I guess he will stay until he’s indicted or behind bars
Three or four juicy quotes at end of article.
Tinder Swindler? Swindler’s List?
Either the Daily Beast doesn’t know what “in exchange” means, or the prosecution team are the best negotiators EVER.
My suspicion would be that the guy pled guilty to a lesser charge, in exchange for cooperating.
And/or they will make a recommendation to the judge for lenience in sentencing.
I would never trust that.
You’re not looking a long stretch in prison in the face.
If your deal is to plead to a lesser charge, then at least you know what you may be in for.
If your deal is simply that the prosecutor will recommend a more lenient sentence, there’s no guarantee the prosecutor won’t turn around and double-cross you, and even if he recommends a light sentence, the judge can still give you a tougher sentence if he sees fit.
True, but when they have you by the short and curlys and pleading to a lesser charge is not the offer you have…
Your deal with the prosecutor is in writing. They can’t double cross you. You’re right about the judge having complete discretion to ignore it. (however, although it happens, it’s pretty rare. Judges have a motive to keep things running smoothly and that requires plea deals. If they started ignoring the agreements, you’d see a lot less deals.)
I’d also imagine that it would hurt his toolset if he actually did so, since it would get around that he couldn’t be trusted.
Is a prosecutor allowed to confer with the judge before making the “we’ll ask for leniency on your behalf” deal? Or is it more about prosecutors having an implicit understanding of a particular judge’s likelihood of honoring a given recommendation?
No. Ex parte contact is not allowed.
Yes, in most courthouses, the judges’ general approach are fairly well known. A defendant would certainly take into account the reputation of the sentencing judge before a plea is entered. (but, beware, cases can be reassigned)
In general, Judges tend to accept plea recommendations in order to keep the pleas flowing. Exceptions are not unheard of, especially in unusual cases. Defendants are well aware that a judge could hammer them, but are usually reluctantly willing to take that risk. (given the fact that a conviction after trial will almost always result in a harsher sentence)
Is there any recourse for a defendant if that happens? If my lawyer tells me (correctly) that Judge Friendly can be counted on for leniency, but then after I enter my plea my case is reassigned to Judge Frowny and he throws the book at me? Maybe I’ve been charged with operating an illegal lemonade stand and Judge Frowny is known to have zero tolerance for lemonade bootleggers.
It would depend on the local rules I suppose. In my jurisdiction, such reassignment was very rare (and usually didn’t change things much) but I don’t recall anything we could have done about it. I suppose there could be a rule somewhere that the defendant has a right to the sentencing judge assigned at the time of the plea being entered, and provide for withdraw of the plea if the original judge died, or was otherwise removed from the case.
Thanks for the answers!
Precisely what happened to another statutory rapist, Roman Polanski. Facing 6 charges, the deal was plead guilty to one and have the other 5 dropped, with the sentence for the one charge to be time served. The judge privately said to others “screw that, I’m gonna give him 50 years”. Polanski heard that and left the country before sentencing.
I’m fairly sure the same thing happened to Marc Rich, one of Bill Clinton’s pardonees. He was offered and took a plea deal which a subsequent judge threw out. Rich happened to be out of the country when he was informed the deal was off.
A judge may refuse to accept a plea agreement or even an agreed sentence, but it is pretty rare in my experience (only happened once in my six years as a prosecutor, out of hundreds and hundreds of cases). The prosecutor and defense counsel may also meet with the judge ahead of time, explain the plea and proposed sentence, and see if the judge is amenable to that. Far more often than not, if the proposal is at all reasonable, she will be.
I suspect that the likelihood of a judge rejecting a plea deal is very strongly correlated with how high-profile the case is.