Friday, October 30, 2009

Thanks for running!

Village Council candidates at last night's forum sponsored by the James A. McKee Group. (L-R) Judith Hempfling, Kathryn Van der Heiden, Rick Walkey, Karen Wintrow and Gerard Bello.
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8 comments:

Les Groby said...

I'm glad to see that Rick wore shoes.

October 30, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Anonymous said...

Check out the Mayor's Court report in this week's YS News!

October 30, 2009 at 12:59 PM
Les Groby said...

It's odd that they would reduce a charge of "drug paraphernalia" to "disorderly conduct". What did Bello do—dump bong water on someone's carpet?

October 30, 2009 at 1:32 PM
Virgil Hervey said...

No odder than YSPD breaking up a grow operation in the village and not make any arrests.

October 30, 2009 at 1:44 PM
Les Groby said...

As usual, Virgil, you missed my point. I wasn't saying it was odd THAT they reduced the charge. There's nothing unusual about charges being negotiated down, or even charges not being filed at all for various reasons. What strikes me as odd is that I don't see any relationship between possessing paraphernalia and being disorderly that would make the one charge a reasonable substitute for the other. It's not like a case of lowering a cultivation charge to possession, or dropping assault to disorderly conduct. How can one be "disorderly" with "paraphernalia"? I thought I had made my point clear by guessing, in a manner known as "joking", how one might do that.

October 30, 2009 at 3:03 PM
Virgil Hervey said...

And there's the heart of the misunderstanding. There is nothing odd about reducing a minor misdemeanor charge to disorderly conduct when there is no lesser included charge. Technically, the discon is added and after the plea, the misdemeanor is dismissed. Disorderly conduct has become a catch-all non-criminal violation that is used to keep minor misdemeanor offenders from getting a criminal record. Rarely is anyone ever convicted of disorderly conduct for actually being disorderly. You can take it from someone who practiced criminal law for over 30 years.

October 30, 2009 at 3:57 PM
Les Groby said...

Thanks for the explanation. I guess at my age I should know better than to expect the law to make sense.

October 30, 2009 at 4:38 PM
Les Groby said...

And in case anyone gets the wrong impression from what I've said here, let me make it clear that I am in favor of the legalization of use, cultivation and not-for-profit sharing of marijuana.

October 30, 2009 at 4:41 PM

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