Convicted Sex Offender "Too Short" For Prison: Receives Probation Instead

[GotZoom]

Well, this is just bullshit.

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SIDNEY, Neb. (AP) - A judge said a 5-foot-1 man convicted of sexually assaulting a child was too small to survive in prison, and gave him 10 years of probation instead.

His crimes deserved a long sentence, District Judge Kristine Cecava said, but she worried that Richard W. Thompson, 50, would be especially imperiled by prison dangers.

"You are a sex offender, and you did it to a child," she said.

But, she said, "That doesn't make you a hunter. You do not fit in that category."

Thompson will be electronically monitored the first four months of his probation, and he was told to never be alone with someone under age 18 or date or live with a woman whose children were under 18. Cecava also ordered Thompson to get rid of his pornography.

He faces 30 days of jail each year of his probation unless he follows its conditions closely.

"I want control of you until I know you have integrated change into your life," the judge told Thompson. "I truly hope that my bet on you being OK out in society is not misplaced."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060525/D8HQP7F82.html

 

[Nienna]

Oh puh-LEEZ!
A 5'1" man in prison might get a good idea of how the child felt when he accosted him/her! Throw him in the slammer!

 

[CSM]

That is one hell of a bet that judge made. If she is wrong, someone else pays the price and it will probably be another child. If I had the power, just as soon as that guy commits his next child molestation (and he will), that judge would go to jail right along with the perp.

 

[jillian]

Sick decision. Shoulda put him in general population. Sex offenders are recidavist by nature and aren't capable of being "cured".

 

[CSM]

Sick decision. Shoulda put him in general population. Sex offenders are recidavist by nature and aren't capable of being "cured".

Sounds like a fair argument for a bullet to the head. After all, we wouldn't the short little feller to suffer any cruel and unusual punishment for molesting some little kid.


sarcasm folks.

 

[pegwinn]

I cannot believe this. Just when I am feeling human and mellow, just when I start to consider the merits of just going easy, just at the moment when I begin to think that maybe we can rehabilitate criminals I read something like this. Thus is renewed my faith in courts doing stupid shit and the need for me to be granted summary judgement powers.

Like simply shooting him, dumping the body, and hanging a sign on him that reads....... FAILED HUMAN BEING

 

[rakovsky]

Regional News
Voters don't retain District Judge Cecava
Published Wednesday, November 05, 2008 at 01:25 PM
Voters in the 12th Judicial District have decided against retaining District Judge Kristine Cecava of Sidney. Unofficial tallies from the 12 counties in the district...11 in the Panhandle plus Grant County...showed the vote 16,581 against retention and 15,576 for keeping Cecava. Only 4 counties...Box Butte, Dawes, Sheridan, and Grant...supported retention.

Cecava was sharply criticized by many...including Attorney General Jon Bruning...two years ago for granting probation to a convicted sex offender, Richard Thompson.

As part of her justification for the sentence, the one-time Keith County Attorney said she was afraid Thompson's small size would put him at physical risk in the general prison population.

Bruning appealed, seeking a prison term, but both the Nebraska Court of Appeals and Supreme Court ruled probation was fully justified.

The courts said Cecava had several valid reasons for granting probation, including a presentence report recommending it and findings by experts that Thompson was unlikely to be repeat offender because he was neither a pedophile or sexual predator.

The Supreme Court did criticize Cecava for not doing a better job of publicly explaining why she granted probation...with her failure to do so leaving the "small size" issue as the only one for the media to pick up on.

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NOTE TO READERS: I think this article is misleading. The Supreme Court reviews judges based on an "abuse of discretion" standard. What the Sup. Court meant was ok she didn't abuse her powers in deciding it. She had other bases like the "experts".

But that doesnt mean the Sup. Court would make the same BS decision! Plus, these experts could just have been called in by the sex predator to say "Yep he did things called sexual assault, but that's just a fancy liberal word. Liberals are always trying to give too much 'equality' to children. Spanking children's privates doesnt mean he is a sexual predator. Let him go back to his job as school disciplinarian." Courts accept all kinds of people as experts, even if their opinions are cinservative anti-child B.S. like spanking isn't sexual.

In conclusion, too short for prison is a BS justification for sex predators and thank God she got thrown out.

 

[Sunni Man]

So in the state of Nebraska a dwarf or midget can basically commit any crime and not have to fear going to prison?

 

[Mad Scientist]

So in the state of Nebraska a dwarf or midget can basically commit any crime and not have to fear going to prison?

Well he likes kids so maybe he would have fit right in with the Islam groups in prison.

 

[cbi0090]

What your saying is disturbing. In other words, there is no way these people can change. Do we know this for certain? If we are so certain why are they being allowed back into society? Do we like having lepers among us?
My biggest concern is that we are creating an underworld among us. The idea of someone "paying" for their crime and then going on with their lives is disappearing. What kind of work are these people going to do? Who's going to hire them? Not me!
But I'll bet there are lots of criminal types who will. These folks are ripe for the picking because what do they have to lose? If they can make a few bucks running drugs, why not! What can happen? If they get thrown into jail, they'll be better off. Are we going to humiliate them? More than they already are? No way, their "sexual" offenders!
If we aren't going to just kill them, then we need a big island in the middle of the ocean somewhere to dump them. I completely disagree with them coming back to society if, what you say is true and I think it is because I've heard and read it often enough before.

Sick decision. Shoulda put him in general population. Sex offenders are recidavist by nature and aren't capable of being "cured".