, so he goes along with it. The
conversations
continue, and he make some remark about how they should
both get
together and have sex, never intending to actually go through
with
it. He was just role-playing, not making an actual date. A
couple
of days later, he's in jail and scared for his life. He's
sees how many
people out there assume he rapes babies on a daily basis,
and he
desperately doesn't want to go to prison for 15 years labeled as
a sex
offender because he knows that could very well happen if the
prosecutor
plays the "think of the children!" card and the jury is not
very
sophisticated about this whole online thing. So he cops a
plea and gets
off with a reduced sentence and carries the "sex offender"
brand on his
forehead for the world to see and gets to read about how
it's a crime
that he was let out so soon and that he should be made to
suffer more on
a local mailing list.
I don't know that it went
down that way, but I don't know that it didn't
go down that way.
I, personally, would rather have more facts before I
condemn this guy
and rage about his lenient sentence.
Paul
Garrett Clevenger
wrote:
> Paul writes:
>
> "this law as it stands sounds to
me like thought crime."
>
>
> It's one thing to have
fantasies about whatever, quite another to try to sexually engage with
someone you think is 13.
>
> This isn't a thought crime cause
the guy actually went out of his mind and out into the real world (even if
it's a virtual computer world)
>
> This guy's a pedophile and
should be locked up.
>
> I'm not a big supporter of entrapment
mostly because it's probably a waste of resources but at the same time this
guy pled guilty to enticing a 13 year old.
>
> That's dangerous
and unacceptable in our wired world.
>
> When I read this story
in the paper I too thought the sentence was way to light for this
creep.
>
>
> I'll hesitatingly give you a Stegner story
that may give you an idea of Stegner:
>
> 3 years ago, we
brought our baby to a restaurant after he was born. He was sitting in his
car seat in the restaurant when up walked a guy who asked if he could hold
him. I said sure while my wife had a horrified look on her face. I
guess I wasn't as cautious as I should have been letting a stranger pick up
our baby.
>
> The guy walked outside with our baby. My wife ran
after him and asked for her baby back.
>
> It turned out the guy
was Stegner. His wife came up later to apologize for him and said he
really likes kids.
>
> It was one thing to want to hold a baby,
quite another to leave the restaurant with him. We were all taken back
by this and wondered why a judge, someone who probably sees all kinds of
creepy things, would be so thoughtless as to think leaving the restaurant
with someone else's baby wouldn't freak the parents out.
>
> I
don't know Stegner, but that incident left me wondering about his judging
capabilities. Seeing his sentencing reaffirms that.
>
>
Garrett Clevenger
>
>
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>
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>
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