No jail for rapists; manslaughter charges for mean texts

[El]

So, our criminal justice system does this:

His nickname in high school was “David the R a p i s t,” according to one of his victims.

Two seniors at a Massachusetts high school told police they were at a party with David Becker, 18, in April when they went upstairs to a bedroom and talked to Becker until they fell asleep. They said they woke up to Becker sexually assaulting them, and he apologized to one of the victims in a text message the next day, saying “Sorry, it’s my fault.”

The victim responded with a text telling Becker “don’t even worry about it,” but later told police that she said this because “she did not know what else to say.”

Becker said he had no sexual contact with one of the women, and said he thought his assault of the second woman was fine because she didn’t stop him. There was no evidence of previous sexual assaults.

But after a judge in Palmer decided last week to continue the case without a finding for two years, on Monday Becker was sentenced to only two years probation, according to MassLive. Additionally, he’s being allowed to serve the probation in Ohio, where he plans to attend college.

“He can now look forward to a productive life without being burdened with the stigma of having to register as a sex offender,” said attorney Thomas Rooke, who represented Becker in court. “The goal of this sentence was not to impede this individual from graduating high school and to go onto the next step of his life, which is a college experience.”

No conviction will appear on Becker’s record if he serves his probation without issue. His probation mandates he remain drug- and alcohol-free, submit to an evaluation for sex offender treatment and stay away from the two 18-year old victims.

“We all made mistakes when we were 17, 18, 19 years old, and we shouldn’t be branded for life with a felony offense and branded a sex offender,” Rooke said. “Putting this kid in jail for two years would have destroyed this kid’s life.”

The prosecutor for Becker recommended he be found guilty of the charges of two counts of indecent assault and battery and serve two years in jail. One of the victims reportedly said in a statement that she didn’t think jail time for Becker was necessary.

Becker is a three-sport athlete at East Longmeadow High School.

“Labeling him ‘David the Our Glorious Leader’ is truly an unjust character assassination of what this individual has accomplished in the past,” Rooke said.

Becker is the latest in a string of similar stories of young men accused of sexually assaulting women but receiving lenient sentences. The most famous was Brock Turner, a former Stanford swimmer found guilty of sexually assaulting an unconscious young woman. He was sentenced to six months in jail and actually only served three months, as he is scheduled to be released on Sept. 2.

Austin Wilkerson, a former student at the University of Colorado, confessed to sexually assaulting an unconscious woman who had previously rejected him. He was sentenced to two years in jail but is permitted to leave to attend work or school. He will also be on probation for 20 years.

John Enochs, a former student at Indiana University, was originally accused of sexually assaulting two women at a fraternity house. He plead guilty to misdemeanor battery and is serving one year’s probation.

In U.S. district courts, women make up 33 percent of active judges, according to the National Women’s Law Center.

and also this:

TAUNTON — Lawyers for a Plainville teenager accused of persuading her friend to kill himself have asked a judge to suppress all evidence police obtained from her, arguing that she was unlawfully interrogated and searched.

They filed the motion Friday morning in Taunton Juvenile Court, where Michelle Carter, 19, appeared for a brief hearing. Judge Lawrence Moniz said he hopes the case will proceed to trial in early December.
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Carter is accused in the death of Conrad Roy III, 18, of Mattapoisett, who died in July 2014 of carbon monoxide poisoning after he connected a generator to a truck’s exhaust system in Fairhaven.

Roy spoke on the phone to Carter for 47 minutes while he sat in the truck. At one point she allegedly told him to “get back in” the vehicle when he expressed doubts about taking his own life.

She also allegedly exchanged dozens of text messages with him, encouraging him to follow through with the suicide.
View Story
‘You have to just do it. . . . Tonight is the night.’

“You have to just do it,” said one of the texts a Plainville teen is alleged to have sent an 18-year-old who committed suicide.

    Teens exchanged dark texts before one committed suicide

Carter, who was 17 at the time of Roy’s death, faces an involuntary manslaughter charge. She was indicted last year as a youthful offender in Bristol County.

According to the motion to suppress, which the court released Friday, two Fairhaven detectives who interviewed Carter at school on Oct. 2, 2014 asked Carter for her phone and laptop passwords without a warrant, while she was not under arrest, and without properly advising her of her right to a lawyer.

Carter provided her passwords, and police found phone, text, and Facebook conversations between her and Roy.

