A Human Turd This Time

This is being treated as just a local story, but it illustrates how a human turd can so easily turn other peoples' lives into tragedy. It also illustrates how easily judges can close their eyes and screw up badly. I know justice is blind, but it isn't supposed to cover its ears and sing "La la la I can't hear you."

The road where this crime occurred is in a scenic, rural community in the northern part of Baltimore county. My parents often drive through it to avoid the major highway nearby. It's the sort of place people move to when they want to get away from crime. But early on Tuesday morning, a 46-year-old woman was killed while sleeping in her bed because a jerk in a stolen pick up truck crashed into the house.

The victim was pronounced dead on the scene. The driver survived, of course, with bruises and scrapes. It shouldn't be surprising that the stolen truck included stolen items connecting the jerk to recent thefts in the area.

And it should be no surprise that a recent article shows that he has been charged with crimes at least 28 times and is wanted by police in York county, PA. (York county is just north of Baltimore county.)


Wow. He's only 30 years old, so that's nearly one charge per year of his life. But it doesn't end there. It turns out that with all those arrests, he hardly served any jail time at all. Ever. When will the judges wake up? Sure, almost all of the charges were just petty thefts, but they're still crimes. When will they start taking them seriously?

donroc said:

Judges are lawyers. In California, unless it has changed the rules since I left, lawyers can take the bar as many times and fail as often as people do trying to get drivers licenses until they pass. I know of one character who finally passed on his eighth try. Hope he is not a judge now.

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I once read an article written by a writer/lawyer whose former classmate became a judge. The classmate was honored, but the writer knew the full story. His classmate wasn't a great lawyer, but he was hired by a big law firm because he was the kind of lawyer who could help get new clients -- simply by thie force of his personality, I guess. When the classmate told the writer his company had pulled strings to help him become a judge, he was honored. But the writer knew this meant that his classmate was 1) still a bad lawyer and 2) wasn't even good at getting clients. Otherwise, why would the company get rid of him?

Joe270 said:

Can they, at least, file some murder charges now?/

I'm hoping they will. Baltimore county tends to be ... firmer ... about these serious crimes than some of the nearby counties. (Yes, we still have our share of crappy judges, but they're not as crappy.)

Joe270 said:

Granted, the guy is a career petty thief, but who knows if he's been involved with worse things. These guys play the system and just keep getting out.

These 'revolving door' crooks just never learn. Will we ever learn the system doesn't work and stop 'giving them a break' over and over again?

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I hope so. I don't want to put up some of those "security poles" outside the house. The neighborhood association might not approve.

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