Just when we thought we'd heard enough about liberal judges and lenient sentences, what with the recent tomfoolery in Vermont and all, it's just been topped by the so called sentence of an even more progressive justice, Superior Court Judge Suzanne Delvecchio, who hails from Plymouth County in Massachusetts.
Fresh from her 2000 keynote speaking gig at the Bay State's Gay and Lesbian Bar association's annual dinner, Delvevecchio, who's also said to be a vocal supporter of gay marriage, tossed a softball to a 26-year-old high-school teacher for one count of rape of a child, enticement of a child under 16, possession of child pornography, and distribution of harmful material to a child.
With the Da asking for a four to eight year stretch in the big house, in addition to the outrage of the kid's parents and a disturbing victim impact statement, the judge gave the disgraced teacher a two and a half year suspended sentence and five years of probation. Judges, in their lofty positions of power and authority, feted by the liberal press and special interest groups alike, know best. They can choose to overlook the victims, the families and the communities and concentrate on the plight of the poor pitiable criminals.
One wag put it best so long ago, in words which have echoed there ever since, "In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls."
But beyond the rulings, there are those bits of light humor which accompany the judges, and illustrate their character, as they go about their daily chores of badgering the police, getting tough with the prosecutors, humiliating the victims and, above all, mollycoddling the villainous element. as a cop I had a chance to view some of this badinage first hand.
One judge was notoriously easy on residential burglars, even those who committed this crime in occupied homes in the hours of darkness.
after a lengthy investigation, involving a number of officers and a prolonged surveillance, we finally arrested a burglar who had been terrorizing a neighborhood for months.
after the trial he faced the judge.
"Look," the judge addressed the crook in the dock, "You know you did it, I know you did it, but I'm going to let you go. Do you promise not to do it again?" Of course the poor wretch swore he'd never do it again, ever, and walked out a free man, flipping the finger to the badges on the way by.
a few weeks later he was back, arrested for, you guessed it, burglary.
But life is strange. a year or so later this identical judge suffered a burglary of his own, at his considerable manse in the very best part of town. Valuable items were taken and priceless objets d'art were broken in the poorly executed housebreaking.
The following week we were met by a newly energized man. This judge, once so understanding of the criminal mind and dismissive of their iniquitous motives, was now listening intently to the victims and the police. and the burglars, once so accustomed to a cake walk, were now being sentenced to Soledad and San Quentin for maximum terms and it was suddenly taking two or three bailiffs to drag the condemned away where once a haughty malcontent had usually skipped free. The worm had turned and a liberal judge, once isolated in an ivory tower and who had moved in crystalline spheres far above the orbit of mere mortals, had been victimized himself.
Perhaps the judges need to savor the same wormwood and the gall that the victims taste to understand the nature of the crimes.
In another instance, a judge banged his gavel down and hollered, "Mistrial!" and vacated the bench in a cloud of dust and papers.
"Whoa," we shouted in unison, because this was only a preliminary hearing and there could be no mistrial.
Then one of the bailiffs let us know that the judge was late for his vacation and had a plane to catch.
We quickly moved to round up the suspects who were slowly sneaking out of the courtroom in the pandemonium and hand them back to the bailiffs.
Thanks to the liberal judge, and his inane ruling, we'd be at a bar that afternoon while the suspects would be back in jail awaiting another arraignment.
a judge can do anything, especially if there's a flight to Tahiti on the tarmac.
It was hot in the criminal court the day the judge had the janitor arrested.
"Bring me the janitor," the judge demanded of the bailiff, who promptly left to search for the errant custodian.
a few minutes later the bailiff reappeared with the janitor and the judge ordered the poor man, in no uncertain terms, to fix the air-conditioning.
"I'm hot and I'm sure that the poor people in the holding cell must be warm, too," he intoned severely, motioning toward the downtrodden desperadoes slumping in the tank.
The janitor left.
Sometime later, not satisfied with the janitor's progress, the judge ordered the janitor immediately jailed for contempt of court and sent the bailiffs to round him up.
The courtroom remained rather snug and grew more so as the day progressed, cases stalled and tempers flared.
after an hour or so a senior bailiff, who had been a long time acquaintance of the janitor, caught the judge's ear between arraignments and explained that with the janitor ensconced in the lock-up the chances of getting the air-conditioning fixed were reduced to nil.
"Bring me the janitor," the judge ordered, with cooler heads prevailing.
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
We used to run into a relatively large group of elderly folks who, as regular spectators, routinely watched the courtroom antics of the judges in lieu of sitting at home and watching the escapades associated with daytime TV.
"The shows here are absolutely terrific," one clued me in and then proceeded to rank the sitting judges by their levels of inanity, strange rulings, tics and peccadilloes. To be frank, after that conversation, I was a little nervous.
Too often appointed by liberal governors, judges, touted by special interest groups and selected for their adherence to the Democratic playbook, guard the fortress of liberalism as tightly as any praetorian guard and a great deal of care must be exercised in their means of selection, their retention and their recall--a lot more than we're giving them now.
Visit the court rooms if you'd like to see a real production, but don't expect to see justice there, for that I'd recommend a nice seat in the hallway.
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