Posted on 04/24/2010 5:37:03 AM PDT by abb
William Anderson has been blogging about a child abuse prosecution underway in Georgia in which Tonya Craft is accused of abusing her daughter. The daughter, some of her friends (and their parents), and Ms. Craft’s ex-husband are witnesses for the state — so Ms. Craft needed and obtained a good defense lawyer. However, there is only so much a defense lawyer can do when the prosecutor and the judge in the case start breaking rules.
Anderson’s account of the prosecutorial and judicial misconduct is shocking. Here’s a sampling:
* A Facebook status update written by the prosecutor, with comments left by witnesses for the pending trial. * A mother claiming on the stand that her daughter had never taken acting classes, yet with information on IMDB that suggests she’s taken acting classes in Atlanta (that information was dismissed by the judge). * The judge sitting on the case represented the defendant’s husband in their divorce, but refused to recuse himself from the case.
More here. Some are comparing this case to the Duke lacrosse players who were railroaded by Michael Nifong. That case — bad as it was — fell apart before the trial got underway. This case is in trial right now and the judge is compounding the prosecutorial abuses.
Anderson had a recent article in Cato’s Regulation magazine. For more Cato work on prosecutorial misconduct, go here and here.
You all will remember our good friend Bill Anderson who wrote so prolifically and eloquently on the DukeLax Frame. He has discovered and is covering another frameup in progress.
Then there will be a plethora of material for the defense to use as a basis for a motion for mistrial or grounds for an appeal.
Except for that pesky expectation that prosecutors should not put people through a trial when they have not committed a crime, I agree with you.
Georgia is notorious for crooked judges.
Just in my local rinky dink town (population of entire county is 15,000), we had a magistrate judge get her karma much to the applause of a lot of people.
My 16 year old son broke up with a girl he was dating, they were both in high school. Well, to gain her revenge, she told her parents my son punched her in the face. Had a whole story, where it happened, when it happened, etc... So the mom went to the magistrate and gave the sob story to the judge. Judge issued a warrant for my son, cops picked up my MINOR son from school and questioned him at the police station without even letting us know he had been taken, much less present in the room! Much less with an attorney!
So the typical small town justice of everyone being back slap happy went on and on until I finally got to reading the claims of this little snotty girl. The idiot didn’t bother to make sure my son was at school that day. Matter of fact, not only was he not at school, but he was getting medical testing done and had documented date/time stamp on the MRI he was getting at the time he was supposedly hitting this girl in the face.
Well, long story short... that magistrate judge just plead guilty last week to stealing county funds. Her, her neice and another family member who all worked in the office also not only got fired, but got charged. AND, another judge in the circuit who usually just rammed the cases through based on the wish, will and word of the other ‘good ole boys’ or good ole gals’ also got fired for making obscene comments to an undercover GBI agent. He was being investigated for abusing his authority... under his robes... if you get my meaning.
So, I hope and pray this case gets the same attention our county got. The GBI has it’s work cut out for them with all the small town networks they have going.
This sort of thing happens all too frequently in rural counties throughout the country. My nephew was in a long legal battle for visitation with his son. The tramp he married was related to the judge and prosecutor in an Alabama county. He lost based on perjuried testimony.
I’m under no illusion that such behavior will ever be stamped out. But the more examples that can be made of the would-be Nifongs, the less it is likely to happen.
Who is Nifong fonging these days, anyway?
We have a serious problem in this country with corrupt prosecutors and social workers.
A compentent DOJ would do a lot to solve the problem.
We’ve not heard from him in a good while. Meanwhile, there’s this uplifting story this morning.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/duke_guy_dramatic_comeback_AKFmi3ZdK96IOvaHUEaoeO
Duke guy’s dramatic comeback
Beat ‘rape’ smear
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