“I believed I was obeying the laws of the Commonwealth when I was seized and the pass code to my phone and the user name and password to my laptop were obtained,” Carter wrote in an affidavit supporting the motion.

“I did not freely consent to any search and seizure,” she wrote.

According to Carter’s arrest warrant, the detectives had search warrants for her home and cellphone when they approached her at school. Detective Scott Gordon wrote in the arrest warrant that he advised Carter that she was not in custody and was free to leave at any time.

Gordon also wrote that he told Carter he had a search warrant for her phone before asking for her phone password. But Gordon does not say he produced the warrants until later, when speaking with Carter’s father — after Carter had turned over her passwords.

Carter’s lawyers also filed 21 other motions Friday, requesting access to Roy’s hospital and school records, his personal laptops and cellphone, and his mother’s arrest records for a fight with Roy’s father.

They also requested access to a Facebook conversation between Carter and another friend of Roy’s, which they say shows that Carter told others about Roy’s suicidal notions, contrary to prosecutors’ arguments that she failed to do so in the months leading up to his death.

“There’s still a lot of information that we need to obtain, now that the case is moving forward,” said Joseph Cataldo, one of Carter’s attorneys, after the hearing.

He has argued previously that Roy was already depressed and suicidal and that Carter was not responsible for his actions.

Carter’s Friday court appearance was her first since the Supreme Judicial Court on July 1 rejected her attorneys’ attempts to dismiss the charge against her.

The judge will hear the 21 discovery motions on Sept. 2. The motion to suppress will be heard Oct. 14.

“A police officer will come testify as to his questioning of Michelle Carter and whether or not they can use her statements against her at a trial,” Cataldo said.

After the hearing, about 10 of Roy’s relatives and friends huddled with prosecutors. They declined to comment.

The Supreme Judicial Court’s unanimous decision earlier this month to allow the case to proceed marked the first time the state’s highest court has allowed an involuntary manslaughter indictment to stand on the basis of words alone.

The judges determined that, through a stream of text messages and cellphone calls to Roy, Carter had established a “virtual presence” at the time of the suicide.

I guess we'll have to wait and see how trial goes for the latter, but it sure as shit feels like even at the onset we're taking texting more seriously as a crime than rape.

*fixed for weird word filter

[El]

...and don't even get me started about how we're trying a couple of 12-year-old girls (who, to point out the obvious here, do not seem to have been of sound mind, in addition to being TWELVE at the time) as adults in the slender man stabbing.  THEY, apparently, were old enough to fully understand what they were doing, and old enough to handle prison.

[Lestat]

Slender man stabbing? what happened elle? I am unfamiliar with the case.

And trying a 12yo girl is pretty sickening in its own right. Especially if the alleged offence for which they are facing trial may carry a stretch inside.
Whilst they would if sentenced to do time, undoubtedly be sent to a det center, rather than an adult prison, in the latter the only way those two girls would have of leaving the prison alive is either being put in seg, where nobody gets near them bar those bringing ingestible material. I won't blaspheme everything else that has ever gone into my mouth, chewed, swallowed, digested and shat out of the opposite end to that through which it entered, by comparing it to the vile abomination served up in either place I have had the displeasure of staying at her Maj's hotels. Because while it might keep someone from starving to death, only just, it sure as the Styx is NOT 'food' Food is something for eating, not for killing flies, or for sticking posters on walls.


What is the age of criminal responsibility where they are? and, what did they do? was it particularly horrific? *hopes they didn't pull a copycat/repeat of the truly hideous jamie bulger case. Now that was some seriously, seriously messed up shit.


The other (possible and by no means at all certain) is for the inmates to pity the girls due to their age and basically, look out for them.
This may happen if they are not sent straight to the block it mat not. They could *shudders* just as easily get used as shagging posts.

[Al Swearegen]

So, our criminal justice system does this:

His nickname in high school was “David the R a p i s t,” according to one of his victims.

Two seniors at a Massachusetts high school told police they were at a party with David Becker, 18, in April when they went upstairs to a bedroom and talked to Becker until they fell asleep. They said they woke up to Becker sexually assaulting them, and he apologized to one of the victims in a text message the next day, saying “Sorry, it’s my fault.”

The victim responded with a text telling Becker “don’t even worry about it,” but later told police that she said this because “she did not know what else to say.”

Becker said he had no sexual contact with one of the women, and said he thought his assault of the second woman was fine because she didn’t stop him. There was no evidence of previous sexual assaults.

