Outrage over honor for cop-killer inmate

Star Ledger ^ | 10.29.05 | MIKE FRASSINELLI

[Coleus]

Cop-killer transsexual Leslie Ann Nelson was honored as an Inmate of the Month during a recent ceremony in which she received a certificate, a hug and a special lunch, infuriating a statewide police organization that represents nearly 30,000 officers.

"The idea that our state would award a vicious and cold-blooded murderer like Leslie Ann Nelson is both outrageous and disgusting," said state Policemen's Benevolent Association President Michael J. Madonna, who yesterday called for the New Jersey Department of Corrections to end the Inmate of the Month award and for the warden at Nelson's prison to step down.

The award also drew the ire of the widow of a state trooper whose death led to sweeping changes in the way police conduct traffic stops.

"As they pat him -- or her-- on the back, they slap the families of who he killed," said Donna Lamonaco of Belvidere, Warren County, whose husband, Phil, was gunned down by fugitives as he made a vehicle stop on Route 80 in Knowlton Township 24 years ago. "It makes me sick, and I am not sitting idle."

Nelson, 48, a transsexual go-go dancer whose name was Glenn Nelson before a sex-change operation at age 34, was convicted of killing Camden County law enforcement officers John McLaughlin and John Norcross during a 1995 standoff in Haddon Heights.

She was removed from death row, but has an upcoming death-penalty trial in which she wants to represent herself. Juries have twice decided she should die, and twice those sentences were overturned by the state Supreme Court.

Nelson is an inmate at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, Hunterdon County, where she works as a paralegal in the law library and teaches other inmates how to read.

Department of Corrections spokesman Matt Schuman said 120 of the inmate

[gondramB]

"So, if a guy puts a wig on he gets to go to the woman's prison?

Cool!"

Actually, I think its a bit more painful and permanent than that.

[Coleus]

Help block parole of convicted New Jersey cop-killer!

 

TRANTINO;

[babygene]

"Your asinine generalizations match your intellect..."

You know nothing about my intellict.

Your an Idi-t A cop's life is worth no more or less than any other human life. The fact is, that cops, IMHO are just criminals that work for the state. It didn't use to be that way, but it is today. I've been around for a long, long time and seen it change. Sure, there are some exceptions...

You are really, really naive.

[Coleus]

chop, chop..

ouch!

[Coleus]

IT's so beautiful.

he she it

it is

[Time4Atlas2Shrug]

That last speeding ticket must have been the last straw!! :)

The local law enforcement in my town is great. State Police and the Sheriff's Department are extremely supportive and service-oriented as well. Unfortunately for those who regularly break the law, the officers/troopers enforce it to protect the taxpayers from such criminals and others who are just plain reckless.

I suppose that makes them crooks.

[JoeSixPack1]

ROFL! A new twist on the old twilight zone episode where the guy buys immortality and then gets locked up for life.

This jerk whacked off his dingaling and now sits in a woman's prison for life. LOL!!

Poetic Justice. No wonder the idiot wants to die.

[Time4Atlas2Shrug]

"The fact is, that cops, IMHO are just criminals that work for the state. It didn't use to be that way, but it is today. I've been around for a long, long time and seen it change. Sure, there are some exceptions...

You are really, really naive."


You really need to get out more, IMHO.

Perhaps another location might ease the paranoia and bitterness.

By the way, do you happen to live in New Orleans? ;)

[Roots]

You know nothing about my intellict.

That says it all right there. Some exceptions?? You really don't know that many cops, do you? Or perhaps the ones you do know are always busting your ass.

[babygene]

"By the way, do you happen to live in New Orleans? ;)"

No, but that was a good question. However, New Orleans is no different than a thousand other communities. Police are, by and large, above the law in this country.

[Time4Atlas2Shrug]

"Your an Idi-t A cop's life is worth no more or less than any other human life."

