Tag Archives: #HoldThemAccountable

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Hold them accountable! Cute white girl abducted, and the media are all over it; black woman shot in the face in Philly, oh, who cares about that?

Eliza Fletcher.

I have said it before: The Philadelphia Inquirer really isn’t all that concerned about murders unless the victim is an ‘innocent’, someone of some note, or a cute little white girl. This time it was five separate stories, albeit by the Associated Press, rather than Inky stories themselves, concerning the abduction and murder of Eliza Fletcher in Memphis, Tennessee.

A black woman was shot in the head at 4:11 AM on Saturday, September 3th in the Tacony section of the city, and all the Inquirer had was:

At 4:11 a.m., a 29-year-old woman was shot once in the face by someone she knew. No additional information was immediately available.

Police said the woman was in stable but critical condition at Jefferson Torresdale Hospital.

But, to be fair, the abduction of Mrs Fletcher was a national story; much of the credentialed media covered the story of the abduction of the pretty white woman.

Man charged in jogger abduction kidnapped attorney in 2000

The man charged with kidnapping a Tennessee woman jogging near the University of Memphis last week spent 20 years behind bars for a previous kidnapping

by Associated Press | Updated: Tuesday, September 6, 2022

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The man charged with kidnapping a Tennessee woman jogging near the University of Memphis last week spent 20 years behind bars for a previous kidnapping.

U.S. Marshals arrested 38-year-old Cleotha Abston on Saturday after police detected his DNA on a pair of sandals found near to where Eliza Fletcher was last seen, according to an arrest affidavit. Police also linked the vehicle they believe was used in the kidnapping to a person at a residence where Abston was staying.

Also see: Robert Stacy McCain: Memphis Police Charge Suspect With Kidnapping Billionaire Heiress

While Fletcher has not been found, Memphis police said in the affidavit they believe she was seriously injured in the abduction, which was caught on surveillance video. Authorities have said Fletcher, 34, was jogging around 4 a.m. on Friday when a man approached her and forced her into an SUV after a brief struggle. Fletcher was reported missing when she did not return home that morning.

Late Monday, police tweeted that a body had been found in a Memphis neighborhood but that the identity of that person and the cause of death was unconfirmed. The tweet made no reference to the Fletcher case, saying only that the investigation was ongoing. A large police presence was reported in the area where authorities reported finding the body just after 5 p.m., local news reports said.

It was later reported that the recovered body was indeed that of Mrs Fletcher.

Abston previously kidnapped a prominent Memphis attorney in 2000, the Commercial Appeal reported. When he was just 16 years old, Abston forced Kemper Durand into the trunk of his own car at gunpoint. After several hours, Abston took Durand out and forced him to drive to a Mapco gas station to withdraw money from an ATM. At the station, an armed Memphis Housing Authority guard walked in and Durand yelled for help. Abston ran away but was found and arrested. He pleaded guilty in 2001 to especially aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery, according to court records. He received a 24-year sentence. . . . .

Durand also detailed Abston’s lengthy history in the juvenile court system. In the years before the kidnapping, Abston had been charged with theft, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a weapon, and rape, according to Durand’s statement.

Cleotha Abston

Mr Abston was sentenced to 24 years behind bars, but for some reason yet to be reported in the credentialed media, was released after just 20. We need to know: why was Mr Abston released early? Who took the decision to let him out, and did they have any choice under the law in the Volunteer State? And if there was a choice to keep him locked up, how can we hold the person or people who turned this guy loose early accountable for the consequences of their decision?

Remember: Mr Abston was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2001; had he been serving his full sentence, he would have still been in prison on the day he (allegedly) abducted Mrs Fletcher. If the parole officials in Tennessee had any discretion to keep him locked up, then they bear the responsibility for him being out on the streets and able to kidnap and murder Mrs Fletcher.

One of the major problems in our criminal justice system is that we have the state legislatures, the representatives of the people, passing laws which specify very punitive sentences for criminals, real criminals, and then we have lenient prosecutors offering sweetheart plea bargains, judges who too often sentence convicted criminals to light sentences, and state parole boards who, when they have the option, release hardened criminals back onto the streets before their maximum sentences have been completed. All of this ignores the will of the voters, the people who elect our representatives, and the people who want to see criminals locked up.

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Hold them accountable! When criminals are not treated harshly, bad things happen

When criminals are not treated seriously, when they are given lenient plea bargain deals, and when they are let out of jail early, or never jailed at all, bad things can happen. From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Gary Wilburn Elmore, photo by Fayette County Detention Center, and is a public record.

Lexington man, previous offender accused of sexually assaulting a woman under his care

by Christopher Leach | Friday, July 15, 2022 | 8:24 AM EDT

A Lexington man who was previously convicted of a sexual assault crime has been charged with rape and and sexual abuse, according to court records.

Gary Elmore, 52, is accused of sexually assaulting a female while she was asleep. Elmore’s arrest citation said he was the victim’s care taker and the abuse happened daily while the victim was under his care for approximately one month.

