Posted on 01/09/2010 9:04:49 AM PST by Dubya
FORT WORTH — Fred Rein used the tips he earned delivering pizzas to help people, whether paying for a pizza for a financially strapped family or a young mother’s electricity bill.
But on Oct. 3, authorities say the 66-year-old Fort Worth man encountered a 16-year-old boy intent on stealing money from Rein.
On a friend’s phone, the teen later told police, he called Domino’s Pizza, gave the false name Joseph and placed an order for four pizzas, cheesy sticks and two bottles of soda. He provided an address on Bessie Street, a house where he used to live and now knew to be vacant. Then he and three friends walked to a park across the street from the house and watched and waited.
When the deliveryman arrived, the teens approached and demanded the pizza. When Rein laughed, the teen later told investigators, he hit the man with an aluminum baseball bat.
Prosecutors Amy Mills and Tim Bednarz sought to have the teen certified as an adult, pointing to his lack of remorse for the attack, which left Rein with a permanent brain injury. He is still hospitalized in a rehabilitation facility.
"He may be 16 but this was a cold, calculated, premeditated attack on an innocent victim," Mills told state District Judge Jean Boyd.
Boyd, however, denied prosecutors’ request, siding with defense attorneys Chad Lee and Jonathan Simpson, who had argued that the teen had not yet been afforded the counseling services and treatment programs that are available in the juvenile system. They had also pointed out that a psychological exam raised concerns about the teen’s maturity and sophistication.
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
State District Judge Jean Boyd issued the ruling against Russell Dow in an adult certification hearing at the Scott D. Moore Juvenile Justice Center.
Dow was certified after authorities noted that Dow had been referred to juvenile officials nine times and he had been on juvenile probation twice.
Dow had planned to use the slaying as the subject for a rap song, according to testimony Wednesday morning from Hurst Det. Daniel Bedillion.
Dow is one of seven teens accused in the killing of 20-year-old Reed Ballard. Dow is accused of being the shooter.
Just for the two of you I will amend my earlier statement.
I don’t believe “quality of life” garbage. I am sad to see that other conservatives do.
Oh,G-d,how can someone do this to an innocent person? My heart breaks for the poor man.Why is it that such horrible things happen to those who are trying to help others?
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For doing what, their jobs (providing a rigorous defense)? You do understand the way our system works, don't you?
I’d like to take my pro goalie stick (one used in the NHL so it’s pretty sturdy),and smash this piece of S**t in the head w/it.So hard,in fact, that the words Sher-Wood would be noticeable on his face.
How much maturity and sophistication does it take to bash a 66 year old man in he face with a ball bat?
I originally responded to a comment about the veracity of the defense lawyers and you bring up an excellent point along that line as well as my comment about our judicial system.
Your question answers itself and it also exposes the posing of the question for its emptiness and contradiction. It well illustrates the sometimes folly of our adversarial system and indicates how easily defense lawyers can play the system to escape justice
We know and have seen many examples of how prosecutors do the same.
“For doing what, their jobs (providing a rigorous defense)? You do understand the way our system works, don’t you?”
Yeah, thanks professor, I understand how the system works...I don’t understand how these two shitbums work. They disgust me.
Were I the Judge I would sentence him to death,...and I am not kidding. I’m serious. And this would be the last pizza delivery man ever hit by some mutant POS!
Worse???????????????Sure it could! The dent in his skull could drip blood and fluid forever! Say what?
If these lawyers (likely public defenders) disgust you then sorry, you don’t understand our system.
This way, the public can be sure that the judges who make these rehabilitation decisions with violent offenders really believe in the safety what they are doing.
A long time ago, in Virgina, a liberal judge who consistently released violent offenders onto the public found himself targeted with a violent offender prison release halfway house to be installed in his upper class town. This was followed by the sentencing guidelines movement.
Why wasn’t the Pizza guy packing heat? I don’t give a #### if it’s a “company policy”, unless they provide an armed guard riding shot gun, they can piss off or have the company CEO make the deliveries.
“If these lawyers (likely public defenders) disgust you then sorry, you don’t understand our system.”
Not much on logic, eh? Understanding the system has nothing to do with loathing these parasites. Abortion is legal too. Are you a big fan of abortionists? They rate right next to scumbag defense attorneys in my book. How’s that for logic?
On down the road, a lot of people will pay with their lives because of this judge.
But the ones coming after this animal are going to be twice as bad as he is.
Decent people should leave all the big cities and leave the animals there to fend for themselves.
I would not bet on it.
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You have zero knowledge of these lawyers beyond this story. You don't know if they were appointed by the court or hired by the family. You don't know how they feel personally about their client or his actions yet that doesn't stop you from calling them parasites and declaring your personal hatred for them.
Without lawyers who are willing to rigorously represent the most unpopular defendents our system would fall apart. It seems that this concept is over your head.
So yet another feral product of a single mom and a criminal absentee dad. Lovely.
And people wonder why I like firearms, when scum like this run amok.
“Without lawyers who are willing to rigorously represent the most unpopular defendents our system would fall apart. It seems that this concept is over your head.”
I loathe Barney Frank. Does that mean I don’t understand politics?
What the hell is your problem? Are you one of the dirtbag lawyers who exploit the system to put murderers back on the street? I’m expressing an opinion about the kind of people that, in my opinion, do a job that I would never do and would be ashamed if anyone of my family did, just like an abortionist or a Democratic operative. They are all legal.
You don’t know me and you don’t know what is or isn’t over my head. I have stated my opinion of the kind of scum that feed off a system that permits them to do it legally; that does not mean I know nothing of the system. The fact that I consider these two low life bstrds to be on a par with abortionists and liberals mean that I also do not understand abortion or liberals? I am guessing you missed the development of logical thinking in your education; a low opinion of someone has nothing to do with understanding how the system works.
This story could be worse.
Well, he may still be alive, but it's not really a happy situation...
Jackie Rein, who attended Friday’s hearing with the hopes that the boy would be certified as an adult, said the attack left her husband a different man.
"The way I feel about these boys is they’ve really taken Fred’s life away," Jackie Rein said. "Even if Fred lived for another 10 or 15 years, his life has been taken away. He’ll never be able to do the things that he did before and Fred is someone who loved to do things."
Fred Rein, a former Air Force captain and pharmaceutical company salesman, suffered multiple skull fractures in the attack. Injuries have affected his short-term memory and his vision is now impaired. Because of the expense involved and because she has multiple sclerosis, Jackie Rein said she is only able to make the two-hour trek to see her husband about twice a month. His hearing has worsened, making it impossible for them to speak by phone.
Lately, she said her, husband seems to have regressed. His weight has dropped dramatically. He rarely eats. When family members visited him the weekend after Christmas, he wouldn’t even try to open his gifts. "We opened all his presents and we’d show them to him," Jackie Rein said. "Sometimes he wouldn’t respond. Sometimes he’d kind of smile. Sometimes he’d shake his head."
“In 2007, the teen was sentenced to one year of probation for throwing bricks from a bridge onto oncoming traffic.”
probation! That says alot about the ‘system’.
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