[BraveMan]

the judge will get slapped down over this without a doubt.

The disheartening part of this whole scenario is that you are probably correct.

Juan Carlos Elias will end up wriggling out of the ordered restitution of $4,608.94 (the victim's out of pocket costs, according to the article) because some lawyer with a burning desire to see his/her name in the St. Petersburg Times will petition an appelate court to overturn the judgement because Elias' rights to due process were "violated". Yet everybody is OK with that presumably because of their undying love and respect for the Constitution.

Yea, thats it. Absolve the perp of responsibility for his actions, screw the victim out of the court ordered (fair and reasonable) restitution, screw the taxpayers with a six figure court cost invoice, smack down the newbie judge, all in the name of protecting the Constitution.

I must have mistakenly logged on to the Democratic Underground, because this hue and cry makes no sense to me at all.

[Catspaw]

Juan Carlos Elias will end up wriggling out of the ordered restitution of $4,608.94 (the victim's out of pocket costs, according to the article) because some lawyer with a burning desire to see his/her name in the St. Petersburg Times will petition an appelate court to overturn the judgement because Elias' rights to due process were "violated". Yet everybody is OK with that presumably because of their undying love and respect for the Constitution.

Once again, this is backwards. If the judge had complied with the law and the Constitution, and hadn't gotten found out by someone getting a copy of the tape of the hearing from court personnel and reporting on it (God forbid--maybe we shouldn't allow reporters inside a courtroom), the kid wouldn't be going to the appellate court and he'd be paying restitution. Because the Judge messed up and got found out, the kid now has the perfect right to go to the appellate court and get the judge's ruling overturned. Now it just may happen that the appellate court will reverse the judge, but send this back to the lower courts--but not to this judge--for a new hearing, but none of that would have had to have happened if the judge would've followed the Constitution.

The judge messed up Big Time.

[SJackson]

Juan Carlos Elias will end up wriggling out of the ordered restitution of $4,608.94 (the victim's out of pocket costs, according to the article) because some lawyer with a burning desire to see his/her name in the St. Petersburg Times will petition an appelate court to overturn the judgement because Elias' rights to due process were "violated". Yet everybody is OK with that presumably because of their undying love and respect for the Constitution….Yea, thats it. Absolve the perp of responsibility for his actions, screw the victim out of the court ordered (fair and reasonable) restitution, screw the taxpayers with a six figure court cost invoice, smack down the newbie judge, all in the name of protecting the Constitution…I must have mistakenly logged on to the Democratic Underground, because this hue and cry makes no sense to me at all.

No one is absolved of anything. I suspect this gets solved easily, worst case retry the penalty phase, at the taxpayers expense, as happens when public servants let us down. Hopefully, the judge learned a lesson.

Do you the Constitution should be respected only selectively? How do you determine when?

You’ll find that activist approach all over DU.