The victim is a vulnerable adult and relied on Elmore for care and assistance for completion of nearly all daily living activities, according to court documents.

Elmore is listed on the Kentucky State Police sex offender registry for pleading guilty to third degree rape in 2010 in Jefferson County. Court records show the charge was amended down from first degree rape and he was sentenced to five years of supervised probation.

Elmore was also charged with failure to comply with the sex offender registry twice — later in 2010 and again in 2012, per court records. He pleaded guilty in 2010 to attempting to not comply with the registry. He pleaded guilty in 2012 to failing to comply.

At this point I would normally write that there’s more at the original, but there isn’t; Christopher Leach’s story is only those five paragraphs long.

Mr Elmore would seem to fall into the category of “was known to the police.” His record at the Fayette County Detention Center shows not just one, but five separate mugshots, dated September 15, 2015, December 5, 2021, December 25, 2021, June 16, 2022, and July 14, 2022. The first two mugshots are identical, so it is possible that the Merry Christmas mugshot was to replace the duplicate one used twenty days previously.

Under KRS §510.040, first degree rape is a Class B felony, the punishment for which is a minimum of ten years to a maximum of 20 years under KRS §532.060. Had the charge not been amended down, Mr Elmore could still have been behind bars when he (allegedly) raped his victim.

Under KRS §510.060, third degree rape is a Class D felony, punishable by 1 to 5 years in prison. While I certainly don’t like that Mr Elmore was allowed to plead down, this could very well have been to save the victim further trauma from having to testify in court, something I do understand.

However, he was given 5 years probation, with apparently no jail time at all, and twice tried to evade the sex offender registry, which should have resulted in him being sent to prison, but if he was, the story does not tell us.

A first offense of failure to comply with sex offender registry requirements is a Class D felony under KRS §17.510, the penalty for which is 1 to 5 years in prison, and each subsequent offense is a Class C felony, the sentence for which is a minimum of 5 years to a maximum of 10 years. The victim would not have to testify for this. While the first plea bargain could have been made to save the victim from having to testify, the attempt to evade the register would not have required her testimony; the case could have been made simply via paperwork. The Commonwealth could have locked up this cretin for up to five years on the first offense, which would have made up for him not being jailed previously due to the plea deal.

If he had been sentenced to just one year for that first offense, he would have been free in 2012, the date of his second registry offense, and could have gotten locked up for ten years.

This is a story of a lot of failures by people other than Mr Elmore. Who hired him to work as a caregiver for a mostly helpless woman, despite the fact he was a convicted felon and on the sex offender registry? Did someone check and know about this, and hire him anyway, or did someone simply fail to check the background of a person who was going to be sent into the hole of a disabled woman? In either case, the person who hired him needs to be held accountable.

It has to be asked: just who treated Mr Elmore so leniently in the criminal justice system, leniently enough that he was able to (allegedly) rape a 52-year-old woman who was disabled enough that she required a caregiver? Mr Elmore could have spent at least five years behind bars, though that would not have had him in jail when he (allegedly) raped his helpless victim, but at least the public would have been protected from him for that time. Whoever treated Mr Elmore leniently needs to be held accountable.

Both first degree rape and first degree sodomy (KRS §510.070) are Class B felonies, unless the victim receives a serious physical injury, which would upgrade the charge to a Class A felony, which carries a penalty of not less than 20 nor more than 50 years in prison, or a straight life sentence. The story does not tell us if the victim was injured.

If Mr Elmore is found guilty, he needs to spend the rest of his miserable life behind bars. If he is convicted of both first degree rape and sodomy, he should be sentenced to the maximum, with the sentences set to run consecutively, not concurrently.

The Herald-Leader is telling readers that the Commonwealth’s prisons are once again getting overfilled, but letting criminals out early is not the answer; the answer is to build more prisons to hold the bad guys behind bars for as long as the law allows. This might help deter some of the other bad guys, but it will definitely protect the people of the Bluegrass State.

 

 

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Hold them accountable! Child sex offenders should always receive the maximum allowable sentences

Lenient sentencing lets a Kentucky child sex crime criminal out on the streets!

Previously convicted offender faces new sex abuse charges in Lexington, records show

by Christopher leach | Tuesday, July 7, 2022 | 10:23 AM EDT | Updated: 11:23 AM EDT

John Ault, photo by Fayette County Detention Center, and is a public record.

A Lexington man who was previously convicted on two sex-related crimes has been accused of sexually abusing a girl under the age of 12, according to court documents.John Ault, 61, has been charged with four counts of sexual abuse on a victim under the age of 12 and three counts of sodomy on a victim under the age of 12, according to court records. Ault is a registered sex offender, according to state records.

