Can’t Step on the Toes of Another Lawyer

They left a monster free because they didn’t want to “second guess” another lawyer. Manhattan federal prosecutors declined to pursue Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell case in 2016: sources

Because “second guessing” a colleague wouldn’t show proper respect to a fellow member of the cloth the fraternity the brotherhood the profession.

Some people think I am using hyperbole when I write about the arrogance of attorneys.

Yet more rehashing of Epstein’s reign of terror. But the most insane part of the story is why the US Prosecutor in New York didn’t take action for 2 years.

“This was not a situation where we were dealing with people who didn’t care. I never thought they didn’t believe our story. I never had any doubt they were sympathetic, even outraged by it. They simply seemed to feel they couldn’t be seen as second guessing what the U.S. Attorney in Florida had done,” [Lawyer David] Boies said. [My emphasis. Z-Deb]

The ONLY reason that they decided that they had to “second guess” another attorney, is because the Miami Herald shined a great big, embarrassing light on the situation.

The office’s attitude changed after the Miami Herald highlighted the “Perversion of Justice” that resulted in Epstein receiving a slap on the wrist.

I mean be fair; that was seriously bad publicity.

The Criminal Justice System. It is a “system,” which means it takes care of itself first. It is often Criminal. And it has almost no interest in Justice.

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What Happens When You Don’t Enforce the Law?

You get more law-breaking. Man charged with pepper-spraying his *third* CTA bus driver of the year

You could also file this under “If you give a mouse a cookie, he’s gonna want a glass of milk.”

He first pepper-sprayed a bus driver in March. Then he did it again on September 2nd. Finally 12 days later it was time for number 3.

A Chicago man is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail after he allegedly pepper-sprayed his third CTA bus of the year. Cook County Judge John Lyke also ordered 46-year-old Erick Robie to stay away from CTA property if he can post a 10% deposit bond.

“You gotta walk, or get a car, or Uber or something,” Lyke said.

Hat tip to Second City Cop, who notes that he should have been charged with a felony for the first and second incidents, not a misdemeanors. He terms this “Another Crimesha Failure.” Crimesha being Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.

But Crimesha knows better than the legislature and refused to charge this asshole appropriately.

Anyone know why bus drivers’ Union isn’t raising holy Hell about that?

Do You Still Think the System Will Protect You?

It seems to be doing a particularly bad job in this case. How double killer who shot his grandparents and set their home on fire was released unsupervised from mental health ward before embarking on a new drug-fuelled crime spree.

He killed his grandparents and set their house on fire. He was not guilty due to mental illness, and he was supposed to be in a hospital. But just like keeping felons in prison is unfair, keeping crazy people separated from society is also unfair. Or something.

Konidaris pleaded not guilty to the murders of his grandparents on mental health grounds and was ordered to be supervised for 25 years at a psychiatric facility in 2014.

He was granted permission to leave the mental facility on escorted outings in 2016, and was eventually allowed to roam the streets unsupervised in 2019.

So 25 years turned into 5 years.

During his crime spree in September 2019, Konidaris told staff he was going to see his parents and about be back by 9pm, 9 News reported.

Instead, he went to a home in Cairnlea, in Melbourne’s north-west, where he threatened innocent homeowners with knives and demanded their car keys.

Oh, and he was high on cocaine while this was going on.

So how did “The System” let this happen?

Judge Frank Gucciardo asked why hospital staff didn’t know he had relapsed.

‘He doesn’t tell them. They don’t screen him. There’s no system in place that allows for some control. It’s a bit disturbing,’ he said.

Because the honor system for paranoid schizophrenics seems like the perfect solution for keeping everyone safe. Or maybe not.

To Err Is Human. To Really Screw Things Up You Need a Computer

Why do people think that technology makes everything better? A prison video visitation service exposed private calls between inmates and their attorneys

Fearing the spread of coronavirus, jails and prisons remain on lockdown. Visitors are unable to see their loved ones serving time, forcing friends and families to use prohibitively expensive video visitation services that often don’t work.

