Showing posts with label court. Show all posts
Showing posts with label court. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

DUI in Ohio

Paging through the local bird cage liner, I came across this little gem:

Sandusky Man Loses Driver's License, Sent to Prison After 12th DUI

With his 12th drunken driving conviction, a Sandusky man today lost his driver's license for life and was sent to prison.
Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Gary Cook sentenced Johnnie Cross III, 59, to four years in prison and ordered him to pay a $2,500 fine, and participate in alcohol addiction treatment.
My question: Why does this confirmed drunk still have a license after 12 DUI convictions? 

How well do you suppose he drives when he's sober?

You know how completely hammered you have to be to actually get pulled over for drunk driving?  And then you have to do something incredibly stupid to get the cop's attention.

Okay, that's more than one question, but the first question is the one I'm actually interested in.  Any and all of you that have some knowledge of the system, feel free to sound off.


Saturday, September 21, 2013

Thank A Police Officer Day 2013

Today is Thank A Police Officer Day; Saturday, September 21, 2013.  Today I'm ignoring the bad behavior of a few and thanking the rest of the department for their service.

I live in Sylvania Township, Ohio which is not to be confused with the city of Sylvania.  We in the township have our own police department, which is comprised of the best officers East of the Mississippi and North of the Mason-Dixon line.  My thanks to the Sylvania Township Police Department for doing an outstanding job.  I've written about the Sylvania Township police on other occasions; here are two:Late Breaking News: Major Electric Blackout Averted and Sylvania Township Police.

We live next door to the city of Sylvania, and in fact Main Lady is served by the Sylvania PD.  Sylvania did an outstanding job for us which I related here: Hit and Run. I'll never forget seeing this abandoned car in Main Lady's front yard and wondering (aloud) what I was going to do.  The officer replied cheerfully that they'd be glad to tow it out of there for me, which lifted a huge weight off my shoulders.  Between the Township and the City they caught the driver, who was hammered beyond coherent thought and who claimed a neck injury and so went to the hospital for a butt load of pain killers rather than a medium sized set of lumps and an extended stay in the drunk tank.  The court system let the offender go, by the way.  If I didn't know better, I'd say there was some kind of job security conspiracy going on between the judge, the lawyers and the cops.  You guys bust 'em, we'll prosecute and defend 'em, and the judge will let 'em go.  They're bound to screw up again, and you guys can bust 'em.

How real does some of that sound to the cops out there?

Finally I come to the Toledo Police Department, which I wrote about in My Ride Along. Suffice to say that I saw them in action and these officers turned in an absolutely stellar performance when they assisted a mentally ill woman.  Thanks to their kindness and consideration these two officers really turned her day around for her.

So then, this is my thanks to all you police officers out there.  You show up every single day for work and hope for a nice, quiet day.  Every time you interact with the public you make someone's life just a little better, and every once in a while you get the chance to make a huge difference in someone's life.

My sincere thanks, a tip of the old fedora and a hoist of my afternoon bourbon glass.

Here's how!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

From "victim" to Victimized to Victory

On November 21st, 2011 Lamar Allen and Joseph Hunter unsuccessfully attempted to rob Express Carryout on Mulberry Street in Toledo.  Both men were armed, one with a TEC-9.  The clerk, Bandar Abu-Karsh, did as he was told by the robbers.  He gave up the money and hid behind the counter - where he could hear the robbers discussing what to do with him.  The conversation was headed in a direction Bandar didn't care for (they favored killing Bandar), so Bandar got his hands on the 9mm pistol kept behind the counter by the store owner and popped up yelling "Surprise!  School's out!" and put some lead in the air.

On Wednesday, August 15th, 2012 (almost 9 months later) the dust finally settled and Bandar is now a free man.  Keep reading to find out what happened.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

When Lawyers Go Bad: The Conclusion

I wrote about the disbarred attorney Linda S. Cook in my post titled: When Lawyers Go Bad. The local scandal sheet picked up the story but failed to run it to the goal line: Ex-Sylvania lawyer guilty of attempted records tampering - 8/25/2011.  Today I got some email from a person unknown to me asking about Linda S. Cook and her possible whereabouts. Having an hour or so to kill I decided to see if I could find out just what did happen to this wayward ex-servant of the Court, because the last I heard she was staring at a year and a half in the big house, courtesy of Judge Gary Cook (no relation).  After a little searching I discovered what happened.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Rant: Our (In) Justice System

On June 23, 2010 two low life sons of bitches, Eric Skowron and Alisha King, went over to Josh Luck's house and stole Josh's dog Tyson out of Josh's back yard, then took Tyson down the street to Skowron's home where Skowron shot Tyson twice with a .45 pistol. Tyson survived the shooting and returned to Luck's house before collapsing in Luck's front yard. When Josh Luck found his dog Tyson in the front yard he took Tyson to the veterinarian. Josh thought Tyson had been hit by a car. Not so, the vet told Josh. Tyson had been shot. Fortunately Josh's neighbor has a surveillance video camera set up outside and caught the theft on tape. Watch the Surveilance Video and see for yourself.

