With all the news lately about high level politicians who get away with everything... taking us to war with lies, giving consent to torture, possibly traveling out of country with state money, possibly using campaign money to pay off mistresses...it alarms me to see the long sentences given to everyday ordinary people.
There have been several letters to the editors about the sentences...people are noticing it more. Here is one letter to the editor recently.
Punishment in Polk Courts Often Is ExtremeMany sentences recently handed down in Polk County seem far over-the-top, particularly when compared to those in other communities.
Take DUI homicides: Dante Stallworth got 30 days in jail for a DUI death in Miami. Compare that to the 12 years in prison given to Lindsay Justine Kezal in Bartow for a 2006 DUI collision that killed her 4-year-old daughter. Judge Michael Raiden imposed sentence.
Remember Jennifer Porter? She was the teacher who drove a car involved in a hit-and-run accident that left two children dead in Tampa a few years ago. A Hillsborough County judge sentenced her to house arrest and probation for her role in that accident. Compare that to the 20-year prison sentence slapped on Orville Lee Wollard in Bartow a few days ago for shooting a revolver inside his house to scare his daughter's 17-year-old boyfriend with no injury to anyone. Judge Donald Jacobsen imposed sentence.
That one about Wollard was really odd. He did shoot off a gun in his house, did not aim it, just a warning shot. He had no other record at all, but he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. That seems just to be overkill. It is just nonsense.
More odd sentences mentioned in the letter to the editor.
Of course, the outrageous sentencing by Judge J. Dale Durrance is truly the stuff of legend and on a pedestal by itself. Some old-timers might remember his "Christmas Beer" fiasco in which he sentenced John Edwin Powell to 15 years in prison for smuggling eight cold Budweisers into Lakeland Community Correctional Institution on Christmas Eve in 1986. Then there was the case of Joseph Woods of Winter Haven who Durrance sentenced to six months for uttering a four-letter word within his honor's earshot. (I guess the judge doesn't go to many movies.)
Here is more about Joseph Woods case. Incidentally Durrance is not so fondly called the hanging judge.
Florida again. Man serves 6 months minus one day for one curse word.During his first appearance, which was broadcast by video from the jail into Durrance's courtroom, the judge told Woods that he was ordering him held without bail for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Woods told Durrance that he had no previous felony conviction, only a misdemeanor conviction, according to the 2nd DCA opinion. Durrance told him his lawyer would get that straightened out for him and asked for the next defendant to be brought forward.
He was no felon, and the judge should have known that.
Well, after he had served his sentence, it was overturned on appeal...a little too late for Joseph Woods.
The 2nd District Court of Appeal disagreed with Durrance, and last week reversed Woods' 179-day sentence for contempt of court. The DCA's decision came too late to help Woods because he had already served every day of his contempt of court sentence, lost his job in construction while he was in jail, and has been having a hard time finding a new job since he got out.
"I've already done all that time, and it was for nothing," Woods said Tuesday afternoon, standing in front of his parents' Winter Haven home. "I'm working on getting a lawyer now because that was false imprisonment."
Woods had been convicted of possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor, and was on probation for that offense when he was arrested again in August 2006. He was charged with fleeing to elude, and, because there was a gun in the car he was driving, he was also charged with carrying a concealed weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
More on Durrance's sentencing history...it is truly alarming.
BARTOW --
.."On Thursday, Durrance sentenced a man involved in a 2003 Winter Haven car crash that killed five people to five consecutive life sentences. He then lectured Juan Rodriguez, reminding him about all the things he won't get to do with his unborn son.
...'In 1984, he rendered a judgment against a witness who wasn't even a party to a lawsuit. After hearing the testimony, Durrence summarily excused the original defendant, named the witness as a defendant and entered a judgment against her for $566. The ruling was reversed by another judge.
In 1987, he sentenced an inmate in a work-release program to 15 years behind bars for bringing eight cans of beer into a corrections facility on Christmas Eve.
In 1989, he jailed his cousin. He ordered the Fort Meade man held in jail on charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct. A legal expert interviewed at the time said Durrance should have stayed out of a case involving a relative.
Many of his sentences were overturned by appellate judges. Between 1987 and 1989, the Lakeland-based 2nd District Court of Appeal issued 48 opinions on Durrance's cases, with 18 reversals. That's more than one-third of his cases -- 37.5 percent.
Here is more about that alarming sentence of 5 consecutive life sentences for Juan Rodriguez. Do not mistake this as sympathy or excusing of vehicular deaths. But 5 consecutive life sentences?
5 life sentences for vehicular manslaughter.SNIP.."BARTOW -- Circuit Judge J. Dale Durrance didn't get the nickname "Jail Dale" by accident.
On Thursday, Durrance sentenced a man involved in a 2003 Winter Haven car crash that killed five people to five consecutive life sentences. He then lectured Juan Rodriguez, reminding him about all the things he won't get to do with his unborn son.
It's hardly the first time a defendant has felt Durrance's heavy hand. The 10th circuit judge early in his 25-year career gained a reputation for doling out heavy sentences. Among Durrance's more colorful episodes was in 1987 at the sentencing of a woman convicted of trafficking cocaine.
After he gave Catherine Grover 11 years in prison, Durrance read aloud in the courtroom an 88-line poem called "Cat with Nine Lies" that he wrote for the occasion.
And I happened on more about the fellow that slipped beers into the jail facility in the spirit of the holidays. 15 long years. This is from 1987.
Beer-Loving Inmate Draws an Extra 15
AP
Published: Wednesday, August 12, 1987
A work-release inmate who smuggled eight cans of beer into prison on Christmas Eve will serve an extra 15 years' confinement, his attorney said today.
John E. Powell, 43 years old, who had been serving a sentence at the Lakeland Correctional Institution for bad checks and robbery, would have been eligible for parole next January. But on Monday, Judge J. Dale Durrance added 15 years to his sentence. The term is the maximum allowable under state guidelines, and the judge did not explain the sentence, said David Henderson of the Polk County public defender's office.
''It amounts to two years a beer,'' Mr. Henderson said. A jury had convicted Mr. Powell in May of a second-degree felony for smuggling contraband into prison. Mr. Henderson said the sentencing category for smuggling beer is the same as for smuggling a weapon into prison, and is even harsher than the penalty for escape.
15 years for 8 beers.But if you have connections to law enforcement, you don't need to sweat it.
From the St. Pete Times last year:
Connections seem to help Polk official elude charges in sex stingLAKELAND — Overseeing the pretrial intervention program of the Polk State Attorney's Office, Arley Smith had the power to decide who violated conditions of the program and went to prison.
Smith got caught on tape giving one of his charges money and telling her that she could pay him back with weekly sex. It would be the "same situation" he'd had with other young women, he confided, unaware that this woman's stepfather was a cop who had arranged for her to wear a wire.
With the recording of the sex-for-money deal in hand, the Lakeland police went to the Polk state attorney and said they wanted to continue surveillance of Smith and charge him. An assistant state attorney agreed, saying he saw a clear crime.
But State Attorney Jerry Hill balked, worrying aloud that Smith — a close friend who had worked in his office for more than 20 years — may have been entrapped and could lose his pension. A few days later, the police chief ordered the undercover surveillance stopped.
They even have the
audio online.Talk about double standards?
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