I have included the link from the original, and saw the records yesterday, but they have since been deleted, as he was transferred to the Fayette County Detention Center. The indicated, however, that Mr Ault was convicted of violating KRS §531.335, Possession or viewing of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor, and KRS §510.335, Unlawful use of electronic means originating or received within the Commonwealth to induce a minor to engage in sexual or other prohibited activities — Prohibition of multiple convictions arising from single course of conduct — Solicitation as evidence of intent. Both statutes define the offenses as Class D felonies. Under KRS §532.060, Sentence of imprisonment for felony — Postincarceration supervision, the sentence for a Class D felony is not less than one (1) year nor more than five (5) years.

Convicted of two Class D felonies, Mr Ault was sentenced to two one year terms, to be served consecutively. Sentenced in March of 2020, he was out on probation by October of 2021. His full sentence would have seen him released in March of this year, but he could, and should, have been locked up for ten years! Continue reading →

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Hold them accountable! Teachers who know another teacher is sexually abusing a student must report it, or face jail

With the leaking of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft majority opinion overturning Roe v Wade, some people have forgotten that there actually is other news, and this one really gets to me. From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

A former Philly teacher sexually assaulted a student, and the district knew he was a predator, lawsuit says

A longtime teacher at Parkway Center City High School assaulted a student over four years at the school, despite warnings that the teacher had abused another student, a recently filed civil suit says.

by Kristen A Graham | Monday, May 2, 2022

A former Parkway Center City High School teacher sexually assaulted one of his students for four years — and the Philadelphia School District allowed it to happen, ignoring repeated evidence of abuse, according to a recently filed lawsuit.

Larry Perry, a veteran, popular English and history teacher at the Philadelphia magnet school on North 13th Street, was already convicted of sexual assault and corruption of a minor in this case and sentenced in March up to eight years in prison. He is pursuing an appeal.

So, Mr Perry has already been convicted; this means that the lawsuit is over an established sexual abuse case.

The internally linked story noted that Mr Perry first began ‘grooming’ the girl when she was 13, and began to have sexual intercourse with her when she was 15. Doing the math from data in that story, Mr Perry was around 40 years old at the time. He was 51 at the time of his arrest.

Several paragraphs down:

Teachers who were friends with Perry knew about his relationship with the victim, the suit says, but did nothing despite being mandated reporters. A noontime aide once saw Perry driving the victim on I-95. A school police officer began noticing Perry spending significant amounts of time with the victim and brought his concerns to the school principal, who responded by bringing the police officer to a meeting with her and Perry.

If the allegation in the lawsuit is correct, teachers, plural, knew about the affair, but did nothing! It was a police officer assigned to the school who apparently did not know of the relationship — if the reporting is accurate — but was suspicious, and brought his “concerns” to the principal.

The principal told the school police officer that Perry “had been investigated previously regarding similar allegations, and that nothing happened to him.” The principal took no further action, the suit says.

The school had been warned about Perry before — in 1998, Perry’s then-girlfriend discovered him naked with another underage student at their home. She kicked him out of the apartment and reported the inappropriate contact to Parkway Center City officials, handing over letters and cards Perry wrote to the girl. Nothing was done with those allegations, the suit says.

The Inquirer article does not go into sufficient depth here. It could be that there was more than one previous investigation, which turned up nothing. That Mr Perry was caught in flagrante delicto with an underaged student, and that his then-girlfriend turned over physical evidence to the school, and he retained his job, is damning. This is an allegation which, if substantiated, should lead to serious investigations, terminations, and criminal charges against anyone who covered up Mr Perry’s abuse.

Mr Perry would have been 30 or 31 at the time, which leads to an obvious question: did he have tenure in 1998? If he did not, why was he retained? Even if the information brought against him at the time was insufficient to fire him, if he did not have tenure the school could simply have not continued his contract. If he raised a stink with his union, the cahool could simply inform the union of the allegations, and one would think that the union would not go to bat for him in such a situation.

Perry’s abuse of the plaintiff was so well known by other students that he “addressed the comments with students in his class and said that if the talk and rumors about him and Jane Doe do not stop, he will fail the students and they will not graduate,” according to the suit.

This is the most damning part of all: if this was true, then the ‘relationship’ was common knowledge. The John Jay Report documenting sexual abuse among the priesthood was released in 2004, and The Philadelphia Inquirer had been all over abuse stories. The titillating stories about Washington state teacher Mary Kay Letourneau and her affair with a 12-year-old boy were all over the news, both in 1998, when it first became public, and again in 2004 following her release from prison and marriage to Vili Fualaau, by then 21, the student with whom she had a ‘relationship.’ No teacher with an IQ above room temperature could not have known about the illegality of such ‘relationships,’ and the penalties for it. Teachers were all instructed about their reporting responsibilities for suspected abuse.

So, if the allegations in the lawsuit are accurate, who in Parkway Center City High School, and in the Philadelphia School District administration, knew about this and took no action?

If the allegations are substantiated, those who knew and did nothing or said nothing need to be fired! Any who have teaching certificates or professional licenses or certifications need to have them revoked. Under Chapter 63, §6319, the failure of a mandated reporter to keep something like this secret is guilty of either a felony in the third degree (sentence 3½ to 7 years in prison), if the mandated reporter has direct knowledge of the abuse, or a misdemeanor in the second degree (1 to 2 years in prison) if his knowledge is less certain.

