Gee, could this be related to his campaign...?The questions sure to be asked...?
Posted on 11/23/2007 11:40:52 PM PST by raccoonradio
Presidential hopeful Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday demanded the resignation of his own judicial nominee after she sprang a violent convicted killer over the summer, as new details emerged showing that the judge ignored warnings when she freed the ex-con, now accused of killing a Washington couple.
“There was a systematic failure in this case starting with the judge,” Romney’s spokesman, Eric Ferhnstrom, said of Superior Court Judge Kathe Tuttman. “Her decision represented an inexplicable lapse in judgment and was inexcusable. Unless there are facts unknown to us, (former Bay State) Gov. Romney believes Judge Tuttman should resign.”
However, a former Bay State lawmaker yesterday slammed Romney for failing to enact recommendations from his own blue-ribbon panel on correction reform that might have prevented the tragedy, including monitoring inmates more closely after their release from prison and instituting job-training programs.
“Had he actually followed our recommendations on appropriate programs for re-entering prisoners, not just this prisoner, but prisoners across the commonwealth, would be less likely to reoffend,” said former state Sen. Jarrett Barrios, who along with former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger resigned from the correction commission in protest in December 2005.
Last night, Ed Ryan, head of a Bay State bar association task force on fair and impartial courts, came to Tuttman’s defense, saying prosecutors should have asked the judge for a so-called “dangerousness hearing” that might have kept Daniel Tavares Jr., charged in the killing last weekend of Washington newlyweds, behind bars.
“Mitt Romney is throwing this very capable judge under the bus for his own political ends,” Ryan said. “It is gutless.”
Tuttman is under fire for releasing Tavares, 41, who had just served 16 years for slashing his mother to death with a carving knife, over the objections of Worcester County prosecutors who warned her of his violent history.
“Not only did he just finish a manslaughter sentence . . . he had a robbery charge and he had an assault charge (before he killed his mother),” Worcester Assistant District Attorney William Loughlin said, according to a transcript of a bail review hearing in front of Tuttman on July 16 after Tavares was charged with assaulting two prison guards.
“So he has a history of crimes of violence, and he committed crimes of violence while he was even serving for a crime of violence,” Loughlin said. “High cash bails are needed.”
But Tuttman chose instead to overrule a District Court judge’s decision to hold Tavares on $50,000 cash bail and she set him free, saying it was unlikely the convicted killer “poses a flight risk.”
Prosecutors also asked Tuttman to put a monitoring bracelet on Tavares, citing his “significant history of violence,” but the judge refused to do that, too, according to the transcript.
“It is the Court’s view that Mr. Tavares has wrapped his sentence on the underlying offense,” Tuttman said from the bench. “He doesn’t have a history of any defaults on the record. And there is no indication . . . that he is a risk of flight, other than the nature and circumstances of the charges.”
Those charges included accusations that Tavares, using a cast on his arm, punched a correction officer and spit on another prison guard while snarling: “I’m going to kill you, (expletive)! I’ll break your (expletive) arms off!”according to court records.
Tuttman ordered that Tavares be put under the supervision of the Department of Probation, which required him to check in with a probation officer three times a week, maintain employment as a welder and live with a sister in Dighton.
Yesterday, probation spokeswoman Coria Holland refused to say if Tavares fulfilled any of his court-ordered obligations. Tavares failed to show up in court on July 23. He moved to Washington to marry his pen pal, Jennifer Freitas, who began writing to the con after answering his personal ad on www.inmate.com.
Tavares confessed to murdering Beverly and Brian Mauck in the newlyweds’ home on Saturday with a .22-caliber gun he wrapped in a towel, according to Washington court records.
Tuttman has had no comment on the case. Last night, Joan Kenney, spokeswoman for the Trial Court, had no comment on Romney’s call for Tuttman to resign.
>>saying it was unlikely the convicted killer “poses a flight risk.”
...
>>He moved to Washington to marry his pen pal, Jennifer Freitas, who began writing to the con after answering his personal ad on www.inmate.com.
Tonight’s movie: Daniel Tavares in “I Dismember Mama”
Good old Romney, the scrubbed face 60 year old man of raw ambition.
First he appoints her ..then he wants her sacked so he can attempt to escape any kind of political fallout. Seems to me to be a pattern with him.
Shouldnt he have known what kind of judge she was before he appointed her? What kind of judges will he appoint as president? And what kind of vetting process did he use in appointing this one?
You got to love this line...
“He doesn’t have a history of any defaults on the record. And there is no indication . . . that he is a risk of flight, other than the nature and circumstances of the charges.”
No history of defaults other than the nature and circumstances of the charges????? Shouldnt the nature and the circumstances have given her a clue???
Well, now we can see an example of his functional political ideology in making appointments. Not any better than Rooty Tooter, and probably much worse.
Supreme Court Judicial nominations in a Romney presidency would go throuh the judicairy commitee like shite through a bull.Leahy would love Romney.
This guy is living in liberal pollyanna land.
So chump Barrios and actually thought this cold-blooded killer could have been OK had he been properly rehabilited and introduced into the community?
