Opinion: Hockey Dad Verdict Backwards

I'm sorry, but someone has to voice it: the little guy had it coming. Sucker punching a man 110 pounds your better is unwise, and the little antagonist Micheal Costin was in the wrong in the heated exchange that claimed his life.

At first, I was going along with the dominant media, insisting that this Sports Rage is out of hand and that the killer was a bully who should get the electric chair. But, being a Freeper, I have learned to check my emotional response to "big stories" and get more information before I choose sides. I wanted to hate the Big Bully Thomas Junta, he was reportedly a huge man. Then I realized that he's about my size, I'm 6'1", 255. I'm no giant. And I've spent an adulthood targeted by stupid little hot headed roosters who like to pick fights they can't win. Any big guy will tell you: you learn to be the cooler head and attempt to walk away. Expect no sympathy in ANY altercation.Little guys with an agenda are everywhere, perhaps they were traumatized, they didn't get chosen for teams or were ignored by daddy, whatever.Genetics made us big, not weightlifting. We are what our ancestors were, fat or big or strong or smart or devious or small or kind or mean. There are few truly mean big guys.

It turns out that the little guy Costin was allowing high sticking and rough contact during stick practice, and when the Big Dumb Guy showed up to protest, Costen shot back that hockey is a tough game, get over it. Costin was in the wrong. He should've relented and shut up. But he was the hot head of the two and wouldn't drop it. In the dressing room, he sucker punched the bigger man and kicked at him with his skates as they continued arguing. This chicken spit tactic should've gotten him clobbered right then.True to Big Guy form, Junta went out to his truck to simmer down, only to return when he realized that his son was still in a locker room with a crazy father and his roughneck kids. Let's honestly add to that the humiliation of being sucker punched and walking away from it.

I don't know how many of you freepers have been in an inadvertant serious fight with guys who play dirty. Apparently very few. Surely the pixie woman prosecutor was in unfamiliar waters, judging by her questions. " So, this meant you had to resort to violence, Mr. Junta?" Huh? She ever experienced anything beyond her suburan car pool existance?

Wise fathers tell their boys: don't smart off to cops, don't hit women, don't pick fights you can't possibly win. Attacking a man 110 pounds bigger than you, when you are IN THE WRONG morally, is unwise. While I'm very sad that Costin died. Really. However, putting the Big Dumb father in jail for six to ten years send the message: Open Season on big guys, a jury packed with people who got overlooked when choosing sides for dodgeball will exact revenge on the Big Bully, and you can be as mean and smart alecky as you want at that next sporting event.

I was watching the Patriots game at a Boston VFW Post this afternoon and talked to a friend I grew up with who has been a Boston Cop since the early 70's. He told me a Junta story from the days Junta was a bouncer at a nightclub that the cops were always being called to.

Junta apparently was hassling cab drivers who parked outside the club at closing to pick up customers. He didn't want them there for some reason. One cabbie argued with him and the argument got heated. The cabbie got out of the cab, a pushing contest started that escalated to a fistfight. The cabbie was a pretty big guy and had boxed in the service. He got the better of Junta and put him on the ground, and pretty much said "You had enough?" Junta said nothing and the cabbie walked back to his cab. Junta got up, jumped the cabbie from behind, spun him around, head butted him three times and then got on top of him and started pounding him. The other cabbies called their dispatchers to call the cops and then they all dragged Junta off the guy. The cops showed up, but the cabbie didn't want to press charges (he probably would have lost his job) and he went to the hospital to get 17 stiches to his head. He told the cops he was sure Junta probably would have beaten him to death if the other cabbies had not dragged him off. He said Junta was like a crazed animal.

The cop said there were LOTS of problems at that club where unruly patrons got the crap beat out of them by the bouncers, and were left in the alley next to the club. Junta was well known to the cops. He just didn't get arrested much. My Cop friend said he doesn't know of any cops who have any sympathy for Junta.

You seem to be saying that Junta should never have left, but rather that he should have stayed and pummeled that seven-time jailbird punk Costin right after he got sucker punched and kicked at with skates.

Nope, I was saying that Junta should have stayed out instead of seeking another confrontation with Costin. I was also discussing his plea. Self-defense could not have worked if he had 'stayed and pummeled' Costin, any more than it worked after he left and came back. But if Costin had been killed in the initial fight, a jury might have considered Junta's actions to have been self-defense. By leaving and coming back, Junta added an air of premeditation which made it difficult for the jury to believe he didn't mean to harm Costin. I am in no manner defending Costin for his role in his own death. I was saying that Junta's lawyer might have anticipated the the defense he'd chosen was weakened by Junta's returning after he was safely away from the first confrontation.

Junta seems to be a volcano, based on other stories about him. I can see a similar scenario playing itself out the first time a little league coach tried to discipline him for coming on the field and happened to put his finger in Junta's chest. I can see a similar scenario if Junta was involved in a fender-bender in which the other guy tried to put the blame on Junta. Disproportionate rage, ready fists. I just wonder if he had been drinking a beer or two the day he killed Costin. Alcohol enflames the hot-headed.

My mother was right. You walk away. You don't fight.

I was accosted just once as a grown up. He was smaller than I and he acted in the typical small man manner. When he rushed me, I grabbed him by the lapels and lifted him off the ground and slammed him against cigarette machine. I then turned to the pizza parlor employee and asked her to call the police since I was making a citizen's arrest.

When the police arrived he was drunk enough,(or doped up since he was found to be in possession of grass), to spout out that he didn't like me because I was wearing an Air Force flight jacket, (just released from the Air Force).He spent the night in the drunk tank and the proprietor made me a new pizza.