The cited article stated that Mr Perry was “a veteran, popular” teacher, and it needs to be pointed out to everyone: we don’t care how much you like a person, if you know that he is sexually abusing minors, it is your duty to report it, and if you do not, you can go to jail as well.

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Hold them accountable!

What happens when the District Attorney does not take crime seriously?

It was a series of small decisions, taken the wrong way, and the result was that a woman was sexually assaulted.

Suspect in SEPTA sex assault masturbated in a probation office two weeks before, officials say — but wasn’t charged

Some in the court system are questioning whether Quintez Adams could have been prevented from allegedly sexually assaulting a woman on the subway on April 24.

by Chris Palmer | Thursday, April 28, 2022

Quintez Adams, photo by Philadelphia Police Department and is a public record. Photo via the Bucks Daily Voice. Click to enlarge.

The man accused of sexual assault on SEPTA’s Broad Street Line last week had masturbated in front of probation officers inside their Center City offices two weeks earlier, authorities said Thursday.

And though police took 28-year-old Quintez Adams into custody — landing him in jail for potentially violating his probation in a prior burglary case — they didn’t ask prosecutors to charge him with a crime for several weeks.

In the meantime, court records show, a city judge ordered that Adams be released and ended his probation. And just 12 days after that, police say, Adams sexually assaulted a woman on the subway.

  • Mr Adams had been convicted of burglary in 2014, and sentenced to three years in prison. After his release, he was put on probation. Due to several probation violations, his probation has been extended.
  • Mr Adams showed up for a probation meeting on April 4, 2022, and was visibly intoxicated. He had actually appeared on the wrong day. While seated, a probation officer found him masturbating in public. The police were called, and Mr Adams was taken into custody, and the probation officer taken to the police department’s Special Victims Unit to be interviewed.
  • Following the interview, the Special Victims Unit failed to issue an arrest warrant, even though he was arrested after committing an obscene act viewed by several probation officers.
  • Mr Adams could have been charged as a violation of his probation, but was not.
  • Nevertheless, the Adult Probation and Parole Department notified Common Pleas Court Judge Frank Palumbo of the incident. A week later, on April 12th, Judge Palumbo ordered Mr Adams released and his probationary period ended.
  • On Sunday, April 24th a woman was raped on SEPTA’s Broad Street Line. The alleged attack happened between the Erie and Girard Avenue stations around 12:30 PM, a crime caught on surveillance tape.
  • Mr Adams was arrested for that rape, for which he has been charged, along with indecent exposure at the probation office, and an indecent exposure incident at a hospital.

Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Frank Vanore said the Department would investigate why the Special Victims Unit did not issue an arrest warrant for Adams over the obscene act on April 4th, to see if there is some action which needs to be taken.

Now, why was Mr Adams allowed to skate, when the Philadelphia Police Department had him in custody? He violated his probation, yet Judge Palumbo turned him loose and ended his period of supervision. The Special Victims Unit knew what he had done, and knew he was a previously convicted felon on probation. They had everything they needed to keep him behind bars.

Because he was not behind bars on April 24th, an innocent woman was raped.

So far, I haven’t found George Soros-funded District Attorney Larry Krasner’s grimy fingerprints on this directly, but he has created an atmosphere in which crime is not taken seriously, because everyone knows he doesn’t really like to send anyone to jail, at least anyone not a police officer who stepped over the line. Did the Special Victims Unit just wave it off as something harmless, because they figured that let’em loose Larry would never prosecute? We don’t know, but can hope that Chief Inspector Vanore gets to the bottom of it.

Did Judge Palumbo somehow figure that the public masturbation, and intoxication, was somehow a meaningless crime, so no harm, no foul? Did he think that Mr Adams was simply no longer worth spending the city’s money?

At some point, people holding a public trust need to be held accountable! Judge Palumbo, most certainly, and the officers on duty with the Special Victims Unit at the time, definitely. Right now, a woman is dealing with the trauma of having been raped due to their refusal to do their duty!

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So, who failed here? It seems that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson isn't the only one being soft on child porn sentences

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s record of sentencing child pornography case offenders to below the minimum in federal sentencing guidelines looks like something that even Joe Biden wouldn’t have been stupid enough to ignore before nominating her to the Supreme Court, if he knew about it, so the obvious question becomes: who in the Administration failed to discover this during the vetting process?

That, at least, was what I thought when I first heard about this pattern of sentencing. Then I read this article, and it isn’t pretty:

Fact check: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson child porn sentences ‘pretty mainstream’

Monday, March 21, 2022 | 9:02 PM EDT

Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson open this week amid a flurry of misleading allegations by Republican Sen. Josh Hawley that the nominee has a “long record” of letting child porn offenders “off the hook” during sentencing.

“In every single child porn case for which we can find records, Judge Jackson deviated from the federal sentencing guidelines in favor of child porn offenders,” Hawley tweeted Thursday, highlighting nine cases from her time as a federal District Court judge.