Are these guys high?
It absolutely is, but perhaps in a way some aren’t taking into account.
I note Jarrett Barrios, who our lovely little MSM hit-piece fails to identify.
Barrios is an openly gay Democrat and social worker. In other words, a guy who probably has a pretty substantial beef with Romney. And why is our media not reporting any of this?
Ed Ryan, the President of the Massachusetts Bar Association, is also famous for going on Hannity & Colmes and defending Judge Suzanne DelVecchio, who suspended sentence to a male teacher who raped a 15-year old boy student.
Ryan said that since the boy was just a few weeks before his 16th birthday that the sex must have been consensual and defending the judge’s decision on those grounds.
Ryan has also spoken in favor of a Judge Maria Lopez who gave a sentence of 5-years probation to a transgendered male who held a screwdriver to the throat of a young boy and forced him to perform sexual acts upon him after prosecutor’s wanted 8-10 years in jail. When Bill O’Reilly confronted him on the matter, Ryan said that O’Reilly was undermining the judicial system.
If you ask me, there’s some very irresponsible reporting going on here and one too many homosexual connections aimed against Romney.
Be ye ware of any MSM garbage like this.
Officials in Washington warned GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, right, to be on high alert for convicted killer Daniel Tavares Jr., inset, who once threatened to assassinate the former Bay state governor.
>>Meanwhile, a top law enforcement official in Washington state lashed out yesterday at the “free pass” Tuttman gave Tavares last summer when he was freed on personal recognizance after being charged with assaulting two prison guards.
“It’s really pissed off a lot of people around here,” said Ed Troyer, spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff’s office in Washington. “How does a guy who’s already killed his own mother get out here without us knowing about it?...It’s a great crime plan at the expense of everyone else in the country. It’s almost like it’s a free pass.”
>>Judge Suzanne DelVecchio, who suspended sentence to a male teacher who raped a 15-year old boy student.
Howie Carr’s nickname for her, IIRC: Let ‘Em Go Delvecchio
>>Judge Maria Lopez who gave a sentence of 5-years probation to a transgendered male
and got a TV show out of it! (Just cancelled though)
Lopez (wife of Boston Phoenix publisher Steve Mindich): “You may SIT DOWN NOW!”
How about the death penalty instead? No wait, this
is Massachusetts where it’s considered barbaric.
(Actually some citizens tried to get it passed but
pols shot it down.)
See my post above. Barrios is a total fruit and as liberal as they come.
That he beleives that a man who kills his mother could be rehabilitated and that he has issues with Mitt Romney doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.
You may remember the story a few years ago about a Mass legislator trying to ban “Fluffernutter” sandwiches? Yes, that was Barrios. Probably one of his more substantial bills.
Amazing, some women are so clueless and self-destructive. I'll be sure to add that link to my kids favorites list.
Lets face facts here. Tuttman liked him , he was a buttman.
LOL
She identified with the accused, he showed her that he was a human being when he turned his imploring liquid gaze of true appreciation on seeing a real woman, igniting her feral maternal instincts!
This woman has no business on the judicail bench, maybe she needs to go work for the Red Sox.
Mitt needs to stay out of his previous faux pas, and if he hasn't got sense enough to do that, he doesn't have sense enough to be president.
“Barrios is an openly gay Democrat and social worker.”
My understanding is that Mitt appointed left wing judges and at least two homosexual activists.
Here is a short video by Republican homosexuals that are annoyed the the new 2008 Romney has re imaged his beliefs for this campaign.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elx3UWmyAY4
Personally, I’m glad to see a politician admit his mistakes. The norm is to spin or parse or re-direct away from their errors. Think clinton...
We have Romney on video advancing the homosexual agenda against the Boy Scouts, did he ever roll back any homosexual gains?
Romney was a strong advocate for the Massachusetts Marriage Amendment and also went before the US Senate speaking in favor of the Federal Marriage Amendment. He also went to court and won a ruling forcing the Massachusetts state legislature to vote on putting gay marriage on the ballot.
Did these movements pass? No. But you can blame that on the respective Senates.
I’m not sure what you’re getting at. Yes, in that debate, Romney attempted to sit on both sides of the fence. He said he believed that local boy scouts troups should be able to regulate whoever they want as their leaders but that he believed anyone should be allowed to participate.
No doubt he was playing up to his audience at the time—both of them. I don’t think I would call that “advancing the homosexual agenda” as much as walking a tightwire in a liberal state.
Yeah, I’d like it a lot more if the guy had just flatly said that Boy Scouts should be able to put whoever they want up there.
I don’t know. My love for Mitt has its reservations. I think he’d be a fine President. I just wish Hunter was a lot stronger.
“My love for Mitt has its reservations. I think he’d be a fine President. I just wish Hunter was a lot stronger.”
Cute, from the liberal to the non candidate. We have all noticed how many of the Romney people make the huge skip from liberal Romney to conservative Hunter, all the time skipping over the only conservative that can win, Fred Thompson. Very convenient and hard to explain.
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