So the guy that robbed my house was released yesterday serving no time for serial burglary. I am still missing some items that he had pawned. The sherriff says that we can file for recompense but I have no clue how that works or even if we get any $ out of it to replace the stuff.
I just love how once the criminal gets caught - NOW they’re sorry and want to do the right thing. What if they didn’t catch you jackwad? Would you have bought back the stuff you pawned and then return our stuff back? And what about the assclown judge putting him back on the streets? I didn’t realize that serial buglary wasn’t that serious in this county. Please tell me that in Colorado we can vote out judges.
That sounds squirrelly. Are there extenuating circumstances? Like is the burglar a single mother of 3 disabled kids who would starve to death or something? Or is the burglar a 12 year old disabled kid?
I have nothing but sympathy for you. My kid accidentally left a 2-inch screwdriver in his backpack and the school found it–DA has a kitten and wants to stick him in juvie for felony “bringing a deadly weapon onto school property”. Meanwhile I’m going over criminal records of one of my plaintiffs and his rap sheet for the last 12 months reads:
Auto theft - dismissed by DA
Aggravated assault - dismissed by DA
Auto theft - dismissed by DA
Assault/robbery - dismissed by DA
I know in theory it’s best to give judges some authority to dismiss a case, but in practice I’m not seeing a good system. Then again, maybe such a huge percentage of the population is lawless trash that it’s not feesible to lock 'em all up. Maybe serial burglary, robbery and assault pale in comparison to the crimes that actually do time.
I have a crazy 80 year-old neighbor who rides around in his scooter chair. He chased me and my dog a few houses down the street one day, waving a machete over his head, yelling that he was going to get me and my dog. The cops said he didn’t commit a crime because I was laughing about it. Hell, I’m glad he didn’t have a faster chair. Sometimes the system is very nearsighted.
One of the robberies was about $20,000. I looked up his court documents and his only punishment was “restitution”. We’ll see if he can pay for the $1000 or so of stuff he pawned. Why do I have a feeling that it’ll be, “He’s broke so he can’t pay.”
Ummm . . . no probation listed on the court records although the sheriff’s office did tell us to call them if we caught him staking out our house. Needless to say, the local LEOs are none-to-pleased that he was let go after the close to 20 buglaries he committed.
There’s never been a better justification of castle doctrine than this OP.
When I was still working in federal law enforcement, I couldn’t believe the amount of dismissals these people were given. How can one guy get arrested 20 times for assault/robbery and not be sitting in jail or deported?! It’s astounding what you can get away with in this country.
I say if he comes near your house again, shoot the bastard.
If that’s the best justification, then the argument for the castle doctrine is pretty shitty. The sensible thing to take away from this is that Colorado’s sentencing system doesn’t make sense, not that you should shoot people.
Make certain you file whatever legal documents are neccessary to reclaim it. Even if he can’t pay, the debt should still show up. If he ever get money later in life somehow, he’ll have to pay you back.
Simple people like me are easily amused. We even manage to amuse ourselves with our pitiful humor
I can relate to OP. We went to small claims court about 25 years ago. And it wasn’t just a business disagreement. This guy was running a scam. We line up a couple of his other victims and they agree to show up to court as witnesses. All they had to gain was seeing some justice. Guy doesnt even show, Judge finds in our favor. Then later we get a notice a few days later. Judge is doing a “do over”. WTF? Note that the guy had some lame assed excuse like he forgot or something. So, our witnesses take ANOTHER day off to testify. Not only does the judge find in our favor, he actually says he believes the guy was running a scam and the activity was criminal, not just a legal/business dispute.
Great, we win! Except the worthless judge explicity notes he is NOT going to order any sort of payment plan. Nutin. It would be about 1000 dollars in todays money. Even if that fracker had been forced to pay a measely 40 dollars a year (homeless bums can scrap up that kind of money) at least now we would have some satisfaction and some money.
But, nothing, nada, zip. Just more wasted time and bitter feelings. If I find I have a terminal disease I am toilet papering the living shit out that judges home.
Years ago I knew someone who was involved in a class action suit. She and a bunch of other people in the neighborhood were suing a landlord. The jury found for the plaintiffs. The amount in damages awarded? $0. That’s zero, with a Z. But the plaintiffs each ended up owing thousands in legal fees. It took my friend years to pay that off.