How, I have to ask, are Senator Hawley’s “allegations” that Judge Jackson “has a ‘long record’ of letting child porn offenders ‘off the hook’ during sentencing” “misleading”? Did she, or didn’t she impose more lenient sentences on convicted child porn offenders?

While court records show that Jackson did impose lighter sentences than federal guidelines suggested, Hawley’s insinuation neglects critical context, including the fact that the senator himself has voted to confirm at least three federal judges who also engaged in the same practice.

Oh, so she did do what the distinguished gentleman from Missouri said that she did.

Federal appeals court Judges Joseph Bianco of the Second Circuit and Andrew Brasher of the Eleventh Circuit, both Trump appointees, had each previously sentenced defendants convicted of possessing child pornography to prison terms well below federal guidelines at the time they were confirmed with Hawley’s support, an ABC review of court records found.

Asked about the votes Monday by ABC News, Sen. Hawley made clear he has never supported a high court nominee with a similar record in child porn sentencing cases. “Not for this court I haven’t, not for the U.S. Supreme Court,” Hawley told ABC’s Rachel Scott when asked whether his criticism of Judge Jackson presented a double standard.

Hawley said he would not consider a below-guidelines child porn sentence “acceptable” from a nominee and suggested that he was not aware of the times Judges Bianco and Brasher and a third judge, Carl Nichols of the D.C. District Court, had rendered such judgments.

Apparently ‘what aboutism’ is the defense being used to support Judge Jackson on this. If Senator Hawley knew about such in the record of previous nominees for whom he voted, then shame on him, but it is obvious that nominees for lower courts don’t receive the same type of delving into their records that Supreme Court nominees do.

Skipping down a few paragraphs, we come to this:

“If and when we properly contextualize Judge Jackson’s sentencing record in federal child porn cases, it looks pretty mainstream,” wrote Doug Berman, a leading expert on sentencing law and policy at The Ohio State University School of Law.

“Federal judges nationwide typically sentence below the [child porn] guideline in roughly 2 out of 3 cases,” Berman noted on his blog, and “when deciding to go below the [child porn] guideline, typically impose sentences around 54 months below the calculated guideline minimum.”

Professor Berman continued to note that below-range sentences are frequently requested by prosecutors, including some on the cases before Judge Jackson, and that many judges determine that the guidelines are “unduly harsh,” especially when it comes to “first-time offenders.”

And that is the problem!

Let me be clear here: child pornography offenders, whether first-time or otherwise, are sick bastards who need to be locked up for as long as the law allows. Forget the purely advisory sentencing guidelines, just throw them in jail, and hide the key for as long as it can be hidden. Under 18 USC §2252A, a person who is convicted of knowingly possessing child pornography can be sentenced up to 10 years in prison or up to 20 years in prison if the minor depicted in the image is under the age of twelve. A person who is convicted of distributing or receiving child pornography faces a 5 to 20 year prison sentence, and prior convictions can lead to longer sentences.

Ten years, twenty years, is not too harsh a sentence for these offenses; such sentences are, in fact, too lenient. Judges should have multiple count conviction sentences run consecutively, not concurrently.

Of course, read the wording here: when prosecutors recommend specific sentences, it almost always means that this is part of a plea bargain arrangement. In child pornography cases, either the defendant was caught to the child porn, or he wasn’t. Witnesses aren’t required, save for procedural and chain-of-custody, simply the evidence. If the evidence is solid, have the defendant either plead to the maximum, or go to trial. We have previously noted how, locally, Fayette County Commonwealth’s Attorney Lou Anna Red Corn has allowed lenient plea bargain arrangements even in murder cases, and while that’s too small a sample, the truth is that it happens everywhere in this country.

Prosecutors love plea bargains! Guaranteed convictions make them look good, and reduce the amount of work they have to do, but we need to hold prosecutors, judges, and probation and parole officials accountable, accountable for the proper punishment of criminals and for the safety of the public.

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Some (mostly) good news

We have mentioned the case of Cody Allen Arnett before. Mr Arnett was treated leniently by the Kentucky Parole Board, and released well before his previous sentences were up. Despite having five prior violent felony convictions on his record, the parole board recommended him for early release. On June 26, 2018, he was granted parole, and scheduled for release on August 1, 2018, for a conviction on August 7, 2015 for robbery, for which he was sentenced to consecutive five-year sentences.

On September 23, 2018, he broke into the dorm apartment of Georgetown College student Ava Stokes[1]Though the media normally do not disclose rape victims’ identities, Miss Stokes has gone public with her story. and raped her, repeatedly, at knife point. He eventually got careless, and Miss Stokes was able to seize the knife from him, and she stabbed him several times. Fleeing the scene, he was quickly apprehended.

In July of this year, he was finally convicted, and the jury recommended six consecutive life sentences.

    Man sentenced to life in prison in 2018 rape of a Georgetown College student

    by Jeremy Chisenhall | Tuesday, December 7, 2021 | 11:00 AM EST

    A man convicted of raping a Georgetown College student was sentenced Monday to life in prison, according to prosecutors.

