Friday, June 8, 2007
L.A. law
There was a tv show, years ago, called L.A. Law. The title was meant descriptively, I feel sure, not sarcastically the way I'm using it today. Several years of strange behavior by various and sundry members of both sides of the legal process -- lawyers and enforcement -- lead me to think there's something odd in the water there. From infamous trials to peculiar verdicts and now to bizarre behavior by a sheriff who re-interprets judicial decisions.
Yesterday I wrote about my reactions to the Paris Hilton in-and-out-of-jail situation here and here. After which, blog friend Laura wrote several comments (here, here, here and here) saying, among other things, that "people are sentenced to the L.A. County Jail with the tacit understanding that they're not actually going to serve the time, or just a couple of days, because the sheriff is not making people serve their sentences due to overcrowding." Apparently this has happened many times!! It's not that Sheriff Baca decides to let people off for good behavior. No, he simply doesn't keep them in jail. Laura wrote that "the sheriff . . . seems to have the unilateral ability to controvert the judge's sentence" and that "[a] county jail sentence often doesn't amount to much and may mean nothing at all." What the heck??!!!
Apparently the judge specifically stated in his order that Paris should serve half the original sentence (23 days) in jail and without any special treatment; she was not to be sent home and she was not to be given the ankle bracelet and put under house arrest instead. Since he stated all that so specifically, I'd think he was warning the sheriff to restrain his proclivity for sending people home. It didn't work but now that I know what the sheriff has been doing, which must have been frosting the judges, I'm willing to bet that the judge was expecting all of this and is using this highly public opportunity to slam the sheriff for his completely cavalier abuses of the system. (Which must be illegal, no?)
Also, and less interestingly but more importantly from a public relations standpoint, I'm sure he will order PH back to jail and tell her to grow up, or words to that effect. Her so-called psychiatrist will try to host a great big pity party for her delicate mental health but that's a bunch of hogwash and he's obviously one of the band of psychiatrists who give the professional a lousy name. What is it about L.A. anyway?
Yesterday I wrote about my reactions to the Paris Hilton in-and-out-of-jail situation here and here. After which, blog friend Laura wrote several comments (here, here, here and here) saying, among other things, that "people are sentenced to the L.A. County Jail with the tacit understanding that they're not actually going to serve the time, or just a couple of days, because the sheriff is not making people serve their sentences due to overcrowding." Apparently this has happened many times!! It's not that Sheriff Baca decides to let people off for good behavior. No, he simply doesn't keep them in jail. Laura wrote that "the sheriff . . . seems to have the unilateral ability to controvert the judge's sentence" and that "[a] county jail sentence often doesn't amount to much and may mean nothing at all." What the heck??!!!
Apparently the judge specifically stated in his order that Paris should serve half the original sentence (23 days) in jail and without any special treatment; she was not to be sent home and she was not to be given the ankle bracelet and put under house arrest instead. Since he stated all that so specifically, I'd think he was warning the sheriff to restrain his proclivity for sending people home. It didn't work but now that I know what the sheriff has been doing, which must have been frosting the judges, I'm willing to bet that the judge was expecting all of this and is using this highly public opportunity to slam the sheriff for his completely cavalier abuses of the system. (Which must be illegal, no?)
Also, and less interestingly but more importantly from a public relations standpoint, I'm sure he will order PH back to jail and tell her to grow up, or words to that effect. Her so-called psychiatrist will try to host a great big pity party for her delicate mental health but that's a bunch of hogwash and he's obviously one of the band of psychiatrists who give the professional a lousy name. What is it about L.A. anyway?
Labels: headlines, ridiculousness
Post a Comment