TheAgitator.com
Kern County, California’s Monstrous DA
Monday, December 21st, 2009My crime column this week bids good riddance to Kern County, California District Attorney Ed Jagels, who announced in October that he’s retiring after 26 years on the job . . . and after sending at least 25 innocent people to prison.
Jagels’ career is probably the starkest example to date of how the criminal justice is incapable of holding bad actors accountable.
Hate to be the typo police, but it’s Kern County. Now back to our regularly scheduled program …
I must refrain from comment lest the artery that runs down the center of my forehead explode, completely covering the walls of my office with skull fragments and bloody brain tissue (assuming the detonation doesn’t level the entire block).
I will only say that this story and the Vietnam war are the two chapters in our history that have done the most to convince me that this country is beyond hope.
The only thing worse than eyewitness testimony is the testimony of a child.
Unless children are held to adult standards of perjury, there is no way admitting a child’s testimony as evidence can be justified.
Better 1000 murderers go free than one child’s testimony is admitted as evidence in court.
Fuck the player AND the game.
I wouldn’t go that far. I would require that ALLl child interrogations/interviews be videotaped from start to finish. Be they with child protection services, shrinks, cops or the DA’s office, no matter. The little tykes can be so easily manipulated by the unscrupulous and those who’ve already decided what occured.
I don’t wish to ignore “I saw Daddy stab Mommy” testimony.
If I was Jeff Modahl, I would have sent Jagels six feet under, post haste. I figured I’ve already banked 15 years for the crime.
We shouldnt be worry coz all the bad things that the prosecutor did will come out in court, and he will convicted and jailed for his crimes. See, the system works.
This news is seriously is like an early Christmas present to me. The only thing better would be if he got hit by a truck when crossing the street on his last day in office.
There is some good news. Carlos of Photography Is Not A Crime fame won his appeal over the original conviction, the arrest portion of which was the start of his blog.
“You might remember that in handing me a harsher sentence than sought by the State, Judge Fernandez stated the following, making it clear that I was being punished not just for photographing cops against their wishes but for blogging about it.”
I highly suggest watching Witch Hunt, the documentary about these cases. It’s available from the iTunes store.
I haven’t seen you mention the Supremes’ decision in Rasul et al v. Rumsfeld. which in some sense is worse that the Dred Scott case.
(See, for example http://original.antiwar.com/fisher/2009/12/15/us-guantanamo-prisoners-not-persons/ for commentary).
In short, the Supremes upheld the right for the executive to remove personhood from those it decrees are ‘enemy combatants”.
This on top of the prior decision to only try those whose evidence was not obtained under torture, and to hold the rest without trial.
And Australia joins China, North Korea and other authoritatian regimes, implementing internet censorship (for the CHILDREN, you understand… not the thin edge of any wedge, super-double-secret promise).
Why did we spend several trillion dollars having a Cold War, just to gradually slide to a system that is barely distinguishable from Stalin’s?
What would Jefferson do? I believe that there was something to the effect “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it”… and of course the old “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants”.
How craven have we become, and how despicable we are compared to the French peasantry in 1789.
Cheerio
GT
The dynamic that exists in these child sex abuse cases is both fascinating and bizarre. Instead of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt juries return a guilty verdict “just in case”. Prosecutors know these cases are easy victories. Innocent people go to prison for life on no more than inconsistent and even impossible claims of children. Prosecutors, social workers, police officers, medical doctors and vindictive ex-spouses “help” children with their testimony, and if they are caught coaching them there are often no legal consequences. In the child saver’s crusade they feel they are justified in these highly unethical practices. Until the public is educated and the crusaders held fully responsible these cases will continue to happen.
DoggedPursuit,
And therein lies the proof of the ‘charm’…
Like every right-thinking person, I ABHOR the very notion that people would do ill to kiddies. (That said, I am eternally grateful to a babysitter who would these days go to jail: I was 12, she was 16, and I would have married her even BEFORE ‘the incident’).
But that’s the thing isn’t it… claim to he over-zealous in your pursuit of kiddie-fiddlers and nobody could POSSIBLY blame you… as MRs Lovejoy (the Rev’s wife) might say… “What about the CHILDREN? Oh God, think of the CHILDREN?”
And thus the wedge gets its first bite… and from there the greatest of logs is split. Once the State gets its hoook into a thing (on the basis of ‘protecting the children’ or some other such group), he next thing you know the interference ramifies… until, in a nation founded on a genuine desire for individual liberty, you have to kiss the whip of any doughtnut-eater (especially if they like playing Stormtrooper dressup – Star Wars meets Village People).
Caedite Eos. Caedite-muthafuckin’-Eos. All the kiddie-fiddlers in the WORLD have done less harm than one Marine division in Iraq, spreading “Liberty and Freedom? Nah – just Die, Motherfucker”.
Cheerio
GT
i just watched on cnbc what this sob da did to fathers 20 plus years ago by teaching children to testify..this is the most terrible crime in it self that i wonder if this da, police, dss workers themselves should face time in prison until they too old to walk out…ed, you need to be given a prison sentence for what you did. to build a reputation to stay in office and the entire time you knew these people innocent..i ask the lord to have mercy on you for your crime against humanity..secondly, my profound wish is that you, kern county, and anyone associated with this phantom case..for the citizens of kern county, my sincere hope is that the lawsuit filed against kern county officials is that the highest award possible is awarded, it forces the county, city to raise property, auto taxes to pay for this lie that destroyed so many lives…i want it to break everyone in kern county, i want it to destroy the lives of people that set on their arcs’ and let good people be destroyed..you know hitler did the same thing in germany and your district attorney did the same..with that said i say to those innocents that spent twenty years in prison, you make me proud, coming out and starting over, being better citizens moreso than you may have wanted to be…you remained above the cheap shots and god bless you for having the fortitude to make your lifes greater than anyone thought in you.. god bless you and america…justice late, but finally, justice….
Amazing that this douche was allowed to remain in office. My his not stepping down or being disbarred the higher courts have set a standard of allowed misconduct that is being copied by and passed on by the CA DA’s ASSociation.
What’s the story on the new DA and the Defense attorney turned DA?