King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg writes about the recent tragic death of Google engineer Steve Lacey:
Steve Lacey was on his way to Costco on Sunday afternoon, July 24, and was sitting in traffic, waiting for a light to change when his life ended. A minute before he was tragically killed, a 52-year old driver, Patrick Rexroat, was allegedly speeding southbound on I-405, carrying three and a half times the legal limit of alcohol in his bloodstream, and chasing a car that he thought had cut him off in traffic. While in hot and drunk pursuit of the other driver, Rexroat failed to negotiate the turn he attempted at high speed and slammed into the driver’s side door of Steve Lacey’s car, killing him instantly.
Witnesses report that the 52-year old Rexroat got out of his car and pounded his chest in a defiant gesture. When he was told that he had killed another person he shrugged his shoulders and started to walk away.
…
What sort of justice awaits the victim’s family, the community and the defendant in this case? The answer is as infuriating as the crime. Under Washington State sentencing guidelines, the killer of Steve Lacey faces no more than 41 months in prison, minus one-third of the sentence that will almost certainly be reduced for good behavior. That means that vehicular homicide offenders actually are removed from our streets for less than 2 and half years.
Want to be even more infuriated? Compare that to this:
The owners of two medical marijuana dispensaries in Spokane have been indicted by a federal grand jury.
Charles Wesley Wright and Jon Richard Vivian, owners of the THC Pharmacy on South Perry Street, and Jerry Wayne Laberdee and Dennis Lewis Whited, owners of Medical Herb Providers, face time in federal prison under multi-count indictments filed today in U.S. District Court.
…
Wright and Vivian face [up to 20 years] if found guilty of maintaining a drug-involved premise near a school. THC Pharmacy was located at 1108 S. Perry St. – which is less than 1,000 feet from Grant Elementary School.
Wright and Vivian are also charged with distribution of marijuana near a school, possession with intent to distribute marijuana near a school, manufacture of marijuana near a school. Each charge carries not less than a year and no more than 10 years.
As with anyone, I’m in favor of having zoning laws that keep dispensaries away from schools, but just to provide clarification on the seriousness of that offense, here’s a map of the neighborhood:
Of the five Spokane defendants, Wright is the only one I’ve communicated with so far. He sent me a rather desperate email yesterday about his situation. He’s in the process of selling all his possessions in order to defend himself (his dispensary was only open for a very short period of time and it never actually made any money). Unlike the caricature that law enforcement likes to present, these folks weren’t high rollers raking in the dough. They’re generally patients themselves who had the resources and entrepreneurial drive to provide for the growing numbers of authorized medical marijuana patients in the Spokane area who couldn’t provide for themselves.
Comparing that to the circumstances and likely sentence of the man who murdered Steve Lacey is enough to make one ill. Long after Patrick Rexroat has served his time and is once again a free man, Charles Wright will almost certainly remain behind bars, never seeing his two kids (who are now 10 and 12) grow up. You may not agree with Wright’s choices, or his defiance after being told to close up shop, but you lack a soul if you find any of this to be acceptable for a civilized society. And that comment is directed most pointedly at Eastern Washington U.S. Attorney Michael Ormsby and his office.
Next Tuesday, August 9, 1:30pm at the federal courthouse in Spokane is Wright arraignment. There are some preliminary plans for protests both here in Seattle and in Spokane. If anyone would like to participate, please feel free to email myself or contact the CDC.
Nice to see Spokane area stuff get a mention!
Infuriating doesn’t begin to describe the situation. Thanks for a great post. Even sans Goldy, HA remains relevant and compelling.
instead of comparing the death to a marajuana issue, compare it to any number of cold blooded murders and then after a sentence of sometimes as litle as 25 years, the murderer walks free. most liberals dont have a problem with that.
