Posted on 04/27/2006 9:25:15 AM PDT by no dems
A congresswoman's son and three Democratic campaign workers were sentenced Wednesday to four to six months in jail for slashing tires outside a Bush-Cheney campaign office on Election Day 2004.
The men pleaded no contest in January to misdemeanor property damage. A fifth worker was found not guilty.
"This case had to be a public example of what can happen when you interfere with voters' rights," said Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Michael Brennan, who rejected prosecutors' recommendation of probation for the four men.
should have made them pay for the tires, too.
They committed felonies. But that was thrown out.
No 'nads, IMHO.
heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.
They did.
Better yet, make them wear the tires round their necks for 6 months.
good. then it's settled - they repaid their physical damage, and now will pay for their cultural damage.
They did ... in addition to jail time they were fined. Jail time, fined & had to pay the rental company that owned the vehicles for the damaged tires. Not bad ... except they should have received more jail time.
To me one of the questions is, why did the prosecutors only recommend probation?
If some Republicans were convicted of keeping poor blacks from voting, what do you think the prosecutors would have recommended? Probation?
in normal times i would posit that the time is consistent with the crime, but given the circumstances, more time would have underscored the importance of transporting people to vote.
This story has been ignored by the mainstream media. It's a big story. But it doesn't fit their template.
They did make restitution prior to sentencing.
The judge did not reduce the crimes to misdemeanors, the prosecutor did. The judge deserves credit for over-ruling the prosecution's recommendation for no jail time. Credit where credit is due.
Too bad we don't have judges like that in Massachusetts. Heck we have a judge who gave a convicted child molester who violated his probation more time added on to his probation and no jail time!
I didn't say that the judge did that. I said the felony level crime was thrown out. The judge should have kept it there, IMHO.
The Milwaukee County DA (Democrat) dropped the charges to misdemeanors as part of a plea deal. The trial judge can't reinstitute the felony, but he gave the perps a harsher sentence than the plea deal. Good for him!
Since they have pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charges associated with the vandalism, now they should be charged with the federal felony charges of voter intimidation and racketeering if possible.
Hmmmmmmm. Didn't think of that. Good idea.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.