    Cody A. Arnett, 36, was sentenced after a jury convicted him of rape, sodomy, burglary, evidence tampering and being a persistent felony offender earlier this year, according to court records. Arnett was accused of sexually assaulting a woman inside a Georgetown College residence hall on Sept. 23, 2018. He threatened her with a knife during the assault, according to court records.

    The jury recommended that Arnett be sentenced to six consecutive life sentences for his crimes, according to court records. But state law doesn’t allow for judges to impose life sentences consecutively. Commonwealth’s Attorney Sharon Muse Johnson said the jury’s recommendation of six life sentences should indicate to the parole board that Arnett shouldn’t be released.

    “The day Arnett’s sentence ends Ava’s begins,” Muse Johnson told the jury, according to a news release. “The day he is released her life is over.” Muse Johnson said Arnett was a danger to the community and “has more than earned a life sentence.”

There’s more at the original.

Sadly, Kentucky state law is such that Mr Arnett will be eligible for parole after serving twenty years. His most recent parole showed just how well he had been rehabilitated! Prosecutors are saying that they believe the jury’s recommendation for a sentence, even though it was outside of state law, will persuade a future Parole Board never to grant him a release. Mr Arnett is 36 years old; he could, in theory, be released when he is just 56.

What does the state Parole Board say about itself, its members, and its mission:

    Welcome to the Kentucky Parole Board

    The Kentucky Parole Board consists of diverse, experienced, and committed professionals who are honored to serve the citizens of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Public safety is paramount to the parole board.

    The mission of the Kentucky Parole Board is to make decisions that maintain a delicate balance between public safety, victim rights, reintegration of the offender and recidivism. We will achieve this important balance by application of our core values of knowledge, experience and integrity.

If “public safety is paramount to the parole board,” why are they trying to “maintain a delicate balance between public safety, victim rights, reintegration of the offender and recidivism”? Their own self-description is internally contradictory.

If you look at the brief biographies of the Parole Board members, you will see that all have advanced degrees and multiple years of experience in law enforcement, yet somehow, some way, the Parole Board could not figure out that releasing a man with five prior violent felony convictions was not a very good idea.[2]Most of the current members were not on the Parole Board when Mr Arnett was approved for release in May of 2018. But it doesn’t take a law degree, or a masters, or even a baccalaureate degree to figure out that Mr Arnett should not have been released even a day earlier than his maximum sentence.

    All board members as well as additional support staff are members of the Association of Paroling Authorities International (APAI) and continuously utilize resources through APAI as well as the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) to enhance knowledge and expertise with regards to criminal justice and the parole process. The goal is to utilize research and evidence based practices in order to keep Kentucky on the cutting edge with advances in the field.

The best “evidence based practices” would be to keep the bad guys locked up! Our problem is not ‘mass incarceration,’ but that not enough people have been locked up, for not a long enough time. And we need to start holding parole board members accountable for the crimes and damages caused by criminals they have released early.

References

References
↑1 Though the media normally do not disclose rape victims’ identities, Miss Stokes has gone public with her story.
↑2 Most of the current members were not on the Parole Board when Mr Arnett was approved for release in May of 2018.
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Hold them accountable!

Latif Williams, photo by, Philadelphia Police Department, via KYT-TV, Philadelphia.

As we noted just a few days ago, murder is not usually an entry-level crime. Killers usually have a string of leading in crimes, of increasing seriousness, before they finally blow someone’s brains out. And it seems that 17-year-old Latif Williams was having quite the run of criminal activity before he (allegedly) shot Temple University student Samuel Sean Collington to death during a botched carjacking attempt.

I will admit to having gotten it wrong when I stated, “Since juvenile records are normally sealed, we’ll probably never know if he was treated over-leniently by District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office.” But it seems that the rules are different when a black juvenile (allegedly) kills a white student, especially one who was well-known and well-liked by several people in the city government:

    Suspect in killing of Temple student Samuel Collington — who had been arrested and released after a July carjacking — surrenders to police

    Latif Williams was in custody earlier this year in connection with a gunpoint carjacking. He was released on house arrest, and charges were later withdrawn when a witness failed to show in court.

    By Anna Orso | Wednesday, December 1, 2021 | 9:12 PM ST

    The teenage suspect in the killing of Temple University student Samuel Collington during a botched carjacking over the weekend surrendered to police Wednesday, officials said in a statement without elaborating.

    Earlier, officials had identified Latif Williams, 17, of Olney, as the person they said shot the 21-year-old Collington on Sunday on the 2200 block of North Park Avenue, near the school’s North Philadelphia campus. The student had just returned after spending the Thanksgiving holiday with his family in Prospect Park, Delaware County.

    Samuel Sean Collington, photo shared by his mother with Channel 10, and from this tweet. Click to enlarge.

