<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18999">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=2>The following appeared in the <EM>Daily News</EM> Public
Records section on Saturday:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><STRONG>Sentencings</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2>Monday -- Hunter Marsh Hursh, 21, of Moscow was
convicted of rape. He was fined $305 and sentenced to five years of
probation and 30 days of discretionary jail time, and he cannot contact the
victim for five years.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Missing from this report is the fact that Hursh (with an
extensive criminal history) also received a withheld judgment for this
rape.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>WTF?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>A $305 fine and 30 days <STRONG>discretionary</STRONG> jail
time? And a withheld judgment? For rape? A felony?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Hursh is no stranger to the criminal justice system. And
since the crime of rape [04-28-2009], he has been convicted of
other crimes for which he also received probation. Hursh will
soon, if not now, be out in our community, free to pursue his habitual
ways. Who will be his next victims? Is this what we want to happen
in our community? Do we not care enough about each other to take some time
and effort to prevent this kind of public endangering infamy by the prosecutor
and court?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Read Hursh's criminal history and the bumblings of the
prosecutor and judges here (Have a barf bag at the ready!):
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><A
href="https://www.idcourts.us/repository/caseHistory.do?roaDetail=yes&schema=LATAH&county=Latah&partySeq=87230&displayName=Hursh%2C+Hunter+Martin">https://www.idcourts.us/repository/caseHistory.do?roaDetail=yes&schema=LATAH&county=Latah&partySeq=87230&displayName=Hursh%2C+Hunter+Martin</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Also you can do a search in the online <EM>Daily News</EM>
[sorted by date] for more information.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV><FONT size=2>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>What's going on in Latah County?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Besides inept, public disinterested prosecution and lazy, soft-headed
judges, where is the intensive media attention that allows this kind of outrage
to escape public attention? </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Is the <EM>Daily News</EM> deliberately shielding the horrible ineptitude
of the prosecutor's office and the lack of judgment of certain judges,
or is the <EM>Daily News</EM> also practitioners of lassitude and
ineptitude? How can the public respond to this continued kind of ineptness
and poor judgment in the criminal justice system if the media does not cover and
comment upon it? Without competent reporting and comment are we doomed to
continue to experience these kinds of outrages ad nauseam? </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>And without intensive media coverage where is the general deterrence that
is allegedly part of the goals of criminal sentencing? How do law
enforcement personnel feel when they spend much time and effort working up a
case only to find it handled in such a horrendously nonchalant manner by the
prosecutor and the courts? Over the long term wouldn't this kind of event
be likely to demotivate law enforcement?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>We need competent, public interest motivated reporting, and we need to
somehow motivate the prosecutor and court to serve the public interest or change
the inept and lazy out, by recall if necessary. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>And if the local media are not willing to act responsibly, perhaps it is
time to start talking to their advertising clients who bear some
responsibility for supporting this fifth-rate media arrogance and careless
ineptitude about serious crimes taking place and adversely effecting member of
our community.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR>Wayne A. Fox<BR>1009 Karen Lane<BR>PO Box 9421<BR>Moscow, ID
83843</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="mailto:waf@moscow.com">waf@moscow.com</A><BR>208
882-7975<BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>