I just read the AP’s story on 30-year-old John Albert Gardner III, the 30-year-old convicted sex offender who may or may not be responsible for raping and killing 17-year-old Chelsea King.
(Devastatingly, as of this writing, Chelsea King’s body appears to have been found.)
Here’s the part of the story AP that I found of note:
Gardner of Lake Elsinore pleaded guilty in May 2000 to molesting a 13-year-old female neighbor. Prosecutors said he lured the victim to his home with an offer to watch “Patch Adams,” a 1998 movie starring Robin Williams
The girl was beaten before escaping and running to a neighbor.
Gardner served five years in prison after prosecutors rejected a psychiatrist’s advice to seek stiffer punishment, court documents state.
Prosecutors said in 2000 that Gardner’s lack of a significant prior criminal record justified less than the maximum sentence. They also said they wanted to “spare the victim the trauma of testifying.”
Gardner had faced a maximum of nearly 11 years in prison under terms of his plea agreement. Prosecutors urged six years — the sentence later ordered by a judge.
In their 11-page sentencing memo, prosecutors said Gardner “never expressed one scintilla of remorse for his attack upon the victim” despite overwhelming evidence.
Psychiatrist Dr. Matthew Carroll wrote in sentencing documents, “There is no known treatment for an individual that sexually assaults girls and does not admit to it in any way.”
Let me simply those facts: Gardner lured a 13-year-old to his house, then molested her, there beat her.
And here’s how the LA Times described the attack:
In 2000, Gardner picked up an eighth-grader at a bus stop in San Diego County and assaulted her at his house, punching her several times after she tried to prevent him from pulling her pants down.
Gardner “was suffocating me. He had his hand on my mouth, and I couldn’t breathe, and I got pretty fuzzy after he hit me, and I’m not sure if I blacked out,” said the victim, according to the sentencing memorandum.
Moreover, although a psychiatrist strongly advised against it,, stating that Gardner would likely attack others when he had the chance, he was given the lowest possible term the judge and the DA could manage, six years, of which he did five.
The DA said that Gardner had “no significant prior criminal record.” (Define “significant,” would you please?) In other words, Gardner was then a 20-year-old pleasant-looking white guy, living in a nice condo with his nice, up-street mother, and so why give him the full 10-years?
After all, he just sexually assaulted and beat a little girl. And showed zero, zip remorse for it.
Yet, let a 15-year-old—non-white boy—from a poor background, with “no significant prior criminal record” climb into the backseat of the wrong car, with older guys who do a drive by, and he’s looking at 25-to life—even if no one was killed or seriously injured.
But of course, these are cases where the DA manages to attach a gang allegation—deserved or not. In those case, throwing away the key is just fine. Because somehow we view 15-year olds who get in cars with gang members as less redeemable, less important, less somehow human, than 20-year-old upper-middle-class guys who beat and molest little girls.
And while we’re on the subject of our disregard for the well-being of our law-breaking young—as long as they aren’t affluent lawbreaking young—Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Richard Winton of the LA Times, have just posted the latest chapter in their ongoing story on abusive staff within the county’s juvenile probaton facilities.
It seems that of 170 employees of the Los Angeles County Probation Department were determined to have committed misconduct —around half of those cases of excessive force or abuse involving the kids in their care— but all 170 have “so far escaped punishment because there is not enough staff to mete out discipline,” the Times reported.
Right. We’re just too busy to have discipline our staff who have been found to be abusing the probationers.
So we just leave them on the job.
You’ll be happy to know that, according to Winton and Hennessy-Fiske, the LA County Supervisors have now launched an “independent review of the agency’s discipline and internal affairs operations.”
And, why exactly, dear County Sups, did it require the Times’ revelations before it occurred to anybody over at your house to see if this $700,000 agency under your control—that, as the reporters pointed out, “has been the subject of federal investigations in recent years for failing to prevent, report and document child abuse in its juvenile facilities”—was managing to appropriately protect the 3000 kids under its care?
Nevermind. Don’t answer that. There is no good answer.
Ridiculous in many ways. Only here for a second and will comment more later.
Still wondering though why a black gang member, on felony probation, was convicted of ADW on a peace officer(me)and got only 16 months. I’ll tell you why later Celeste, it isn’t always due to race or social standing as you seem to believe.
245(a)(c) Any person who commits an assault with a deadly weapon or
instrument, other than a firearm, or by any means likely to produce
great bodily injury upon the person of a peace officer or
firefighter, and who knows or reasonably should know that the victim
is a peace officer or firefighter engaged in the performance of his
or her duties, when the peace officer or firefighter is engaged in
the performance of his or her duties, shall be punished by
imprisonment in the state prison for three, four, or five years.
Terrible. I don’t know what you do with people like John Gardner – obviously more prison time would have been appropriate, but you couldn’t keep him in there forever. Our system fails at a lot of things but I don’t think we even have good ideas about what to do with people like Gardner.
Peripherally, I recently read a very interesting interview with Harvard Prof Susan Clancy, author of The Trauma Myth, arguing there are very different types of sexual abuse and while some types are exceedingly damaging, some don’t particularly injure the victim. It’s a controversial perspective I wasn’t familiar with. http://www.salon.com/books/int/2010/01/18/trauma_myth_interview/
Celeste, could these examples of the unequal application of justice, that you so eloquently present to us readers, be just more evidence of the blatant racism that seems to permeate the so-called justice system?
And isn’t it curious that if you scratch the surface of the so called “conservative movement” deep enough, you will almost always find an ugly racism, and reactionary anger that is beyond comprehension, especially when this deep psychological affliction they suffer from is prettied up, spun as states rights, common sense, individual rights, and most telling of all, the farce of equal application of justice.