Right after he shot the dog, Skowron decided he'd better call nine one one and report the shooting before anyone else did. Here's a link to a story from ABC, which has the 9-1-1 Tapes From Tyson Dog Shooting and a transcript. The police responded, but they didn't believe Skowron's story.

Eventually Josh Luck saw his neighbor's surveillance video and called the police. Now, at this point I'd think that it's only a matter of time before these two scum buckets are sitting in the hoosegow for a few years. The prosecutor has a video showing a crime being committed, a confession by scum bucket Skowron the alleged perpetrator, a severely wounded dog and a pissed off owner. What more is needed? Turns out that, as usual, I'm wrong. We've got to have hearings and plea bargains.

Plea Rejected In Dog Shooting Case From the article:
Mr. Skowron is charged with animal torture, killing or injuring animals, firearms discharge, making a false police report, petty theft, endangering, and criminal trespass. Ms. King is charged with animal torture, killing or injuring animals, petty theft, and criminal trespass.

Judge [Michael] Goulding rejected an agreement reached by prosecutors and defense attorney Don Cameron that would have dropped the weapons charge against Mr. Skowron in exchange for his plea on two first-degree misdemeanors and a fourth-degree misdemeanor, attorneys said.
Good for Judge Goulding, right? Why let these two off easy when the prosecutor has a winning case. Why indeed - here's why:
"It's alleged that he discharged a large-caliber handgun and fired more than one shot," the judge after the hearing. "If those allegations were true, that's a serious offense to community safety."
There you have it. The judge is anti-gun, so rather than give the prosecutor a good going over and telling him to get to work, the easy way out is rejected, as it should be, but for the wrong reasons. The judge could have rejected this because Eric Skowron is a real son of a bitch and scofflaw into the bargain, and he's unfit for the community. Consider that at the first hearing, Judge Goulding told both scum buckets to stay away from the Luck home, which includes driving past it. They refused to do so.

Suspect In Dog'S Shooting Rearrested From the article:
Eric Skowron appeared in court yesterday after a complaint was filed against him by Kelly Luck. Ms. Luck alerted the court that Mr. Skowron had been seen driving past her home in violation of the judge's orders.

After a brief hearing, Judge Michael Goulding revoked Mr. Skowron's recognizance bonds and ordered that he be held in the Lucas County jail in lieu of a $3,000 surety bond. Yesterday he was released from the jail after bond was paid.
So he's out again after covering a three grand bond. All this does is demonstrate that Skowron doesn't care about the Judge's order, which seems to be as effective as any other restraining order. Meanwhile, we're back at the negotiating table for reasons I cannot comprehend, and here's the latest from The Toledo Blade: Pair Plead No Contest In Shooting Of Pet Dog. From the article:
As part of the agreement, prosecutors dropped charges against Mr. Skowron of theft, endangering, and filing a false police report. And they dropped a trespass charge against Ms. King.
That's right. Charges get dropped, and these were likely the easiest charges to prove. The scum buckets enter pleas of no contest to all the other charges. Why? Well, according to The Blade, who quotes the assistant prosecutor:
Assistant Prosecutor Michelle Albert-Turvey said after Wednesday's pre-trial that despite strong evidence against the couple, she preferred to seek a partial conviction now rather than wait for the outcome of the jury trial formerly scheduled for next week.
She preferred to flush any work that was done in preparation for the trial down the crapper in favor of less work, and she doesn't want to wait. I'm not surprised, but I'm angry.

We pay taxes. Most of our tax money vanishes into The Anointed One's happy time machine in Washington D.C. A smaller amount gets hoovered up by Our Beloved Dictator in Columbus, Ohio. A still smaller amount pays to support our system of (In) Justice at the county level. We pay to have prosecutors go to trial and put scum buckets like these two away in the hoosegow. We do not pay, or at least should not be paying, for Michelle Albert-Turvey with her pretentious hyphenated name to add another plea bargain to her resume, especially when she could have won this case if she'd been willing to work at it. I suppose her case load is too large or the case isn't important enough.

Plea bargain? Plea bargain my ass. This was a winnable case and the prosecutor bitched it. Let's fire her and get someone who's willing to work. Now I know how the police feel when they pass a case to the prosecutor and the whole thing gets flushed because of a plea bargain.