give these scumbags 5 years on probation and drug test them every week... fail and send them to jail. as if that would ever happen
Posted on 01/20/2006 1:22:41 PM PST by mafree
In an unexpected twist in the Election Day tire slashing trial, four former Kerry-Edwards campaign staffers, including the sons of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) and former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt, have agreed to plead no contest to misdemeanors.
The plea agreements came in the middle of jury deliberations after an eight-day trial on felony property damage charges that carried potential 3 1/2 year prison terms upon conviction.
Michael Pratt, 33, Sowande Omokunde, 26, Lewis G. Caldwell, 29, and Lavelle Mohammad, 36, have all pleaded no contest to misdemeanor counts of criminal damage to property. Omokunde is Moore's son.
Prosecutors will recommend probation sentences as part of the deal, and that the four together pay $5,317 in restitution for the damaged tires.
The surprise resolution was offered by prosecutors at 2 p.m., nearly 7 hours into deliberations and an hour after a jury note complained of an impasse.
Defendant Justin Howell, 21, was the only one of the five charged not included in the deal. The no contest pleas have not been formally made yet, but when they are, jurors will be left to deliberate the felony charge against Howell.
A note this morning from the jury to the judge about the verdict forms had hinted it was considering at least some convictions in the case, but the jury did not return a verdict before breaking for lunch.
Then around 1 p.m., the jury sent a second note suggesting they could not reach a verdict. “We have people that are adamant about their decision and are not budging. We don’t know what to do,” the note read in part.
Defense attorneys immediately requested a mistrial, which Circuit Judge Michael Brennan denied. He doubted that the jury was intractably hung, since testimony lasted close to seven court days and deliberations had only been going about six hours.
“That’s (an) insufficient amount of time to declare a mistrial,” Brennan said, and ordered the jury to continue deliberating.
Less than an hour later, news of the plea deals emerged.
How close was the Wisconsin vote, anyway?
This doesn't quite pass the Smell Test.
Can the Republican Party of Wisconsin go after them for restitution or civil damages?
(I know nothing about the law and could't even pretend to be one on TV!)
bump
"Obviously the Rats got someone onto the jury -- either a die-hard Rat who doesn't care about the law, or an idiot they could manipulate."
Maybe they just found someone who could be bought.
When I heard the jury's first question about how to assign specific guilt to a defendant I knew their attorney's would be recommending a deal.
Remember when Johnny Cockroach brought in the Nation of Islam freaks to stand there in the courtroom.
That was a message to the black jurors.......
You are correct. I wonder how the average vandal would have been treated. Would they have been offered the deal or would they have been convicted. That is my problem. I do not like it when people are treated differently because of money, skin color or connections.
give these scumbags 5 years on probation and drug test them every week... fail and send them to jail. as if that would ever happen
I'm not sure you can tie slashing tires to election tampering, even if you know that the tires were on vans which were going to be used to transport voters to the polls.
If you slashed the tires while they were picking up voters, such that a voter in the van no longer had access to the polls, you'd have a stronger case.
This was a "simple" vandalism case in state court.
"My goodness. Do Democrats never grow up?"
No.
And the sudden plea deal was because the DNC wanted this debacle out of the headlines.
Are they getting off easy or what?
Remember this is Wisconsin. Both the prosecutor and the judge were probably Democrats.
If I was a taxpayer in Milwaukee or was the boss of any of those jurors who I had to pay while they sat there I would be pissed.
They spent more money to take these guys to trial than they have to pay in fines.
What a freaking joke!
Boy, haven't seen you around here in a long time. What's up with that?
"DEMs cleared of charges" reads tomorrow's headline.
I care. If convicted of felonies they won't vote. Nor will they get real good jobs that require security clearences. These are ADULTS that CONSPIRED to commit criminal acts. Felony convictions would be a FIRST STRIKE in case they come to California where we have the 3 strikes law.
Howell appears to be the non-Black-Panther (or connected Leftist) in the bunch.
|
Lewis G. Caldwell |
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Justin Howell |
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Lavelle Mohammad |
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Sowande A. Omokunde |
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Michael Pratt |
You expected anything else?
This was quite common in the overlooked newscycle of a national trend of Brownshirts for Kerry intimidating and vandalizing Conservatives. This went even father as it was a deliberate attempt to interfere with poll activity. As I suspect was the "power outage" at the GOP offices (in Pittsburgh I believe).
Socialists suck. End despotism now. Lock them up and make an example of them AND their parents.
Been very busy so sometimes I just lurk. Wassup with you?
I would think they could be charged with that at the FEDERAL level. Convict them of doing the deed first, then press for tampering with the election.
Your post gave me a new tagline. Thanks!
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