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JUSTICE IS NOT A WHORE
The 1993 settlement offer, to the boy who accused Michael Jackson of sexual abuse, was in the neighborhood of 25 million dollars. Court TV reports that Jackson agreed to pay $15,331,250 to be held in a trust fund for the accuser, now 24, as well as $1.5 million to each of his parents. The accuser may have also received another seven-figure payment not specified in the agreement. Additionally, the plaintiff's lawyer was slated to receive $5 million. Document detailing settlement
Ten years later another 13 year old boy has come out of the skeletal closet
to claim nearly identical accusations as the original victim and Michael
Jackson has his checkbook at the ready.
John Peck was accused of a violent rape years prior to his murdering fellow
UNCW student Christen Naujoks. The rape victim was coaxed, by the District
Attorney's office, into accepting a lessor plea with, I might like to
add, a financial settlement attached. Financial settlements are not common
place in rape trials. Sometimes victims can recoup losses suffered when
the losses are tangible. To suggest that ones psyche can be restored via
a criminal court ordered financial compensation is absurd. Civil courts
are usually the place for financial restitution and punitive actions of
monetary reward and restitution. Let's keep that sort of temptation away
from our criminal courts.
Usually I go out of my way to protect the victim, but this mess of settling
for money has gotten out of hand. People are paying for this corrupt method
of "winking" at the law. Some, as in Ms. Naujoks's case, just
might have paid with their life.
Certainly John Peck's anonymous rape victim was scared, naive and perhaps
a bit eager to get it all over with, but the DA knew exactly what he was
asking of the victim. To settle. To get this over and done with in a manner
in which everyone can walk away with something in their pocket. The DA
motive to push this through? Backlog! Serious, costly backlog of cases
most of which are sitting in some other county's jail at the tune of $100,000
a month while we wait on the newly constructed and waterlogged Detention
Center to open for business. Next step might just be a moratorium on arresting
criminals or as in Columbus County's case, a mass exodus of early releases.
Just prior to John Peck's killing of Christen Naujoks he was in court
for a reckless driving offense, he was allowed to plea that down, to an
impossible to understand, improper equipment violation. Had the original
reckless driving charge stuck I wonder how that would have effected his
probation.
By the way where is the probation officer when all this is happening?
A protective order was issued against Peck, a warrant charging Peck with
stalking and harassment was served against him just prior to his pulling
the trigger. UNCW campus police were aware of his criminal background
in March when Naujoks first complained to authorities so why didn't they
expel Peck for lying on his application? Didn't they at least contact
his probation officer?
John Peck buys an assault rifle on ebay, actually we don't know how he
bought it except we do know he bought it from an individual. Because it
was a person to person sales transaction rather than a purchase from Guns-R-us
no paperwork is required. No filing with ATF, no background check, nothing.
The man pays the money, he gets the gun thanks to loopholes.
Maybe 25 million dollars would help all this. We could pay for more probation
officers, build more courts, hire more judges, pay off more witnesses
for the prosecution, lobby legislators to do the morally left thing to
do and buy up all the guns traded in the gray market via person to person
sales.
Money has made a game show out of our court system. Let's make a deal
all right. How about this deal? If you charge someone with a crime and
receive financial compensation for dropping the charges or failing to
testify you will be prosecuted for filing a false police report, that's
the very least we can do. Let the financial settlements come in civil
court.
Oh yeah, I would add one more stipulation about financial settlements,
any attorney offering a prosecution witness, victim or complainant a financial
settlement will be charged with tampering with a witness and bribery.
I'd throw in disbarring the sleezeball as well. That goes for the prosecutors
too.
25 million dollars... I'd hate to think what I would allow to happen for
a handful of million dollar bills.
Keep it away from our criminal courts! Justice is not a whore.
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