Child Molester Freed on Technicality in California

Fox News ^ | Wednesday, April 14, 2004 | AP

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

SANTA ANA, Calif.

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

Someone one I'd like to pour gasoline on and then drop a match . . . that is tell him where I stand on the issue and that I like pie.

[Bismarck]

There we go again... do we have to wait until this monster harms another child before we can put him back in jail?

[Blood of Tyrants]

This bastard has been convicetd FIVE times of rape, sodomy, and kidnapping BEFORE he did this. How many did he get away with? I think that there should be a shoot on sight bounty on him because he WILL do it again.

[Steely Tom]

A convicted child molester serving a life sentence was freed after an appeals court ruled he never had a chance to confront his accuser -- a teenager who committed suicide before the man's trial.

Gee. I guess they'll also be releasing all the murderers whose victims couldn't make it to the trial.

I love California. As long as it's 3,000 miles away.

(steely)

[ClearCase_guy]

Perhaps this was OJ's backup defense. Since Nicole couldn't make it to court, the sentence must be short.

[Dante3]

You said it well.

It is an outrage to have this pervert on the loose. I also blame the judges.

[johnfrink]

I'm going to be yelled at for this, but I have to say that the judgement is probably fair. I mean, the kid was the only person who could provide evidence, and without the kid, there is no case. I'm sorry, but there is not. Being convicted solely on the word of someone who you cannot cross-examine is a very scary precedent, and I think the court made the right decision, however horrible it is that he's now free.

Now, given his history he shouldn't have been free to do this in the first place, but that doesn't change the fact that we do have a constitutional right to confront our accuser. This is an entirely separate issue from whether or not he should have been released before committing this act, however.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

The parents of the victims are already victims themselves and would be among the first suspects questioned. Any effort to compensate for this abject failure of our legal system should be made by an uninvolved third party.

[Buffalo Bob]

an appeals court ruled he never had a chance to confront his accuser

Folks who know me here know my hatred of pedophiles. I am no lawyer, but it seems that the appeals court properly applied constitutional law in this ruling.

Other posters here are correct that this man should have been locked up way before this and the situation sucks, but isn't this decision the correct one that's based on our Bill of Rights?

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

Sorry Professor,

I think his previous bad acts and the fact that they most likely had a stack of evidence against him. Having been involved with grand jury, I'll tell you that this would not go to trial unless there were enough elements for a conviction. This is a heaping pile of liberal droppings.

Where are the costumed vigilantes when we need them? The judical system has failed us again.

- BG

[John Thornton]

How will this ruling effect the Michael Jackson case? Isn't the kid he is accused of molesting very sick?

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

sometimes the victim doesn't testify. It depends on the situation. I mean if it is too much psychological hardship (like in a rape trial) or the person is dead (like a homicide), they will go on the facts and evidence. This guy has molested before and there was enough evidence to convict him the first time on this charge. The only thing this monster should be doing is pushing up the daisies.

[Mr Rogers]

If the accuser was alive to confront him, I would agree with you. However, testimony given before death should be allowed.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

How many did he get away with?

Apparently 206...by his own reckoning.

[wingster]

This is what has happened to a system that has become more preoccupied with the self-serving interests of the "system keepers", aka the lawyers and judges, via rigid and dogmatic adherence to "legal procedure" very often flying in the face of reality, the truth, and the facts.

I hope to high heaven that I never need to rely on the police or our legal system for anything at all important such as this.

[EdReform]

... Stokes targeted runaways and other troubled youth because they typically did not tell authorities. He often gave his victims alcohol and drugs, with some victims waking up in handcuffs and leg shackles... In a letter to a therapist in the early 1990s, Stokes said he had molested 212 victims and felt like a monster. "I am angry at myself and others but I still seek out the weak and the unsuspecting as my victims," he wrote then.

Documenting Homosexual Pedophila

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

here is a link to a great site that takes care of pedophiles online: http://www.pervertedjustice.com

[Il Duce]

after an appeals court ruled he never had a chance to confront his accuser

Ah yes, the Sixth Amendment. An annoying technicality.

[Doctor Stochastic]

"Aside from the victim's testimony, little evidence existed to support the charges against the defendant," the court wrote.

The court disagreed that they had a stack of evidence against the guy.