Comments on: Get a Load of This!

By: Really

Really — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:48:39 +0000

Whoa Abbie, ITS THE PROSECUTOR STUPID. Your getting warmer. I suggest you actually spend a day in criminal court and observe the prosecutor office in motion. The cops are making the right arrests, its the prosecutors office. Carl “Plea Deal” Brizzi is the man you need to put to the screws too. Start looking at murder suspects and agg. assault suspects CRIMINAL HISTORY. Anyone with a prior gun conviction/rape conviction/or 3 narcotics convictions should NOT be offered a plea agreement. The judges accept these plea’s because they are not a party to them.

By: Rufnek

Rufnek — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:41:22 +0000

To Moneyguy: This wasn’t just stealing one car, it was a huge operation. What was not reported was the amount of cars stolen. Approximately 20 cars from each auction and a few here and there from dealerships. Do you even know how many auto auctions are here in just Marion County? And on top of that they were able to get some of those vehicles registered AND plated in their names? I understand there are murders occuring in record numbers, but don’t you think some of these vehicles were being used to commit violent crimes? If they bust these kids for that then it will lead to other offenders too. And don’t get me wrong I’m totally on the officers side, heck I’m related to an officer. I just know we had no help in trying to find our cars and had to do most of the work ourselves, which was fine with us as long as we got our cars back.

By: Moneyguy

Moneyguy — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:25:14 +0000

To Rufnek : Hmm somebody call a detective PLEASE! Leave a Message At the BEEP: All detectives are presently working on murder cases! Please call your insurance company and call back when the kids are back in school. This has been a recording….

By: StatlernWaldorf

StatlernWaldorf — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:36:22 +0000

All who are saying we need more jail space are totally clueless as to what the real problem is….THE COURTS!! I know that there are standing “unwritten” rules that if it wasn’t a “violent” crime the kids will NOT be in Juvy. The courts release them on probation and the probation division rakes in the fees. The courts DO get the court costs from the parents.
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I know of a “child” (who is almost 18 now) who was arrested 2 years ago for PI. This child has been on probation ever since. This child has been arrested 6 times since the first arrest for the SAME OFFENSE! Was the child incarcerated at the pleading of the parents? NO. The kid was released after 4 hours at Juvy each time and probation time (and FEES) were extended. Is this really a deterrent to ANY kid?
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I know another “child” who was arrested in Hendricks County for shoplifting. She tested positive at a deferral program for THC (pot) and the judge sent her to Muncie Corrections for 7 days. She tested positive again after release while at a probation appointment and was sent BACK to Muncie for 13 days which INCLUDED Christmas. She has been straight and narrow ever since. BTW, the parents have to pay probation fees, court costs, and $150+ per day for the Muncie stays.
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Tell me that the Marion County Juvenile System is too taxed for space and I say BS!! They want probation fees. They want monitoring fees (even though no one seems to be monitoring). I remember when I was a kid in the early 80’s and we were scared to go to Juvy because our parents had the option to LEAVE US THERE. Now parents who want to teach the kids a lesson are told that if they don’t come and get their kid IMMEDIATELY the PARENT will be charged with child abandonment! What is THAT telling our kids??
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What the hell ever happened to the “Scared Straight” program????

By: Watcher on the wall

Watcher on the wall — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:28:40 +0000

Melyssa said:
“And I spank naughty boys CONSENSUALLY and they pull out all their might. Go figure. Politics.”

I would love to see you a judge…substitute Cat o’ Nine tails for gavel, appropriate leather wear under the robes!!!

By: bit

bit — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:24:24 +0000

Because, James, state prisons are not and do not serve the same purpose as county jails. AND, bed space is but a small piece of the puzzle. We could ship Marion Co jailees to state prisons, where there remains some empty space, but we don’t have the ability to fund their transportation or the staff to monitor them when they are there, which would be a Marion Co responsibility (and that doesn’t begin to address the other issues raised: judicial staff to efficiently process, prosecutors, pds, etc). When Arizona prisoners came Arizona paid the costs to transport and care for them.

I’m not arguing to be right, I’m just pointing out what the problem is. Even if there is prison space we – Marion Co, who must bear the sole cost- have no ability to keep them there. That’s just on the jail side, not the state prison side either. For that, look to the Indiana General Assembly who likewise continue to pass new crimes and at one point in the Bayh and O’Bannon years were gleeful about building more prisons, but wouldn’t fund the DOC to staff them.

By: James

James — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:46:51 +0000

Bit-you are absolutely wrong. If we don’t have any prison space, why were prisoners being shipped TO us from Arizona? Because we had too much prison space. Judges in this county send them to community corrections instead of prison whenever they can.

Blame them, not the lack of facilities for prisoners.

By: Ash

Ash — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:53:06 +0000

Rufnek, normally the dealership thefts are an inside job. This makes it doubly complicated because the Prosecutor’s Office is too cowardly to even try an auto theft case where the suspect has the keys to the car (they consider that plausible deniability.) I agree buying a $50,000 car for $500 is obviously receiving stolen property, but again the Prosecutor’s Office lacks the gumption to touch these cases. If the steal is less than a day or two old they might, but thugs are figuring out that stealing a car and leaving it in their garage for a week is a way to stay in business. It’s very common for someone to have been arrested 8 or 9 times for auto theft without a single one of the arrests getting filed.

By: Jon G

Jon G — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:34:01 +0000

What were the people that were monitoring the home detection devices doing when the things were going off. Who is to be held accountable for that error?
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Maybe we could institute a system where if your teenager is arrested more than once than the the parents have to foot the bill for court/jail costs. It seemed to get kids back to school when they were threatened to have welfare cut off if their kids didn’t show up.

By: bit

bit — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:33:55 +0000

retired ipd— you say “the courts for whatever reason put the thugs back on the street”…. it’s not “whatever reason” None of us have to look far at all to know the biggest reason. The judicial/corrections system in Marion Co has in no way kept up with the need to expand. Like it or not, we have grown in need- population shifts, more crime, more arrests over the past 25 years, (and as retired ipd you saw this) but the City-Co Council was never ever willing to attempt to keep up with the demand by funding what was needed to keep thugs off the streets. The big jumps occurred during the 80s & 90s, Hudnut & Goldsmith years, but it was the CCC- the SerVaas led CCC- and not the mayors who were the problem. The CCC was never willing to honestly deal with the rising needs in the judicial system for jail space, sheriffs’ (ie jail admin) funding, courts, staff, prosecutors, pd. They were too stuck on “No New Taxes” idealism when it came to basic government, but the irony was there was ample new spending going on… but it was to create the amateur sports capital and Circle Center, and on and on and on…. When faced with the choice of making movers and shakers happy or keeping up with the costs of keeping citizens safe, they chose the former. So these practices of the 80s to 90s came home to roost in the 2000s.

Granted you will find some judges dealing out harsher sentences than others– but if you examine that you will find that is almost exclusively in the realm of non-violent (though not to say not serious) drug or driving (ie driving w/o or w. suspended license) crimes and not in crimes of violence of DUI/injury/death crimes. By and large judges are absolutely forced to go with home dentention and community corrections (by the way, how much do you think organizations/companies who run community corrections programs pay to lobbyists to keep the city & co using CC programs instead of jails??)