@3 What do you know about “most liberals”, you jerk. And where is the fairness in 25 years versus less than four years in the example you give? Why should the killer who uses a car be treated so much better than the one who uses a gun? The only difference seems to be that you people are afraid to do anything that looks like it might suggest that people need to be accountable for their behavior in cars. I say, vehicular homicide is still homicide and should be treated as such.
@3 What do you know about “most liberals”, you jerk. And where is the fairness in 25 years versus less than four years in the example you give? Why should the killer who uses a car be treated so much better than the one who uses a gun? The only difference seems to be that you people are afraid to do anything that looks like it might suggest that people need to be accountable for their behavior in cars. I say, vehicular homicide is still homicide and should be treated as such.
Man of Untruths:
Most liberals?
Life is sacred. Laws need to be changed so that the prison sentence fits the crime. A repeat DUI offender who then kills someone should have a maximum sentence of + 25 years in prison.
Washington state laws for vehicular homicide are 31 months to 177 months (14 years) why did this judge only sentence 4 years or less?
I agree Two Dogs: both DUI killers and lenient judges need to be accountable.
Signed,
Not always liberal
But marijuana causes Communism. Alcohol is capitalist. If we let all the potheads get away with using a communism-inspiring substance, everyone would be sitting around in piles of empty Cheetos bags and pizza boxes and not creating jobs. Next thing you know we’d all be sitting around on government mandated bean bag chairs, eating government cheese in government owned houses and bitching about the government.
Or something…
if you all want to get frustrated, just go spend a day at any of the local city our county courts. This is where our society’s pile of garbage constantly go in and out, with barely a slap on the wrist for things like repeat drunk driving offenses, child molesting, assault, etc….
I dont care if weed goes legal or not – that isnt the point. the point is that its time to make people responsible for their actions – and if that means getting all draconian, then so be it.
need an example? oh there are plenty – but how about the worthless piles of human crap thata killed tubaman? they get a slap on the wrist, have already been in and out of trouble numerous time since then, yet we as a society do nothing….well I should change that statement, we do do something: these pieces of shit will never be of use to our society, so they will get SSI, public assistance, food stamps, public housing, etc….so we will end up paying them – hows that for justice?
its time to start removing the garbage from our society… permanently.
should say “any of the local city OR county courts”
Lee, part of the problem you proponents of weed are having, both in the public image arena and with the lawmakers, is that you all are screaming for legalized medical weed for cancer patients(which is fine), but all you really want to do to is get high for your own enjoyment(and I could care less if thats legal or not).
people see through that BS….Im sorry, but a bunch of twenty-something stoners and 50-something burnouts marching for dying cancer patients seems a little disingenuous. I doubt most supporters of weed give a shit about cancer patients, they just want to get high without getting busted by the man.
also, the idiots trying to sell weed less than 1000 ft from an elementary school – fuck them, I have no sympathy for those idiots.
@3 “most liberals dont have a problem with that”
Speak for yourself. You don’t represent us. You’re not a liberal and you have no idea what liberals think.
@7 Last time I checked, all the capitalists were sitting around not creating jobs, too.
@8 Want to know why society’s “garbage” gets recycled back onto the streets? Because some people don’t want to pay taxes for jails.
A big part of the problem is that we simply don’t have the jail space, or the money to keep criminals in jail. The justice system is plauged by poor priorities – mandatory high sentences for drug offenses, for example, leaving little room for other offenders. Expanding the prison system isn’t feasible due to Tea Party tax-cutting and the “NIMBY” culture. So you have a few people incarcerated for very long terms who aren’t much of a danger to society, and a revolving door for everyone else because we have to push them out to make room for another “customer”.
The simplistic Tea-Party reaction is to try to figure a way to get it all for free. They will try to make it illegal for prison guards to form unions or bargain collectively, and try to get their wages cut to minimum wage. They will advocate privatising prisons, which only means cut-rate security, passing the risk on to the public and taking profits at public expense for themselves.
And when something bad happens, they scream for the heads of the corrections system for somehow not doing a better job with the scraps of resources they are provided.