But now the security and privacy of these systems are under scrutiny after one St Louis-based prison video visitation provider had a security lapse that exposed thousands of phone calls between inmates and their families, but also calls with their attorneys that were supposed to be protected by attorney-client privilege.

So. Any bets on how long it takes for attorneys to start calling for mistrials, based on violation of their clients’ rights? I’m not a lawyer, so I’m not sure if that is even a thing, but I wouldn’t bet against it.

There are known cases of U.S. prosecutors using recorded calls between an attorney and their incarcerated clients. Last year, prosecutors in Louisville, Ky., allegedly listened to dozens of calls between a murder suspect and his attorneys. And, earlier this year defense attorneys in Maine said they were routinely recorded by several county jails, and their calls protected under attorney-client privilege were turned over to prosecutors in at least four cases.

Because it is not about Justice. It is about winning. And if you have to break the rules, and the law, and in general be a complete asshole to win, well, how do you think the attorneys that work for the prosecution feel about that? You don’t get a raise if you lose.

But it is all OK, you see, it is (mostly) because of the pandemic. Though some jurisdictions were only using video conferencing even before the pandemic.

So how did this happen?

In an email, HomeWAV chief executive John Best confirmed the security lapse.

“One of our third-party vendors has confirmed that they accidentally took down the password, which allowed access to the server,”

Sounds like systems design took a back seat to just about everything. Oh, hey let’s “accidentally” remove password security on everything we do. Security is SO expensive, and SO annoying.

Some day, companies and people will take security seriously. But today is not that day.

Suspect Arrested in LA Ambush of Cops

Are we shocked to discover that he has an “extensive” criminal record? ‘An Extensive Criminal History’: Suspect Arrested in Ambush of LA Deputies

People don’t usually begin their criminal careers with murder. No, they start small — a robbery here, a burglary there — and cycle in and out of the criminal justice system for a few years until, one day, they commit a heinous atrocity. Then everybody looks at their arrest records and says, “Why wasn’t this monster already behind bars?”

Because keeping criminals in jail is Unfair, at least according to the Left.

Keeping Criminals In Jail Is Unfair

Or something. Chicago Democrat Arrested Again

Steal a car to use in an armed robbery. The wheelman in this caper, Tirnell Williams, has an extensive criminal record, but because Illinois is run by Democrats, he was turned loose to commit more crime.

The litany of crimes is horrific, and yet the State of Illinois can’t seem to keep him incarcerated. Some of crimes were committed while he was on parole for previous crimes.

You see that Tirnell Williams has never even tried to work for a living. Instead, he has been perpetrating crime his entire adult life.

File this under Illinois’ recipe for more crime. It seems to be working.

When The System Fails

Criminal Justice Reform is not making things better. Retired Seattle judge believes murder by prolific offender Travis Berge was ‘preventable’

Travis Berge, a man who had at least 35 felony convictions and who was profiled in the “Seattle is Dying” documentary from KOMO, allegedly committed a murder-suicide Wednesday night at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle.

Retired Seattle Judge Ed McKenna told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show that he first got word of this story late Wednesday from some police officers he knows. Basically, McKenna says, they told him that Berge killed his wife or girlfriend and then holed himself up in a water supply place in the park.

35 convictions and he was on the street. He killed someone else, then he killed himself. So who did the Criminal Justice Reforms that are so popular on the Left help? They didn’t help Berge; he killed himself. They really didn’t help the woman he killed first.

The Left wants to help, and that is fine, but what they are doing is most definitely not helping anyone, least of all the people who really need help.

“One of things that I’ve been an advocate for, for a long time, is an in-custody inpatient treatment facility where judges can order people to long-term treatment, where they can get the services that they need, and then only when they’re stable, should they be released,” he said. “And Mr. Berge might be alive today had we actually had something like that.”

But that wouldn’t be fair, or something. And the Left will fix the problems as soon as the police are replaced by a bunch of social workers. Or something.