    Officials on Wednesday identified Latif Williams, 17, of Olney, as the person they said fatally shot Collington, 21, of Prospect Park, Delaware County, on the 2200 block of North Park Avenue, near the school’s North Philadelphia campus, on Sunday. Investigators said they used video and forensic evidence found at the scene to link Williams to the killing, and law enforcement sources said he is under investigation in connection with several armed robberies in the area.

    Williams was in custody in August after he was charged in a gunpoint carjacking. According to court records, a man told police that late on July 31, he was giving Williams and a second male a ride to a restaurant when Williams pointed a gun at his head and told him to get out of the car. . . .

    Williams was arrested Aug. 14 and charged with aggravated assault, robbery, and related counts. His bail was initially set at $200,000 and he was detained. At a bail hearing less than a week later, Municipal Court Judge Joffie C. Pittman III allowed Williams’ release on unsecured bail, meaning he would need to pay bail only if he violated the terms of his release. Pittman ordered him released on house arrest.

So, Judge Pittman released an accused carjacker, who (allegedly) threatened his victim with a gun, with unsecured bail, which is to say: no bail at all. Mr Williams was released to house arrest, but there is no indication in the Inquirer story that young Mr Williams was placed under electronic monitoring.

    In September, prosecutors dropped the charges before a preliminary hearing at which they would have had to show that there was probable cause to believe Williams had committed a crime.

Note that the prosecution dropped this case well after Judge Pittman released Mr Williams with no bail. The prosecution was dropped because a “key witness” failed to appear. Does the District Attorney’s office make any effort to look up these witnesses before court dates, to get them to appear? We are not told in this story.

Also see: Robert Stacy McCain: ‘Killadelphia’ D.A. Turned Loose Teen Carjacker Who Murdered Marxist Student

It seems as though, when young Mr Williams was already in custody, law enforcement failed! First we had an idiot judge who basically turned loose a suspect charged with armed robbery and aggravated assault with no bail. Then, when a preliminary hearing was scheduled, the District Attorney’s office failed to ensure that their key witness would be present.

The result? If Mr Williams is indeed the killer, the actions, or inactions, of Judge Pittman and Larry Krasner, directly led to the murder of Mr Collington. If Mr Williams is proven to be the murderer, is there any reason why Judge Pittman and District Attorney Krasner shouldn’t become young Mr Williams’ cellmates? Is there any reason that the “key witness” who failed to appear, whose refusal to provide the evidence needed to keep Mr Williams locked up, shouldn’t be held legally responsible for the murder of Mr Collington?

We need to hold law enforcement officials and judges accountable for the consequences of their decisions! Because nobody stood up and did the right thing, Mr Collington is stone cold graveyard dead.

It’s simple: hold idiotic judges like Mr Pittman, and soft-hearted, soft-headed prosecutors like Mr Krasner, responsible for the consequences of their decisions, and other judges and prosecutors will quickly fall into line.

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Hold them accountable! Why shouldn't a Parole Board which released a violent criminal early be punished when the criminal raped a young woman?

We have previously said that the problem is not, as the left tell us, “mass incarceration,” but that not enough people are incarcerated, for not a long enough time. We noted yesterday that had the criminal justice system treated Aramis Murray seriously in the multiple times he had been arrested between July 27, 2017 and February 22, 2018, he might have been behind bars on April 23, 2018, the day he murdered Jason Lemer Smith, and wouldn’t now be looking at spending 25 years behind bars. Had the criminal justice system treated Mr Murray seriously, Mr Smith might still be alive today.

In the end, the criminal justice system did Mr Murray no favors; by treating him leniently, they gave him the opportunity to get himself in worse trouble.

And so we come to the case of Cody Allen Arnett, whom we have previously mentioned. Mr Arnett was convicted for two robberies in Lexington, on August 7, 2015, and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. As early as June 26, 2018 he was recommended for parole, and was scheduled to be released on August 1, 2018. This would mean that he served a week less than three years for his fifteen year sentence. Within 76 days of his release, Mr Arnett was arrested for the forcible rape at knifepoint of a Georgetown College coed, at a time in which he could have and should have still been in prison. Mr Arnett had five violent felony offenses on his record. Mr Arnett was only able to rape his victim because the Parole Board let him out early.

Mr Arnett’s trial had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but he was finally brought before the bar in July of 2021.[1]I would have caught this story earlier, but the Lexington Herald-Leader, which reported on the original charge, never reported on Mr Arnett’s trial or conviction.

    Jury hands Arnett six consecutive life sentences

    By Kyle Woosley | Georgetown News-Graphic | July 30, 2021

    Cody Allen Arnett

    Cody Alan Arnett was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences after jury found him guilty on seven charges relating to the rape of a Georgetown College student in 2018.

    After less than two hours of deliberation, a jury found Arnett guilty on seven counts — one count of first-degree burglary, three counts of first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sodomy and one count of first-degree tampering with physical evidence.

    Following the verdict, the jury went back into deliberation for 15 minutes and found Arnett guilty on an additional first-degree persistent felony offender charge. State law prohibits the jury of knowing prior convictions as it might prejudice the jury, therefore these charges were not presented prior to the other charges. Arnett had previously been convicted of three felonies.