Come to think of it, that’s all they do. They complain that every offender should be locked up and the key thrown away. They complain about every dollar spent on prisons. They just complain a lot, with no real solutions.
The simplistic view is libtardos don’t want to build jails because incarceration for their crimes is “inhuman” and “degrading”.
The simplistic view is libtardos don’t want prisons in their back yard so who are the NIMBYs again?
Good old Cass Sunstein’s malleable Homer Simpson idiot getting his information from Daily Kooks.
Yeah malleable one… something bad happens and what do we see… a King County Judge sets Bail at $50,000 for Lacey’s killer when the prosecution wanted $1 Million. Rexroat posts bail and goes free. Then the judge got some sense and finally decided to have him post $1 Million bail and now he’s locked up.
Roger Dumb Rabbit… Is Judge David Christie one of those who prefers DUMMOCRAPT?
How come King County judges are so lenient?
@10, Holy High Horse Puckey argument, Batman.
Break it down. “Because some in the medical marijuana debate are just people who want to avoid misdemeanor charges and continue the behavior they’ve been engaged in for years or even decades, then people who the AMA agrees can be aided should be made to suffer. Better a few chronic users stay underground, with all the costs of trafficking and interdiction in place than let a single legitimate medical patient use.
@16
So Piddly?
Willing to let your property taxes rise to pay for prison construction? Willing to have the cost of staffing prisons rise indefinitely to keep up with demand for increased inmates until that budget item starts choking off all others?
Typical of Piddly. Libs hate prisons (black.) Cons hate taxes (white). We must build more prisons (black) There’s no revenue for prisons or guards (white). Gray and unrecognized by simpletons like Piddly, you can either fully fund a giant prison system or you can look for cost effective means of creating fewer prisoners.
@11
There’s plenty of other harmful crap being sold and done within 1,000 feet of a mile, why single out pot? Hell, fast food joints and cars do more damage to kids than pot, let’s ban them.
*********
Or just ignore the snark up above and realize that 1,000 feet is a really long way. If you can’t do something within 1,000 of a school, church, day care, boys and girls club, you’ve pretty much banned it from large areas of a city, which is the true intent.
Check out a map of seattle elementary schools:
http://tinyurl.com/4x2yrg3
If you want to ban something than just fucking ban it, don’t do this silly song and dance.
Same goes with legalization. Just fucking legalize it. Give up the dispensary nonsense and have it available in liquor stores.
@18
But, people are bad and need to be punished!
Oops,
There’s plenty of other harmful crap being sold and done within 1,000 feet of elementary schools…
I never knew marijuana was more dangerous than murder. Thanks for enlightening me on that fact Michael Ormsby.
Checksez, you can ask the HA crazed HA databaze arschloch how many times I said over the years I’d pay increased taxes to put criminals away. And just think… more union guvmint jobs too.
Why did you make it a race issue?
Oh oh teach I know I know… Why little Johnny? Because checksez is a libtardo racist progressive fool!
Right you are little Johnny!
some of you might watch fox, just to see what the enemy is up to. has anyone seen the clip they’ve been playing while talking about obamas 30th. he shakes hands with rahm emannuel and then i think its rhianna. does anyone know the guy about 5th in line, short, wearing a hat, an absolutely ridiculous beard. so totally inappropriate to be greeting the president. i assume of course he’s jewish. anyone know his name?
@23
Thicky. Black and white, shades of gray. Commonly used when discussing morality and ethics.
Sensitive much. And us lefties are the ones who play the race card?
All the time. Just like the class warfare card!
If you don’t like Obummer you are a racist!
There’s few things more pathetic than watching a self-loathing black man call non-racist white people racists. That is, except when he’s hating on blacks or chumming up to a real racist who has just called blacks “niggers”.
That, folks, is as pathetic as it fucking gets. Agreed?
the cost of prisons?
well, I can tell you that a .45 bullet and a pine box is pretty damn cheap.
there is NO reason, NONE, that can justify keeping a child molester alive…same goes for murderers. Every one of those fucks who killed tubaman should be 6ft under.
nuff said.