She Wants Criminal Justice Reform

Of course she does. Boston Serial Rapist Faces Life in Prison; His Sister Endorsed Kamala Harris

Andrea Campbell’s father went to prison, her twin brother died in jail, and now her other brother is facing a life sentence for serial rape. Andrea Campbell, who has “long been a champion of law enforcement reform and accountability,” last year endorsed Kamala Harris for president.

Because really, what other position could she hold? All the men in her family are criminals, so she wants harsher penalties? Not likely.

Epic Fail of Affordable Bail

They couldn’t keep him in jail, because that would be unfair. Suspect Starts Six More Brush Fires, Faces Additional Charges

Catch and release.

A suspect arrested last evening for starting a brush fire was arrested again after he started 6 more small fires.

The only saving grace is that he isn’t a competent arsonist. All 7 (count ’em, seven) fires he started were extinguished before they could get out of hand. But that is more blind luck than “The System” working properly.

He was taken in for psych evaluation. Bets on when he is released?

Another Affordable-bail Gone-wrong Story

More men charged with shooting people while free bail for gun charges.

A West Side man who was on electronic home monitoring for allegedly possessing a stolen firearm as a felon, shot five people Saturday, killing two of them, according to prosecutors.

And as I’ve mentioned before, if you ignore the data, then everything looks good.

For example, Jordan — who allegedly shot five and killed two over the weekend — does not qualify for Foxx’s re-offender count because his pending gun case began before January 1 and, additionally, the alleged murders happened after June 30.

CWBChicago researchers continue to find cases that seem to paint a questionable picture of the county’s bail program’s success with accused gun offenders.

Click thru for that story. I’m sure there will be more in the days and weeks ahead.

My previous post on the subject is at this link.

Affordable Bail Works as Long as You Ignore the Data

A politician wouldn’t LIE, would they? More murder cases raise questions about officials’ bond court success stories

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, known as Crimesha to Second City Cop (link in the sidebar), loves bail reform.

As we reported Tuesday, Foxx is driving the re-offend statistic down by creating a tight window of opportunity for someone to get caught with another gun.

So the program looks like it’s working, as long as you exclude the data that shows it isn’t.

A gun crime, namely felony aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, resulted in the first guy having to pay 200 bucks to get out of jail. He was eventually given a curfew, not that that mattered to anyone, least of all the bad-guy.

Stidhum violated his curfew again the very next night and 16 more times during the month of June alone, according to court records. But officials didn’t do anything about it.

On July 16, Stidhum shot and killed 23-year-old Tavion Edwards as the man rode his motorcycle in Lawndale, prosecutors say. Patrol officers heard the gunfire and arrested Stidhum as he ran down a nearby alley. Cops said they found a gun in Stidhum’s pants.

Even though he was out on bail, and had violated the terms of his release a bunch of times, the murder he committed, allegedly, doesn’t count on Crimesha’s stats because it didn’t happen right away. Yeah, that makes sense.

Click thru for the rest.

So yeah, you can prove just about anything you want to prove if you ignore the data that doesn’t help your cause.

In case you’ve been living under a rock this summer, Chicago has a crime problem. Murders and shootings have been through the roof, and the looting isn’t helping things. And while it doesn’t get the attention it deserves, carjacking is surging in a big way this year.

The Left versus Law and Order

Two stories. The first is insane. The second points out the fact that The Left isn’t interested in the truth, just instigating more riots.

Why was this guy not in jail? Armed and Dangerous

Simple question: What does it take to get somebody locked up? A murder suspect flees the state, “armed and dangerous,” runs from the cops, gets shot and arrested, then for some unknown reason is turned loose, so that he can perpetrate still more felonies? Everybody keeps telling me that we’ve got a “mass incarceration” problem in America, but if that is so, why was it so difficult to keep Antonio Davis behind bars?