    The trial concluded Tuesday afternoon after emotional testimony from the victim and her parents. Previously the victim’s roommates, first responders, investigators and forensic experts testified. Arnett also testified as his defense team’s one and only witness.

    As the verdict was read, Arnett was chewing gum and grinned when the persistent felony offender charge was read. Commonwealth Attorney Sharon Muse also said Arnett winked and smiled at the victim as he exited the court room following his sentencing.

    In her opening statement to the jury at sentencing, Muse said she was seeking maximum sentencing on each charge. Because Arnett was found guilty of the persistent felony offender charge, she was able to ask the jury to sentence him to life in prison on six of the seven charges he was facing. This excluded the tampering with physical evidence charge, which could only be a maximum sentence of 20 years. The jury went with this recommendation and gave Arnett the maximum 20-year sentence.

    Arnett’s defense team attempted to blame his rough childhood, having several family members and a close friend testifying during sentencing on his behalf. The defense begged for “empathy” and “mercy” to the jury.

Oh, the poor baby! He had a “rough childhood!” Well, now he’s going to have a rough rest of his worthless life, living behind bars and barbed wire, which is exactly what he deserves.

There’s more at the original, including a parole officer’s statement that, regardless of the sentence, Mr Arnett would be eligible for parole in twenty years. But, perhaps if the previous parole board hadn’t shown Mr Arnett “empathy” and “mercy,” he’d have still been in prison on September 23, 2018, when he broke into the coed’s apartment and raped her, repeatedly, at knifepoint. The victim would not have been harmed, not have been raped, and Mr Arnett would not be looking at spending the rest of his miserable life in jail.

The Kentucky Parole Board failed! They failed to protect the victim, and they did no favors for Mr Arnett. If they hadn’t let him out early, he would still be looking at a future in which he’d eventually be released. The Parole Board members who decided to release Mr Arnett, despite his previous, violent record, should be held accountable for their decision. Quite frankly, they need to be locked up right beside him!

As for Mr Arnett’s victim? She’s a strong young woman, who has come forth to fight!

    ‘I’m ready for my voice to be heard’: Georgetown rape survivor discusses trial and resilience

    Woman speaks publicly for first time since attack

    by Leigh Searcy | August 2, 2021 | 7:00 PM EDT | Updated: August 3, 2021 | 11:22 AM EDT

    GEORGETOWN (LEX 18) — In the nearly three years since a rape was reported at Georgetown College, the name of the woman who was attacked had not been released. Now, after the man accused was convicted on multiple counts, Ava Stokes says she wants to show the public — and others who’ve been through a similar nightmare — that she’s a survivor, not a victim.

    Leigh Searcy (L) interviews Ava Stokes. From LEX18.com. Click to enlarge.

    On the night of Sept. 23, 2018, Stokes, then an 18-year-old Georgetown College freshman, told police she was held at knife-point and raped multiple times by a stranger who wandered in through the unlocked door of her student housing unit.

    As is typical in sexual assault cases, Stokes’ name was kept largely private during the investigation and the trial that followed. A recent interview with LEX 18 was the first time she’s spoken about what happened publicly outside of a courtroom.

    “Now I’m ready for my voice to be heard,” Stokes said. “I want other survivors to know that you are allowed to be proud of yourself for surviving something like this, you’re allowed to feel angry and want justice.”

    Stokes survived not only the rape but the reliving of the gruesome details of that assault in front of a courtroom of people as she took the stand at 35-year-old Cody Arnett’s July jury trial.

    “I’m not gonna lie, that was the hardest thing I ever had to do, especially with my family in there and describing the awful things he did to me for hours,” Stokes told LEX 18.

There’s more at the original, including the video of Leigh Searcy’s interview with Miss Stokes. She’s a strong woman, and is trying to help other women who are victims of monsters like Mr Arnett. Miss Stokes survived the rape because she was able to seize the knife and she stabbed Mr Arnett a few times. As he fled the apartment, wounded, he was apprehended.

And Miss Stokes asks the obvious question: why did the Parole Board release Mr Arnett so early? Why did they release a man with five previous violent felony convictions and think he’d somehow straighten up and fly right? She didn’t ask the question I have asked: why shouldn’t the members of the Parole Board who decided to let that cretin out early be held accountable for the consequences of their decision? Why shouldn’t they be locked up right next to the violent criminal they set free, the rapist they helped to create?

A crime like this leaves all sorts of chaos in its wake. Miss Stokes has alleged that Georgetown College did not do enough to protect students, and her volleyball coaches and other staff wanted to minimize the fallout from the crime. Why, Heaven forfend! it might have discouraged some other potential students from matriculating there!

There have been a whole lot of people who have not done the right thing in this case, when the right thing to do has been so blatantly obvious.

References

References
↑1 I would have caught this story earlier, but the Lexington Herald-Leader, which reported on the original charge, never reported on Mr Arnett’s trial or conviction.