Ummm Stupid Solution Steve… “I just skip over his posts now” was a BIG TIME LIE eh sucka? Oh and headless lucy… HA’s biggest leftist racist!
And to call me a self-loathing black man is the biggest LOL I’ve had today. Dude when you walk with me for a week then tell me if I am a self-loathing black man!
You on the other hand are one dumb-ASSed honky! “White Niggers” was the comment of Robert 3 Sheets KKK Grand Klaxon Byrd. Do you remember to whom he said it to Stupid Solution Steve?
Stupid Solution Steve… another historical mental midget! The NAACP gave that man a 100% rating the next Congress after he made that comment. So if that was good enough for the NAACP well.. then Puddy can call it out at any time he wants!
LOLMBBAO!
I might occasionally take note of the krazed ravings of a black, self-loathing street corner loon, but I won’t stop to talk with him.
Too bad the black self-loather didn’t smack down the racist who has repeatedly cried “nigger!” in these threads when he had the chance. I might be able to show at least a tiny bit of respect. But he didn’t, and I don’t. That’s the way it is, and that’s the way it’s gonna be. Any black, self-loathing street corner loons hanging around here who don’t like it are just going to have to fucking get used to it.
@27
There’s few things more pathetic than watching a self-loathing black man call non-racist white people racists.
you’re lucky puddy doesn’t call you retards out on the pathetic racial policies of the left. like hoolywood’s insane attempt at perversion by potraying every judge in the movies as a black female. or the torturous hoops they jump thru to have all tv commercials contain, african american male, african american female, one asian. one latino, white male. how pathetic and sad.
Golly Stupid Solution Steve, that’s not what you said earlier on HA for months. In fact your previous posts were the ravings of a crazed lunatic. But don’t worry, I will pass right on by! No need to acknowledge another HA leftist village idiot!
Have a great day Stupid Solution Steve!
A new Planet of the Apes movie is coming. It has all the simian HA leftist players in it.
Notice Roger Dumb Rabbit won’t answer…
I see that our self-loathing loon has a new main squeeze in manoftruth. Don’t you think they make a nice couple? I think they should go for it. The Lord only knows what spawn might come from that union. But it could be interesting. Disgusting, sure, but very interesting.
I don’t recall the loon ever telling us what wing of the Democratic Party he put Shawna Forde in. You all remember Shawna Forde, the far-right extremist who murdered a nine year-old latino girl and her father for being, well, Latino in America. I’m sure, since there’s never been any right-wing violence, not even a curb stomping of a defensless woman, that Shawna must fit in some wing of the Democratic Party. But which one? The Greenspan wing? Armitage? McVeigh? Loughner? Does she have her own wing? Hmm. I reckon only a loon would know for sure.
Dave talks about why the death of that latino girl, Bresinia Flores, matters.
http://www.dneiwert.blogspot.com/
There are few things more disgusting these past couple of years than when right-wing freaks murder kids or curb stomp women and the loon here goes into full moon denial. Either the loon is a loon, falling, falling, falling into some dark psychotic abyss, or he simply lies his fucking ass off here in a pathetic attempt to provide cover for right-wing violence. I say it’s disgusting any way you looked at it.
@15
I think to some extent the “lock ’em up and throw away the key” types would be happiest if the police acted as prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner. Which is all good and well as long as those subject to such treatment are people who you don’t like anyway. On the other hand they don’t seem particularly happy if they or someone they know gets caught up even in the current criminal justice system.
@26
Piddly, it’s shit like this, and Tar Baby comments and pictures of Obama with a bone through his nose and all the other oh-so-HI-larious things the GOP passes around that makes it easy to make the claim that not liking Obama is deeply racist, for some at least. And they just keep doing it.
Translated Fox, “Look at that uppity —— inviting all his —— friends to OUR white house.”