There is absolutely no reason to meet force with more force than is necessary to control the situation. My Air Force hand to hand training had allowed me to turn his energy against him. Yes I could have used one of the moves that would have collapsed his wind pipe or broken his nose but that wasn't necessary. I think that this was the main lesson taught to "Cricket"

Most of the posts indicate the posters didn't follow the trial and don't know the facts of the case. Junta only saw Costa one time, and that was in full hockey gear. Costa was taller than Junta, so Costa didn't look smaller than Junta at all, but quite larger, considering the hockey gear. Costa clearly started the first fight and inflicted serious injury on Junta. Junta left the building, then began to worry about his son and friends being left in the building with a seemingly crazy man (and Costa had a history of mental disorders that did not come into evidence). Because of that worry, he reentered the building and was blindsided with a sucker punch immediately upon entering. Costa jumped on his back, he threw Costa over his shoulder and fell to his knees and gave him three quick punches. Only in that short span could he have judged Costa's true weight as less than his own. On the stand, Junta came off as very credible, as did the witnesses for him, and even a number of witnesses the state called that testified to only three quick punches. Only a couple of hysterical old ladies testified to the slamming of the head into the floor and the 10-20 punches. The problems with the trial were that the defense lawyer did not bring out that Junta never saw Costa out of the hockey gear, that the defense never called a medical expert on Junta's knee injuries to demonstrate once he had fallen he could not get up, so that he had to end the fight then or Costa would have gotten up and kicked him to death, and finally, that the judge did not let in evidence as to Costa's long criminal and mental health backgrounds. This jury is beating its' head now that it is out of sequestration and knows all the facts, I would imagine. I was surprised at the court's sentence, but then again, the defense lawyer missed the important points.

Flame away, little men.

I won't flame you for your post. I think the sentence this man received was way too harsh. He did not set out to kill the guy. It is an unfortunate situation and from what I have read, the guy that died was not completely innocent.

There is something else going on in this sentence that has more to do with popular culture than with circumstances. The guy now sitting in jail fits a profile many in the PC crowd don't like and that is enough to satisfy them that he should be in jail.

. Only a couple of hysterical old ladies testified to the slamming of the head into the floor and the 10-20 punches.

Junta's attorney urged the jury to dis-regard the testimony of those two women as they were too emotional about seeing the fight.

A well known defense attorney commenting on Boston talk radio called those remarks "idiotic" as they would not have been appreciated at all by the women on the jury. He said that Junta's attorney pretty much lost the women with that comment.

I have a friend who lives in Charlestown and used to drink at the bar Junta used to drink at (and where Junta's brother in law was murdered, a murder which is still unsolved, and one in which Junta was interviewed as a suspect). He says there are lots of more stories of Junta and rage and fights, except in Charlestown, the "Townies" have a "code of silence" and cops are never called over a beef, and usually not called when someone gets killed, even in a bar room. When the cops do come for a homicide in a public space, pretty much everyone will say they didn't see anything and they were in the restroom when anything took place. It's a different world.

The little jerk did not deserve to die. The big jerk did not have the right to kill him. However, we all know little jerks who suffer from short man syndrome. This little jerk had a terminal case of it. The odds caught up with him.

Of course Thou shalt not kill. I am in no way excusing the big jerk. But the little jerk who had a history of assaulting a police officer was not blameless in his own death. Sooner or later he was going to run into someone that would give it right back to him. Sadly, for all concerned, it was sooner.

BTW, the only one in that group that seemed to have any decency was the grandfather. Interesting family dynamics. I'd love to know the story. If dead dad's kids go bad I bet it will all be blamed on incarerated dad.

No, I'm sure it happened. I am reminded every morning when I look in the mirror and see my crooked nose, the scars just above both eyebrows, and the scar on my upper right lip where my canine went through it. I had my whole face packed in ice for three days. I had two black eyes that made me look like a racoon. If I hadn't been able to grab him, throw him to the ground and stomp on him he'd probably still be pounding on my head. We both lost our jobs because we couldn't get to work. Yea, I'm pretty sure it wasn't a movie.

You are right. My son's basketball league started a mandatory "Parent's Code of Conduct." I refused to sign. I teach (and have always taught) my kids never to argue with a ref, coach, other player. They always knew if they do, I will pull them out of the game.

I refuse to sign a paper promising I will act like the adult I am. I politely, but firmly, told them I am not in elementary school & will not do the equivalent of writing 100 times on the chalkboard. I feel very strongly about that.<p My kids said, "Ah Mom, sign the paper." My not signing it has not been an issue (perhaps because I am a "good" parent), but I was prepared to go the distance on this one.

The good thing about closing your post with an insult is that now I don't have to waste the energy explaining Little Man Syndrome (or the evidence) to you.

Ms Lyte: You were the one calling attention to your weight. For whatever reason you had, you felt your weight was germane to the discussion. And your having done so, anybody was free to comment on your weight -- or did you think you had a free pass on making statements without any response?

And for the life of me, what is so insulting about observing that you look as if you weigh more than you claim? Anyone can look at the pictures you freely published and decide for themselves whether you weigh over 150 or not. To me, you look like you weigh over 150 ... and since it was YOU who raised the topic, who felt it to be so germane, why should I not share my opinion?

But what distresses me most, is your implication that a woman who weighs more than 150 should be disdained. Otherwise, why would you be "insulted" by my observation?

The fact that you absolve yourself from answering the objections to your original proposition is one of the most delicious ironies to be published on FR.

Your original contention was that any man, even a small man, who starts a fight, should be man enough to suffer any and all consequences of the fight he started, even if the consequences are not inflicted in self-defense, but merely a form of punishment for his having dared to start the fight.

Yet YOU, having started a fight on the issue, back down in a cowardly way because someone "insulted" you. It looks like you really are not a Texas sort of Amazon, nor even a level-headed conservative woman. You are just a coward who knows how to start a fight, but is too afraid to finish it.

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