Also, we do not convict people based on the value of the life taken or every murderer would receive the same treatment. The act wouldn't be what was punished, rather, it would be a reward for the life that was taken. Perhaps some families of victims understandably see it like that but under our penal system, such reasoning would be dangerous.

With that said, it is not the officer's life having greater value than the life of another that is relevant, it is the crime committed by the perpetrator that is relevant. When a criminal kills a police officer he is demonstrating a blatant disregard for the law and for the symbol of its enforcement and is, therefore, considered to be a greater risk to society.

Does this help?

[babygene]

"Or perhaps the ones you do know are always busting your ass"

You jerk... I haven't had so much as a traffic ticket in 40 years. Nor has my kids or grandKids.

Have you done as well?

[babygene]

" Does this help?"

No it does not; Simply because there are more innocents killed by cops than cops killed criminals. The fact is that you are more likely, as a law abiding citizen to have a loaded gun pointed at you by a police officer than by a criminal. Think about it...

[PLMerite]

...oh, my God.

[Time4Atlas2Shrug]

"The fact is that you are more likely, as a law abiding citizen to have a loaded gun pointed at you by a police officer than by a criminal. Think about it..."

This is quite the accusation and I hope you have the statistics to back it up. Otherwise, please refrain from assuming anything.

And I'll use my experience with cops and criminals as unscientific data (you seem to appreciate such proof, thus far). I have had a gun in my face on two separate occasions because criminals put it there. I have yet to experience this with a cop, in fact, one of our local officers suggested (unsolicited) a number of self-defense firearms in which I might be interested when I picked up my concealed carry permit.

The positive encounters I have had with law enforcement far outweigh the negative, and this seems to be the general consensus among those I know.

If you are so miffed about the police power, then do something about it. Get your butt in gear and do some voting and attend some city council/selectmen's meetings.

Also, it would do you some good to get to know a cop or two.

[Roots]

Simply because there are more innocents killed by cops than cops killed criminals. The fact is that you are more likely, as a law abiding citizen to have a loaded gun pointed at you by a police officer than by a criminal. Think about it...

By this logic, America would be better off without a police force than with one... oh but wait, perhaps New Orleans is a prime example of how without a police force, everybody has a loaded gun pointed at you. Your statistic only supports the fact that police officers are doing their jobs... if that many private citizens aren't shooting people, obviously somebody's keeping America in line.

By the way, nothing in this post supports the crookedness of the very few cops who really do give a bad rep for the police force. You don't assume that your postman/woman carries an assult rifle on them b/c a few lunatic gives a whole new meaning to "going postal", now would you? Get off your "anti-cop" fix, you're being completely naive and irrational.

[babygene]

"I have had a gun in my face on two separate occasions because criminals put it there."

I don't believe you. Two times huh? Where the H3LL do you live, and who do you hang out with? You must be a magnet for at temped murders...
I bet you won't find ones other person on this thread who has has a gun pointed at them by a criminal even once. Sure it wasn't 5 times?

[babygene]

"Your statistic only supports the fact that police officers are doing their jobs... if that many private citizens aren't shooting people, obviously somebody's keeping America in line"

And I guess you think that people would go around shooting people. Well, in my RED state, they wouldn't We don't need to be kept "in line". (can't speak for your blue state)

Indivials, at least from my observation, are almost always good. Most of the bad ones usualy hang out together. It't not the police's job, according to the USSC, to protect us in any event.

[ZULU]

IT should certainly have been executed long ago.



But the New Jersey State Supreme Court, Florida not withstanding, the most liberal court in the nation, (and the creation of RINO Chrissie "Its my Party Too" Whitman) has repeatedly ignored the wishes of the majority of New Jerseyians and exercized "judicial nullification" by finding one loopholes or another to prevent the execution of the some most heinous killers in history.

This freak should most certainly not be rewarded for behaving well in prison. Such behavior should be an expectation, and the prison authorities should have the power to impose it by any means necessaey.