Posted on 07/31/2010 9:30:57 PM PDT by Nachum
John Joseph Merzbacher, a notorious Baltimore child abuser accused of molesting dozens of students at the Catholic school where he taught, could soon be released from a life sentence, under a federal court order handed down Friday.
Merzbacher, now 68, is a former middle school teacher at the city's Catholic Community School. He was sentenced in 1995 to multiple life terms after a jury found him guilty of raping a preteen Elizabeth Ann Murphy decades earlier. He has already served 15 years.
But his case is now being sent back to state court so he can be offered a 10-year plea deal that was apparently on the table before his trial began, which he claims he was never properly advised of, as law requires.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
No point in getting upset with the judge if he is following the law—that’s what judges are supposed to do. Hard to tell if he’s correct on the facts or not.
But the thing that strikes me as unbelievable is the prosecution having offered a deal for ten years in the first place, for a crime like that. The only thing that makes sense there is if they figured they had several other, better cases that they could prosecute against him to make sure he stayed locked up for life. This may still be an alternative, depending on the statute of limitations there. If the statute has run, and this guy gets out of jail, in my opinion the fault lies with the prosecutors, not the judge.
Thanks for posting it Nachum!
They still have 13 cases they haven’t tried yet, as a just in case. The original defense attorney has sense passed away. There seems to be something strange about all of this. I have a hard time believing they would have offered him 10 years, when he ended up with 4 life terms.
/Spelling: ‘since’ passed away... (sorry, it’s late, sigh).
I’ve since read that this is Merzbacher’s word against his deceased attorney - stating he was not told about the plea bargain. He has appealed to two other judges prior and both denied saying this was a far stretch. Yet, this judge is alowing the appeal. Apparently the plea allowed for 10 years and drop all the other charges. This is not good, not good at all.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
*sigh* The past victims and potential future victims (Lord forbid!) need to be on high alert if this pervert animal goes free.:(
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