BLM is telling lies? Color me shocked! Cop Shoots Knife-Wielding Maniac, Lancaster Riots After BLM Lies

Riots erupted in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, after #BlackLivesMatter activists lied about the police shooting of a criminal. Officials released police bodycam video that shows Ricardo Miguel Munoz, 27, charging a cop with a knife.

Journalism in the 21st Century

Or maybe that should be the lack of journalism. 4Chan Does Better Journalism Than CNN, Identifies Portland Shooting Suspect.

After a Trump supporter was shot dead Saturday night in Portland, Oregon, images of the suspected shooter were widely shared online and the hackers at 4chan went to work to identify the suspect. Within hours, they had named him as Michael Forest Reinoehl, identifiable by a “Black Power” fist tattoo on the side of his neck.

There is more on the prosecutor who won’t prosecute ‘low level’ offenses. So what is he going to do about politically motivated assassinations?

Cook County’s Recipe for More Crime

Home to Chicago, but that isn’t the only city in Cook County. Berwyn police chief: Prosecutors are “managing a catch and release program”.

The police chief of west suburban Berwyn wrote a lengthy Facebook post Wednesday after Cook County prosecutors refused to file charges against one of three persons he says were involved in a shooting there last week.

Chief Michael D. Cimaglia said the juvenile that prosecutors refused to charge “is currently out on bond for two previous shooting and firearm arrests.”

If you make something cheaper you will see more of it, and this guy has seen no cost to shooting other people. Do you think he is going to stop at 3?

Chicago’s Recipe for More Crime

If you make something cheaper, you will see more of it. As murders soar in Chicago, judges are freeing more violent-crime suspects on electronic monitoring

The number of criminal defendants freed on bail and ordered to wear electronic-monitoring bracelets has soared this year in Cook County, including more than 1,000 people charged with murder, robbery or illegal possession of guns, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis has found.

Police Supt. David Brown says many of those being set free on electronic monitoring are responsible for the steep rise in killings this year in Chicago.

As I write this Chicago has had a total of 491 homicides for the year, with a total number of people shot standing at more than 2600. In fact the numbers are higher than for the entire year of 2014. And we aren’t even done with August.

But I don’t expect anything to change for sometime. The State’s Attorney and the Judges in Cook County are determined to see social justice done, even if people have to die to make their point.

As Long As She Had a Good Reason

If you put this in a novel or a movie, people would say it is not realistic. NYC assault suspect misses court date because she was allegedly stabbing woman.

A woman who was sent for mental health treatment instead of to prison for a pair of assaults failed to appear in court for a status update this week — because she was allegedly stabbing someone to death, The Post has learned.

But putting dangerous people in jail is unfair, or something. It was certainly unfair to her latest victim.

So how is all that Criminal Justice System reform working out?

Chicago’s Recipe for More Crime

If you make something cheaper, you will get more of it.

Why would you not hold someone who tried to kill a person by pushing them in front of a train? You’ll have to ask the Chciago ‘Criminal Justice System’ for an explanation. After allegedly trying to push woman in front of CTA train, man’s released again and again without being charged (until now).

The headline says what you need to know, mostly.

Then [he] went on an arson spree before police finally caught up with him during a shoplifting incident last week. Then, he got released again. Police caught up with him two days later to finally face attempted murder and arson charges.

Think that is the only case of crazy? After getting 3 recognizance bonds in a month, man’s charged with robbing woman in River North. A recognizance bond is just that you Promise to show up on certain day for court.

Prosecutors said 42-year-old Arlouska Montas robbed a woman as she walked to work in River North on Tuesday morning. At the time, he was on separate recognizance bonds for retail theft, trespassing, and felony burglary, according to court records.

Because keeping criminals in jail is unfair. Or something.

Philadelphia: Another City Losing the Battle

The battle to maintain law and order, that is. The Philadelphia Shooting Range: City officials remain ineffective in dealing with a plague of gun violence.

This is mostly a story about the shooting of seven-year old Zamar Jones, which is used to highlight what is going on in that city.