But after a judge in Palmer decided last week to continue the case without a finding for two years, on Monday Becker was sentenced to only two years probation, according to MassLive. Additionally, he’s being allowed to serve the probation in Ohio, where he plans to attend college.

“He can now look forward to a productive life without being burdened with the stigma of having to register as a sex offender,” said attorney Thomas Rooke, who represented Becker in court. “The goal of this sentence was not to impede this individual from graduating high school and to go onto the next step of his life, which is a college experience.”

No conviction will appear on Becker’s record if he serves his probation without issue. His probation mandates he remain drug- and alcohol-free, submit to an evaluation for sex offender treatment and stay away from the two 18-year old victims.

“We all made mistakes when we were 17, 18, 19 years old, and we shouldn’t be branded for life with a felony offense and branded a sex offender,” Rooke said. “Putting this kid in jail for two years would have destroyed this kid’s life.”

The prosecutor for Becker recommended he be found guilty of the charges of two counts of indecent assault and battery and serve two years in jail. One of the victims reportedly said in a statement that she didn’t think jail time for Becker was necessary.

Becker is a three-sport athlete at East Longmeadow High School.

“Labeling him ‘David the Our Glorious Leader’ is truly an unjust character assassination of what this individual has accomplished in the past,” Rooke said.

Becker is the latest in a string of similar stories of young men accused of sexually assaulting women but receiving lenient sentences. The most famous was Brock Turner, a former Stanford swimmer found guilty of sexually assaulting an unconscious young woman. He was sentenced to six months in jail and actually only served three months, as he is scheduled to be released on Sept. 2.

Austin Wilkerson, a former student at the University of Colorado, confessed to sexually assaulting an unconscious woman who had previously rejected him. He was sentenced to two years in jail but is permitted to leave to attend work or school. He will also be on probation for 20 years.

John Enochs, a former student at Indiana University, was originally accused of sexually assaulting two women at a fraternity house. He plead guilty to misdemeanor battery and is serving one year’s probation.

In U.S. district courts, women make up 33 percent of active judges, according to the National Women’s Law Center.

and also this:

TAUNTON — Lawyers for a Plainville teenager accused of persuading her friend to kill himself have asked a judge to suppress all evidence police obtained from her, arguing that she was unlawfully interrogated and searched.

They filed the motion Friday morning in Taunton Juvenile Court, where Michelle Carter, 19, appeared for a brief hearing. Judge Lawrence Moniz said he hopes the case will proceed to trial in early December.
Subscribe Now

Carter is accused in the death of Conrad Roy III, 18, of Mattapoisett, who died in July 2014 of carbon monoxide poisoning after he connected a generator to a truck’s exhaust system in Fairhaven.

Roy spoke on the phone to Carter for 47 minutes while he sat in the truck. At one point she allegedly told him to “get back in” the vehicle when he expressed doubts about taking his own life.

She also allegedly exchanged dozens of text messages with him, encouraging him to follow through with the suicide.
View Story
‘You have to just do it. . . . Tonight is the night.’

“You have to just do it,” said one of the texts a Plainville teen is alleged to have sent an 18-year-old who committed suicide.

    Teens exchanged dark texts before one committed suicide

Carter, who was 17 at the time of Roy’s death, faces an involuntary manslaughter charge. She was indicted last year as a youthful offender in Bristol County.

According to the motion to suppress, which the court released Friday, two Fairhaven detectives who interviewed Carter at school on Oct. 2, 2014 asked Carter for her phone and laptop passwords without a warrant, while she was not under arrest, and without properly advising her of her right to a lawyer.

Carter provided her passwords, and police found phone, text, and Facebook conversations between her and Roy.

“I believed I was obeying the laws of the Commonwealth when I was seized and the pass code to my phone and the user name and password to my laptop were obtained,” Carter wrote in an affidavit supporting the motion.

“I did not freely consent to any search and seizure,” she wrote.

According to Carter’s arrest warrant, the detectives had search warrants for her home and cellphone when they approached her at school. Detective Scott Gordon wrote in the arrest warrant that he advised Carter that she was not in custody and was free to leave at any time.

Gordon also wrote that he told Carter he had a search warrant for her phone before asking for her phone password. But Gordon does not say he produced the warrants until later, when speaking with Carter’s father — after Carter had turned over her passwords.

Carter’s lawyers also filed 21 other motions Friday, requesting access to Roy’s hospital and school records, his personal laptops and cellphone, and his mother’s arrest records for a fight with Roy’s father.

