Well.... he'll never get that dream professorship sinecure now.Just as well - he wouldn't be able to understand the students anyway.
..."Just smile and nod, and don't ever let him get you alone in his office, dude!"...
Posted on 01/05/2005 1:07:09 PM PST by TFFKAMM
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A graduate student convicted in the $2 million firebombing of scores of sport utility vehicles lost a bid Monday for a new trial.
A federal judge rejected the motion by 24-year-old William Jensen Cottrell, the U.S. attorney's office said.
Cottrell had claimed the court improperly barred his attorneys from presenting evidence that he suffered from a type of autism that made it difficult for him to understand the intentions of his alleged accomplices.
U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner sided with prosecutors, who argued that Cottrell's complaint was "irrelevant to the issues at trial."
Cottrell, a doctoral candidate at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, was found guilty in November of conspiracy to commit arson and seven counts of arson in the August 2003 rampage.
More than 100 vehicles were damaged or destroyed at dealerships and homes in the San Gabriel Valley near Los Angeles by vandals who spray-painted "polluter" and "ELF," an acronym for the radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front, on some of the vehicles. Cottrell blamed the arson on accomplices. Two fellow students have been identified by prosecutors as "fugitive co-conspirators."
Cottrell is to be sentenced March 7. He faces at least five years in prison, according to prosecutors.
Don't underestimate the power of a felony conviction! Lots of doors slam shut for you.
Well.... he'll never get that dream professorship sinecure now.
Well.... he'll never get that dream professorship sinecure now.He faces at least five years in prison, according to prosecutors.
How about work camp until the $2 million is worked off, then prison time as suitable punishment for his crime.
It IS a ray of hope. A judge here in Los Angeles calls 'baloney.' Very good sign.
If that is all he gets, he will be getting of light. He should get 10 years minimum. This is a radical, terrorist movement. This was a planned, coordinated, orchestrated attack on society.
I practice no criminal law (no, not trial law, either, but commercial litigation), but my recollection is that there is no parole in the federal system. Unless his sentence is initially probated, he will do what time he is sentenced. Someone whose practice is more criminally oriented may be able to shed some light on this.
It's 85%. So if he gets a normal first-offender's sentence (5 do 1) he'd do 10 months and a little change.
Excuse me, but been there, done that.
This guy is claiming "autism" as his problem.....when he's a candidate for a Ph.D. in an intellectually-heavy academic field?
This guy is mocking those with authentic autism.
In the federal pen, he's looking at some real hard time: one hour out his cell per day, shower once a week, no TV, no weight room...
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