The first story from The Free Lance–Star:
A 19-year-old Spotsylvania County man pleaded guilty yesterday to sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl and will spend a year in jail.
Jonathan Anderson admitted to touching the girl inappropriately on several occasions.
[…]
In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutor Crystal Montague dropped three other related charges: forcible sodomy, animate object sexual penetration and inanimate object sexual penetration.
[…]
Anderson didn’t deny having inappropriate contact with the victim and told the girl’s family “I’m sorry” after he was caught, according to the agreement.
Someone touches a girl “inappropriately on several occasions” and he only gets sentenced to a year in jail? More than likely the guy will only have to serve 50% of the time and will be out on the streets in six months.
Story numero dos, also from The Free Lance–Star:
The parents who allowed their children to live in a home with feces-covered walls pleaded guilty yesterday to a misdemeanor charge.
Eugene Mongold, 28, and Amanda Nichole Mongold, 24, had been charged with three counts each of felony child neglect.
But Spotsylvania County prosecutor Edith Minn agreed to drop two of the charges and reduce one to contributing to the delinquency of a minor in exchange for their guilty pleas.
[…]
She said they have already completed parenting classes and have cleaned up their home from the clutter and dirt their three children were living in.
Anyone else thinks it’s absolutely amazing that parents have to be taught that having feces covered walls=bad? Also mentioned in the story was that the children were found naked and emaciated. Do parents also have to be taught that also=bad?
Seriously, what the hell is wrong with this area? Actually, what the hell is wrong with that Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office?
I’m a lawyer in Virginia. I believe what is going on is that the Commonwealth might not have independent coroboration of a crime. A defendant’s confession, without more, is not enough to convict. If there was insufficient or no corroborating evidence, e.g., no physical evidence, child too young to be competent to testify, then the CW only has the confession. I’m hoping that was what happened rather than just the Commonwealth Attorney is just incompetent!
A part of the story that I didn’t quote in the post:
John Doe’s probably right on the molestation case. Something else to consider: the 3 dropped charges are pretty detail-specific. It’d be pretty difficult to get a 4 year old deemed competent to testify, but if she were, it’d be unlikely that she’d be able to testify w/ sufficient detail to get convictions on those charges. With the way the sentencing guidelines work in Virginia… it’s likely that the guidelines may have only called for an a sentence of about one year on the agg. sexual battery charge.
As for the other story… who knows.