Judge renders 'short-sighted' decision on pint-sized predator
By Bob Sagan (05/27/06)
It was another case of an inmate taking over the asylum when a Nebraska judge last week sentenced a 5-foot-1 man to probation instead of a possible 10 years behind bars for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.
Giving new definition to the term “short-sighted,” Cheyenne County District Judge Kristine Cecava ruled that the diminutive Richard W. Thompson was too small to serve in state prison. She sentenced the 50-year-old to 10 years probation, only the first four months of which will he be electronically monitored.
The cockamamie decision sends the wrong message to those who are “height-challenged,” and suggests some controversial and disturbing scenarios. Is the Judge’s decision precedence for prosecuting future wee wrongdoers? Have there now been legal standards established for “shortening” the stay of pint-sized perpetrators already in the slammer?
A Nebraska prison system spokesman has said Thompson’s physical stature would not have put him at any greater risk among the state’s inmates; that there are policies in place to protect him should he feel so threatened.
In the aftermath, a 12-year-old victim has been sentenced to a lifetime of having to cope with something no child should have to live with. And some activist judge has once again decided that the criminal should be protected from society – rather than the other way around.
Perhaps Judge Cecava should have re-visited the lyrics from Randy Newman’s song, “Short People.”
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