Suppose you copped a plea to sexual assault, what do suppose the sentence would be? 5 to 10 years? More? Not if you are a tenured Ivy League professor:
Would you believe 111/2 to 23 months of "house arrest" in that same comfortable home with his wife and two daughters? Criminals get harsher sentences for shoplifting candy bars.
There was no question of McIntosh's guilt. In December, facing damning evidence and with a dozen other women lined up to testify about their own oily run-ins with him, he pleaded no contest to sexual assault.
...Pennsylvania sentencing guidelines called for a minimum sentence of 51/2 years behind bars. But Common Pleas Judge Rayford A. Means seemed impressed with McIntosh's credentials and the work he has done for brain-injury and stroke victims.
District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham, who is appealing the sentence as "inordinately lenient," said house arrest followed by 12 years of probation for a calculated sexual assault did not even rise to the level of a wrist slap. Carol Tracy, executive director of the Philadelphia-based Women's Law Project, noted the sentence was "barely a sentence" at all.
The victim's relatives expressed outrage. None of it mattered.
Lynne Abraham is a woman of deep character in a city that is sorely lacking that particular trait. This is a travesty that hopefully won't stand.
Monday, April 11, 2005
Preferential Treatment at its Worst
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I know, from experience, that generally criminals are given a harsher sentence when they have: stolen, burglarized, scammed some sort of monetary measurement or caused damage to said person's property than if they HURT SOMEONE. As a family member of a victim of violent crime i know there seems to be little effort in protecting victims and family of victims. In June there will be a national convention in DC. My sister will be on the panel discussion involving such victims.
I absolutely cannot fathom house arrest for someone convicted of sexual assault. But then again, I can't imagine the Cardinal removed from the church in Boston being one of the 9 in charge of selecting the new Pope. Here is a question I would like to pose....If you knew of someone that has been brought to court for child molestation...whether convicted or not....would you actually let your child stay the night at their house?????
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