It’s racism in the most perverse sense of the word.
Celeste,
Could it be that Mr. Quixote is just another example of a racist that projects the way he sees the world onto others?
It’s racism in the simplest sense of the word.
“Could it be that Mr. Quixote is just another example of a racist that projects the way he sees the world onto others?”
******************
No doubt, I remember another young girl being killed in the Los Angeles area, she was in the area around Wilshire and Vermont she was picking up something at the law school in the area. Her killer was a black man with the same type of perversions as John Gardner, neither should have been on the street.
The irony is that D.Q. was ranting about how the media was going into hysteria about giving more prison time because the killer was black. I wonder if D.Q. will object to giving the white killer/rapist more prison time?
The real question is, would the California justice system give a 16 year old middle class white kid 25 to life for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, I’ll give you three guess’s
Must I slap your hand w/my ruler AGAIN, Senor Quixote? Apostrophes and plurals. 100 times on the board my good man, “I will not confuse my aposrophes and plurals” , then dust the erasers and you may go home.
“Unequal application of justice” huh Don Q? Since Celeste was happy to play the race card here, and nobody questioned my assertion of the Black gangster that tried to do away old Sure Fire I guess you’re all ok on the lenient treatment he was given (reason- he was black, I was white and it took place right after the famous Simi Valley trial so my injuries meant zero). I guess that’s a one way street with you who play racial politics but only tell one side of the story.
I actually know of a white kid with no prior record who got life for a burglary/homicide when he was 17 (he wasn’t the primary suspect Celeste same as your gang banger) back in the early 80’s and did about 19 years. So my guess Don is “yes” wrong place wrong time can even spell a long prison sentence for someone who looks more like me than you.
As I’m a pretty consistent believer in lots of jail time for gang members who ride around with other gangsters, knowing that these guys tend to shoot people for no reason other than they don’t live in the general vicinity, I have no sympathy for the young gangster in the car. Seen enough death and destruction from gangsters to not feel sorry for anyone attached to this type of incident.
I don’t know why Gardner didn’t get the max as he should have, but I doubt there was a conversation where all the players got together and said, “well you know he’s white so let’s ease up a bit” same as no such conversation took place about my guy, it was just how business was sometime done and it was wrong in both cases. Maybe in Gardner’s case he was willing to accept the term, the family was ok with it, the judge was ok with it and that was how that particular d.a’s office did things. Not saying it’s right, just saying it happens, and it happens to people of all races. The shrink obviously pegged this guy right.
However, I think your fascination with gang members short changes your ethics at times Celeste, but what else can you call it when you write this b.s. knowing full well they are all gang members…
Yet, let a 15-year-old—non-white boy—from a poor background, with “no significant prior criminal record†climb into the backseat of the wrong car, with older guys who do a drive by, and he’s looking at 25-to life—even if no one was killed or seriously injured.
All those guys were gangsters Celeste, not just “older guys” or a “15-year-old-non-white boy-from a poor background. Truly a sad way to present your “facts” when you find it necessary to hide some of them.
Strange, yet comical, how certain white people (see right wing nuts and racists), are always outraged, verbose, and confrontational when real injustice and racism that exists in certain segments of our society are pointed out to them.
They can always be counted on to whine and complain that other racial and ethnic groups are “playing the race card” or “using racial politics”.
This weak ploy is not only ludicrous on it’s face but dishonest and schizophrenic, especially when one considers that it was this same type of white supremacist that instituted and legalized slavery, discrimination, and segregation, for hundreds of years no less.
So now when the former recipients (and honest people like Celeste), of “white mans burden”, and all it’s ugly consequences, point out injustices that clearly exist in the penal system, (and other areas of society), there is a hue and cry from these self proclaimed white victims, “it’s reverse discrimination!” You’re playing the race card!†“it’s nothing but a case of racial politics!”.
Yea cry me a river!
“Sure Fire†gives a good example of this “phenomena†here. Who when confronted with a clear case (and backed up by actual examples and facts), of the unequal application of justice, then goes off on a tangent, yelling that Celeste is playing the race card. “Sure Fire” then equivocates and without anything tangible or factual to support his cockamamie ideas, gives us more of his typical mawkish, anecdotal, stories, about his supposed victimization at the hands of some “black” criminal.
Hey Sure Fire, save the anecdotes for the American Legion Hall, here your story is about as believable as an episode of “Dragnet”, you know, “just the facts Mam”.
I don’t ever take the posts of a clown seriously, and a racist one at that. Always some kind of conspiracy with idiots like you Donnie that’s all you have. If Celeste was so confident in her facts he shouldn’t have skirted them.
Just saying..
“she”.
In the meantime, 2 officers shot near The Pentagon today and a 112% increase in officers killed in the line of duty this year as compared to next year as of March 1st. I know asses like Donnie don’t care but people of character do.
“as compared to last year”.
Get a grip on yourself Sure Fire (I mean that figuratively SF, er Dr. Strangelove), if you don’t take what I have to say seriously then why post up over and over again like a nervous nellie.
Last thing I ever am is nervous.
Chelsea King was mudreded–as was Lily Burk and countless others before them, and surely countless others to follow–because our criminal justice system believes in rehabilitation where it is neither appropriate nor even possible. Under the banner of mercy, we are forgiving the guilty and extending no mercy to the innocents who will be their future victims. It’s twisted thinking, abhorrent to the vast majority of Americans, though perhaps not so much to our blog hostess here.
“There is no known treatment for an individual that sexually assaults girls and does not admit to it in any way.â€
i wan to kil myself for living in this world omg its horrible