They also requested access to a Facebook conversation between Carter and another friend of Roy’s, which they say shows that Carter told others about Roy’s suicidal notions, contrary to prosecutors’ arguments that she failed to do so in the months leading up to his death.

“There’s still a lot of information that we need to obtain, now that the case is moving forward,” said Joseph Cataldo, one of Carter’s attorneys, after the hearing.

He has argued previously that Roy was already depressed and suicidal and that Carter was not responsible for his actions.

Carter’s Friday court appearance was her first since the Supreme Judicial Court on July 1 rejected her attorneys’ attempts to dismiss the charge against her.

The judge will hear the 21 discovery motions on Sept. 2. The motion to suppress will be heard Oct. 14.

“A police officer will come testify as to his questioning of Michelle Carter and whether or not they can use her statements against her at a trial,” Cataldo said.

After the hearing, about 10 of Roy’s relatives and friends huddled with prosecutors. They declined to comment.

The Supreme Judicial Court’s unanimous decision earlier this month to allow the case to proceed marked the first time the state’s highest court has allowed an involuntary manslaughter indictment to stand on the basis of words alone.

The judges determined that, through a stream of text messages and cellphone calls to Roy, Carter had established a “virtual presence” at the time of the suicide.

I guess we'll have to wait and see how trial goes for the latter, but it sure as shit feels like even at the onset we're taking texting more seriously as a crime than rape.

*fixed for weird word filter

The rapist should be jailed BUT the girl should have her arse kicked for that text. Jail time? Sure but only a month or something. enough to scare her and give her a dose.

The law is an ass.

[Jack]

Didn't think encouraging suicide is a crime.

[Icequeen]

Lestat:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/slender-man-stabbing-survivors-parents-describe-horrific-ordeal/story?id=25787516

[Lestat]

Probably aiding and abetting, suicide itself is often regarded as a crime per se.

So encouraging it would be aiding and abetting, as the call it.  Or conspiracy. I forget the word now but also, here, encouraging someone else to commit a criminal act itself becomes a criminal act, iirc attracting the same sentence as as actually doing it. Although suicide is not these days, prosecuted.

That is to say, when the suicide is unsuccessful. We haven't dug up, tried and lynched-beheaded corpses for quite some time now. This is a progressive country, but regrettably obsessed with wanking over PC.

[Jack]

Suicide isn't a crime in the US; though looked it up and the majority of states do have laws on the books making encouraging suicide a crime. Not sure if Wisconsin is one if them.

[Lestat]

It makes sense really to take the latter approach. After all, for one, if someone is successful, then you obviously can't try them. And in case of parasuicide then the individual is a victim rather than a danger to society. Only to themselves, and needs help, not punishment, driving someone else to suicide is not much different on the other hand to finishing them off with a hammer.

The prohibition on suicide is a leftover from being a highly devout christianized nation, the notion being that life, and the 'soul' is a gift from god, and ending that, is basically the equivalent to spitting in god's face. More or less anyway.

[Trigger 11]

We live in a sad world. Just look at 45% of this country who will openly stand up and support that orange-haired windbag and his racist bigotry and misogynistic nonsense.

Twice my first week of college I helped drunk girls away from bad situations and back to their dorm rooms. I could never understand the way the guys would act at parties and try to put the moves on drunk girls and take advantage them. "Get them drunk, they'll be easy pickens!" Douchebags!

[Trigger 11]

That guy who raped that passed out girl by the dumpster (how romantic), just got out early. The internet is abuzz with memes to make sure he gets labelled what he is.

[odeon]

That guy who raped that passed out girl by the dumpster (how romantic), just got out early. The internet is abuzz with memes to make sure he gets labelled what he is.

Was that the shit whose dad said his son shouldn't be jailed for 20 minutes of action?

[Lestat]

I'm somewhat surprised he got out in one entire piece. At least in the same configuration he existed in before he went behind bars.

Fucking bastard would have to be sent off to the nonce wing here or people (I.e not him) would tear him to ribbons.

[Trigger 11]

That guy who raped that passed out girl by the dumpster (how romantic), just got out early. The internet is abuzz with memes to make sure he gets labelled what he is.

Was that the shit whose dad said his son shouldn't be jailed for 20 minutes of action?

Yup! Athletic swimmer...future Olympian maybe. Wouldn't want to ruin his life.

[Lestat]

I'd give him his running practise alright.  It does rather involve a pack of starving rottweilers, a rope and a big chunk of meat though.