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How kidnapper-murderer was caught
Posted: February 9, 2004

The nation's attention was riveted last week to the case of an 11-year-old girl, Carlie Brucia, whose kidnapping was caught on a car-wash surveillance camera.

Carlie was later found dead.

There are several things to be learned from this tragedy.

As we all know, the tattooed mechanic, Joseph P. Smith, charged with kidnapping and killing Carlie, had been arrested at least 13 times in Florida since 1993.

Thirteen times. Think about that. A 13-time loser.

In 1997, in Bradenton, Fla., north of Sarasota, he was charged with kidnapping and false imprisonment for allegedly grabbing a 20-year-old woman on the street and threatening to stab her if she screamed. The woman escaped after a passing vehicle stopped. At his trial, Smith testified he had been trying to prevent the woman from running into the street and she had misunderstood him. The jury acquitted him.

He served 17 months in prison in 2001 and 2002 for heroin possession and prescription-drug fraud. Eight days after he got out, he was arrested for cocaine possession and placed on probation for three years. He also got probation for aggravated battery in 1993 and heroin charges in 1999.

A state corrections official, Joe Papy, said a probation officer had asked a judge Dec. 30 to declare Smith in violation of his probation because he had not paid all his fines and court costs.

Papy said Circuit Judge Harry Rapkin declined to find Smith in violation, which could have returned him to jail. The judge defended his decision, saying the probation officer never sent him the evidence he requested that Smith had willfully refused to pay.

Now there are several obvious lessons right here:

This judge needs to go. He needs to be impeached. He needs to be disgraced. He needs to be papered by every attorney that appears before him. He's got blood on his hands – as do literally thousands of other judges like him across this country. It's time they are forced to take responsibility for their actions – and inactions.

Understand that the police and government did nothing to prevent this heinous crime from happening. Nor did they do anything to find the girl while she was still alive. No Amber Alert was issued until the day after she disappeared because there "wasn't any evidence of an abduction." What's the purpose of an Amber Alert? There might not be evidence of an abduction for years after it occurs. Only after bloodhounds tracked the girl to the car wash and the owner of the car wash checked the surveillance tape (which he set up to monitor employee thefts from cars) did the Amber Alert go out.

It was a citizen (the suspect Joseph Smith's female housemate) who recognized him from the media coverage of abduction tape and told police to "come and get him."

According to news reports, the body was found after "negotiations" with the suspect.

Let's recognize what really happened here. A car-wash owner, the media and a concerned citizen solved this crime.

This is so often the case. This is how the D.C. Sniper case was cracked. Yet, books are written by and movies are made about the police chief, not by and about the honest citizens who actually found the criminals. It happens more than we realize it.

The police, despite all the money spent on these Amber Alerts, etc. managed to slap the handcuffs on and that's about it. Too little, too late.

What did government do? What was its role in the crime? It ignored all the warning signs that this man was dangerous and a lifelong criminal. It all but ensured Joseph P. Smith would be there that day Carlie walked through the car wash.

Over and over again, Smith was sentenced to "community service" for his crimes. This is the kind of unrepentant criminal who should be isolated from the community.

My point? Government doesn't prevent crimes. Government doesn't solve crimes. Government doesn't punish crimes. Government fosters crime. Government encourages crime. Government enables crime.