Shootings have increased 36 percent this year over last year.

Reaction from City Hall to the latest round of shootings has been silence, suggesting perhaps that Mayor Jim Kenney has reached an exhaustion point. Earlier this year, in reaction to other shootings, he almost sounded like his historic nemesis, ex-mayor Frank Rizzo, when he stated, “There needs to be some consequences for carrying an illegal gun in Philadelphia, especially if you’re a convicted felon.”

I would almost be funny, considering that Mayor Kenney has worked to reduce the prison populations, and is shocked to discover that people arrested on gun crimes, are somehow back on the streets in a very short time.

I don’t know the answer is, but I do know that if you make something cheaper, you will see more of it. And Democrats in all of the major cities, have been working for years to make crime cheaper from the point of view of the criminals. Now they have more of it. Color me shocked.

Chicago and The Failure of Law and Order

You may have heard that they had themselves another riot in Chicago. They looted the stores on (what used to be) The Magnificent Mile. Again. That is either 4 or 5 times this year, I’ve lost track.

Probably Not Trump Voters: Looters Smash Stores in Downtown Chicago.

Democrats are all about social justice, and by “social justice,” I mean smashing windows and looting luxury stores. [SNIP]

Louis Vuitton, Omega — “social justice” is all about name-brand value. If you don’t understand why it was necessary to loot these stores, that’s probably because you’re a racist Republican

How did this start? Well, someone who didn’t want to be arrested shot at cops and missed. The cops shot back and didn’t miss. Result = riot.

In the age of surveillance cameras, there is lots and lots of video. Video: Looters pillage Mag Mile and Loop in social media-fueled riot.

Hundreds of looters ravaged Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, Rush Street, Oak Street, and Loop shopping districts early Monday after plans to burglarize the stores spread on social media. By sunrise, the looting was spreading to Wicker Park and other neighborhoods, according to police scanner traffic.

And some of it is from Twitter. Watch: Twitter videos document overnight looting and riots in Chicago.

But don’t worry, Mayor Groot (that would be Lori Lightfoot) is all over the mostly peaceful parties on the beach, because masks must be worn. City takes new steps to deter gatherings at Montrose Beach after Lightfoot slams ‘reckless’ lakefront party. At least they have their priorities right. Or maybe not.

And don’t you DARE to point out the fact that turning criminals loose encourages more crime. Chicago Mayor Lightfoot pushes back against question about rioters being encouraged by ‘lack of consequences’.

She cut the reporter off – who was talking to Police Superintendent Brown – and while Brown didn’t answer the question, it wasn’t needed anyway.

Earlier in the press conference, Brown suggested that the lenient treatment of people who were arrested during the summer unrest over the death of George Floyd, played a role in what happened in Chicago overnight.

“Not many of those cases were prosecuted to the full extent,” Brown said. “These looters, these thieves, these criminals being emboldened by (the lack of) consequences … emboldened to do more.”

He added that many of the arrests made during May and June, were not “prosecuted the fullest extent.”

That is the attitude that will get Brown fired. He isn’t willing to just blame cops for the problems, being a cop himself, but he calls out the State’s Attorney and the judges. Who granted have failed to hold up their part of the system.

If you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to want a glass of milk.

Fingerprints? That Takes Effort

Forget all that stuff you saw on CSI, or NCIS or NYPD Blue, the Chicago PD can’t be bothered. A gun stolen, a clean set of fingerprints, and a police department won’t collect the evidence.

Police dispatch records show the officer who handled the man’s call made three attempts over an hour to get an evidence technician assigned.

“The prints are still visible,” the cop said at one point. “I thought they’d try?”

Because it is just that a firearm has been stolen. Nothing important.

Second City Cop gets the Hat tip. He notes… Fingerprints?

Here’s a dirty secret that not many people outside of the Department seem to know about:

• 95 times out of 100, an ET will not come out unless there is someone in custody

So even if they pick this guy up tomorrow, they can’t charge him because there is literally no evidence.