Ex-L.A. teacher charged with molesting 23 children

Not at all, he should be prosecuted (not persecuted). This is a very common problem with sexual exploitation cases, that it's harder on the victim to prosecute than to let it go. But they definitely need to be prosecuted anyway, to take perps off the street and deter the perps-to-be.

Maybe other people are thinking this is just the tip of the iceberg and this guy did a lot more than is discussed in the article. It's possible. I'm thinking only of what is described. If it turns out he was also raping kids, I'll take it all back.

This is how sentencing works though. The judge says 'well, we're allowed to give out sentences for child sexual assault up to life in prison and federal guidelines suggest 5 to 20 years, with life for the most heinous crimes. What do you jurors recommend?' Or whatever the numbers are. And the juror then says, 'well, it's not heinous, so we should stay under 20. I knew a guy who did x, y, and z and he got 15, so maybe this one should get 10.'

I was on a jury that sentenced a guy to 20 years for child rape and that's kinda how it went. One guy was a father of girls with a vengeful streak and wanted to give life. Another was a woman who thought the victim turned out okay (this is a decade after the fact), and didn't want to go over 10. You dicker around the severity of the crime. We even did some math to figure out how old our perp would be when he was first eligible for parole, figuring an old man would be less likely to re-offend, and figuring with his poor health he might die in prison before parole ever came up.

 

Wrong thread/story.

 

I tried to add it to my original post. Referencing something I was talking about.

Mr. T

 

You should've quoted yourself then or referenced to it.

Mrs. Blue

 

I'm OK with persecuted here...

 

try 23 million. 1 mill for each alleged victim. yeah the film lab part seems to me he was asking to be caught.

just a bunch of facepalms for this thread.

alleged perp has been under investigation in 1994 and his former students are coming out claiming they complained to their school counselor about his odd behaviors and they were swept under the rug by the school officials as 4th graders making things up...

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/02/2621264/complaint-about-la-teacher-made.html

Miami Herald using AP and LA Times sources

 

*Fixed* No ring over here.

 

Thanks for clearing that up for future references.

Ms. Blue.

 

I'm opposed to the death penalty anyway, but I agree that demanding the death penalty if that is all he did does not make sense. But there are also factors which make his crime more severe - he was, as a teacher, entrusted with the well-being of the kids, he apparently did this over many years, the psychological impact on the kids he did this to might be huge, etc. etc.

 

Fine. If they throw the book at him, I won't be protesting in front of the courthouse or anything. I just get the impression sometimes that people forget just how depraved humanity usually is.

 

I think you are downplaying what he actually did. No as of yet there is no clear picture that he actually raped or sodomized anyone. Still, the man has to get the semen from somewhere. He didn't buy it from a store. So he gets satisfaction out of creating semen and then feeding it to kids. You brush it off as kids just being played around with. He duct-taped kids while feeding them semen. A lot of the kids could barely speak English so they were just going along because they are so easily manipulated. That is abuse to the fullest. A few years is nothing that will rehabilitate this man. For those of y'all screaming for the death penalty I just don't see it here. I am all for the death penalty but just let this man rot in prison and let the other prisoners take care of him. He will probably wish he got death after a few years in there.

 

I'm not sure why people are talking about the death penalty. You CANNOT get the death penalty for a case like this. The death penalty is exclusively for murders. Louisiana had a statute that allowed the death penalty for child rapists - the Supreme Court struck it down in 2008 in Kennedy v. Louisiana and struck down all similar laws saying the death penalty was reserved for murder. Unless he killed a kid, the death penalty is not on the table - period.

 

I don't disagree with you droopy. He exploited and abused children for his sexual gratification and he should go to prison for it. Maybe the only place we disagree on is how long an incarceration is just. Success in rehabilitation of child sexual predators is poor anyway, so I'm not really counting on prison to 'fix' this guy. So what is just? He'll be on sex offender lists when he gets out and won't be able to do any job that involves children, so there's still measures to prevent him (somewhat) from re-offending even while free.

 

That Albuquerque grocery clerk Yogurt semen guy tricked 3 adults and got charged with something that had a max 8 year sentence and pleaded guilty to a max 3 year sentence. He hasn't been sentenced yet.

So, compare it 23 kids who were under his care as his students, not just random grocery shoppers, and I guess he can be charged with multiple counts adding up to a max 90 year sentence, plead guilty, get 30 years...perhaps get paroled early due to overcrowding and then get shot by one of his victims who was emotional scarred for life. I think this will be on Law & Order SVU someday.