Posted on 02/23/2005 7:17:22 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
The New York Post is reporting that a college student who died of a drug overdose in New York City, was "partying" with a convicted felon out on "work release:"
Veronica Hagman, a 22-year-old psychology major...at Western Connecticut State University, met buff inmate Javier Tamez at the trendy Chelsea nightclub Crobar on Saturday night.The article also notes that "Tamez, 27, told police they spent the day partying and popping ecstasy in his Maspeth apartment."Tamez, a construction worker who grew up in Queens, was doing hard time while Hagman was making the dean's list....In 2002, he was sentenced to five to 15 years after pleading guilty to attempted sale of a controlled substance. The sentence was later slashed under a 1997 law that gives inmates "merit release credits" for good behavior.
That made him eligible for work release last June, when he was assigned to a minimum-security facility on West 110th Street near Central Park West.
In December, he was able to move into his own apartment, but was required to return weekly to show proof of employment and have occasional drug tests.
A state Correctional Services spokesman said Tamez's work-release status may be in jeopardy because of the circumstances surrounding Hagman's death.
There's no evidence reported so far that Tamez deliberately caused the girl's death. However, if the rules governing New York State's work release program are so lax that a convicted felon can be out going to nightclubs and "popping ecstasy," it is not a very far stretch to assume that another inmate in the program could be out robbing, raping or murdering someone, instead of behind bars where he belongs.
New York Governor George Pataki is often rumored to have national political ambitions. If so, he had better end this program immediately, before another "Willie Horton" makes him the Mike Dukakis of the Republican party.
ping
Bump.
Like all other Northeastern Republicans, Pataki's "national political ambitions" aren't going to win him a damn thing. Unless he gets nominated to a cabinet post, the only way he's going to Washington is as a tourist.
You're probably right. However, this is the sort of thing that could kibosh even that if he's not careful.
"Uh, no sir, I'm afraid you cannot visit the Oval Office. Now please get back behind the ropes and into line. The tour continues this way."
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