It’s really pissing me off.
I just heard on the radio that Darcy, who just left the Smashing Pumpkins, managed to skip gaol-time on her arrest for possession of crack. Wouldn’t a “normal” citizen get busted for quite a long time for that?
Of course there are exceptions, but, in most cases, the celebrities seem to skip the slammer for anything that’s not worse than murder.
Equality under the law, eh?
Studi
When I grow up, I want to be the Minister of Silly Walks.
WTF is gaol? I’m assuming, from the context you used it in, it means jail.
“I’ve got a DungeonMaster’s guide, I’ve got a twelve-sided die, I’ve got Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler too, waiting there for me, yes I do.”
Weezer-In the Garage
You need to read a little more British literature, Dem. Gaol is, indeed, the British spelling of jail.
Studi’s a Canuck, Demo. They spell things a little differently up there.
The short and obvious answer to the OP is that they can afford better lawyers than the rest of us.
New and improved…and more controversial than ever.
Bail won’t get you out of a prison sentence, it just gets you out of having to remain in jail until your trial. The issue here is that celebrities often don’t get prison sentences at all, they get probation and fines and community service.
oops… my mistake, I read it wrong.
Demo, you moron! Ever heard of a dictionary? Remind me to bring one home for your illiterate ass! 
(Actually, I had to look it up myself. I was thinking the same thing as you.)
I think that ruadh has it right. A good, experienced lawyer can work magic in a courtroom. And the more money you have, the more likely you’re gonna’ be able to get a good, experienced lawyer. I do wonder, though, if the judges take someone’s celebrity status with a small grain of salt. I mean, if I committed the same crime as a celebrity and hired the same laywers, would I get the same sentence? I don’t think so, but I have nothing to back that up with except my gut feeling. Look at Robert Downey, Jr. I think I would have gone to jail after the first or second offense. But he was in front of a judge numerous times (Five? Ten?) for numerous crimes before they finally put him in jail for real.
More info is needed. Was it a first offense? Was she even found guilty? What are the sentencing guidelines that applied to her?
LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!
Walking away humbly…
“I’ve got a DungeonMaster’s guide, I’ve got a twelve-sided die, I’ve got Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler too, waiting there for me, yes I do.”
Weezer-In the Garage
Hey Demo, remember you’re not supposed to start drinking until after you get home from work!
You misspelled baol there, Angie
Coldfire
"You know how complex women are"
Soon afterwards, Deimos simply vanished from the sky.
You Dirty Devil you. I’m glad Robert Downey’s stupid blankety blank is in jail. He’s an awful actor. At least for the time being he can’t make any more movies.
awful actor? come on, awful person maybe, but damn fine actor. doesn’t he have an oscar for Chaplin.
We live in an age that reads too much to be wise, and thinks too much to be beautiful–Oscar Wilde
“Was it a first offense? Was she even found guilty?”
Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! (Kudos to the first to place that reference.) I know!
I just read about this in this morning’s Chicago Sun-Times. On January 25th, D’Arcy Wretsky and a “male companion” were seen going into a building on the Near Northwest Side and then coming right out. When the car pulled away without its headlights on, and then made a U-turn, the cops stopped them. Crack was found in the car, and Wretsky admitted she gave the bags to her companion.
As to yesterday’s court appearance (Branch 57, good old Narco Court), the paper doesn’t say expressly, but she must have been sentenced to supervision.* This is clear since the paper states that she “agreed to attend four Saturday sessions of drug awareness and prevention school” and that the judge admonished her that she would end up back in court if she disobeyed but that if the sessions were completed by May 19, the charges would be dismissed. It’s not common for someone to get supervision if they have a past record of the same or similar offense, so while the paper is silent on her criminal record, I doubt she has a history of drug arrests.
As to the quality of her attorney, her counsel was Richard Brzeczek (pronounced Bree-zek). If that name sounds familiar to the Chicagoans out there, it’s because he was Superintendent of Police several years ago. So obviously, he’s a man with clout. (^: On the other hand, I’ve gone past his office a bunch of times, and his practice is in a storefront office out on the edge of the city, a few blocks from Jefferson Park terminal – not a bad neighborhood, but not the Loop or a ritzy neighborhood by any reckoning.
*Supervision is a relatively common disposition for minor criminal cases, at least in the Cook County Circuit Court (Chicago and suburbs), and is expressly authorized by Illinois law. The defendant is technically not found “guilty” OR “not guilty” but is ordered by the court to perform, and/or refrain from performing, certain actions: paying a fine, getting counseling, etcetera. Some conditions are so common that there are preprinted court-order forms that list all the typical conditions with a “check off all that apply” for the court clerk. If the conditions are met by a particular date in the order and the defendant shows up in court that day, then the case is dismissed and the defendant’s record is clean. If not, then the accused is found guilty and is subject to further fines and/or imprisonment.
Reference: Ron Pallilo’s character Arnold Horshak on “Welcome Back Kotter.”
If this above represents Ms. Wretsky’s first offense, then the disposition of the case doesn’t sound at all out of line with what any person might have gotten in similar circumstances. Moreover, she cooperated, admitting her guilt to the officers on the scene, which certainly didn’t hurt her with the court.
In Fairfax or Arlington County here in Virginia, I would expect a similarly situated person to receive “probation before judgement,” conditioned on successful completion of ASAP, which is our local drug/alcohol awareness program. This is substantially similar to what’s described above. It puts the malefactor “in the system” and gives them access to probation resources and supervision, but kicks them with no finding of guilt if they make it through the monitoring period without any other trouble.