19 years for molesting a child, but 40 years for pictures

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Texashiker

Texashiker

Lifer
Dec 18, 2010
18,811
198
106
Example of why our justice system is screwed up.

Man molested his niece, and received 19 years in prison. He was released after serving 9 years and 4 months.

A few years later that same man was caught with pictures of underage children and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

http://www.newsweek.com/2014/05/09/...bour-tells-how-and-why-she-killed-248670.html

The abuse continued for almost a year, until Ashley told her mother about the “secrets” of Uncle Rick. In 1998, Fernandez was sentenced to 19 years in jail, but was let out after serving nine years and four months. In July 2011, he was charged for possession of child pornography after investigators found hundreds of images on his computer, and sentenced to a 40-year prison term. He is scheduled for release in 2035.
Click to expand...

The article is about the craigslist serial killer and why she killed men.

The system did not protect her or her sister. Then the system slaps her in the face by giving her uncle a stiffer penalty over pictures than the actual molestation.

While reading the article, I have to ask where were the girls parents and family? Claims to have joined a cult at 13? Nobody noticed anything unusual?
 
Last edited:
O

OCGuy

Lifer
Jul 12, 2000
27,224
37
91
Oh Jesus tapdancing Christ don't tell me your brain can't wrap around the idea of escalating punishment.

Don't worry OP, you wont get 40 years when the party van shows up at your house if it is your first offense.
 
Last edited:
Texashiker

Texashiker

Lifer
Dec 18, 2010
18,811
198
106
OCGuy said:
Oh Jesus tapdancing Christ don't tell me your brain can't wrap around the idea of escalating punishment.

Don't worry OP, you wont get 40 years when the party van shows up at your house if it is your first offense.
Click to expand...

Something tells me the guy should have gotten 40 years to start with.
 
Don Vito Corleone

Don Vito Corleone

Elite
Feb 10, 2000
30,029
67
91
Texashiker said:
Something tells me the guy should have gotten 40 years to start with.
Click to expand...

I don't know about that. I actually have a good deal of experience in this area, and once sent a serial pedophile to prison for life, which was by far the highest sentence ever adjudged by that court for a sex offense.

Among sex offenders, people who molest juveniles in their own families are the subset that is least likely to re-offend and most amenable to rehabilitation. The article doesn't describe the nature, extent or frequency of the abuse, other than that it happened over the course of a year. Certainly it's a serious crime, but 19 years in prison is a very long time, and I don't know that doubling that sentence would have made any sense under the circumstances.

Moreover, you're taking as accurate the word of a young woman who seems floridly mentally ill and has admittedly murdered at least one person (she claims 22, but the authorities don't find that credible). Her description of anything important to her must be taken with a grain of salt.
 
Londo_Jowo

Londo_Jowo

Lifer
Jan 31, 2010
17,303
158
106
londojowo.hypermart.net
Texashiker said:
Example of why our justice system is screwed up.

Man molested his niece, and received 19 years in prison. He was released after serving 9 years and 4 months.

A few years later that same man was caught with pictures of underage children and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

http://www.newsweek.com/2014/05/09/...bour-tells-how-and-why-she-killed-248670.html



The article is about the craigslist serial killer and why she killed men.

The system did not protect her or her sister. Then the system slaps her in the face by giving her uncle a stiffer penalty over pictures than the actual molestation.

While reading the article, I have to ask where were the girls parents and family? Claims to have joined a cult at 13? Nobody noticed anything unusual?
Click to expand...

Her uncle Richard Fernandez was sentenced to 24 years, not 40.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_21750200/fairbanks-man-gets-24-years-child-porn-case

FAIRBANKS, Alaska—A Fairbanks man has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for distributing child pornography. The stiff sentence for 41-year-old Richard Fernandez is because of a previous sex offense. He was convicted in 1998 of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor.
Click to expand...
 
Jaskalas

Jaskalas

Lifer
Jun 23, 2004
35,283
9,479
136
This is a real sexual abuse victim. Contrast it to those stories of male teens enjoying the company of their female teachers. There is no comparison. This predator irreparably damaged a child, and in turn she grew up to be an attention crazed murderer.

If there was justice in this world, her Uncle would never see the light of day again.
 
Londo_Jowo

Londo_Jowo

Lifer
Jan 31, 2010
17,303
158
106
londojowo.hypermart.net
Don Vito Corleone said:
The other article says he was sentenced to 40 years, but scheduled to released after 24 years (presumably on parole for the remainder of the 40-year sentence). Not sure who was right on that. In any case, either is quite a long time . . .
Click to expand...

Should he live until he's paroled he should have the following tattooed on his forehead for all to see.

Caution Person is a
Pedophile and
Sex Offender

Checked weekly to ensure it's not removed
 
Don Vito Corleone

Don Vito Corleone

Elite
Feb 10, 2000
30,029
67
91
Londo_Jowo said:
Should he live until he's paroled he should have the following tattooed on his forehead for all to see.

Caution Person is a
Pedophile and
Sex Offender

Checked weekly to ensure it's not removed
Click to expand...

Personally I think we have probably already gone too far (at least in my state) in terms of marginalizing sex offenders. I am certainly not defending this guy but nothing in what we know of his behavior suggests that he is not amenable to rehabilitation. I would rather we focused on identifying which sex offenders are capable of being rehabilitated and helping them with that, that locking them all of indefinitely and/or making it impossible for them to live normal lives once released. There are certainly some offenders who are inevitably going to re-offend, but I am not aware of any reason to think that this guy is such a person.

Having said all of that, while I am opposed to the death penalty, there is a real argument to be made that if we are going to have it and use it, it would make more sense to use it on serial child molesters than on murderers, since molestation has a much more far-reaching impact (in that the victims are, if male, very likely to become molesters themselves, and if female, very likely to suffer from profound mental illness and/or substance abuse).
 
Jaskalas

Jaskalas

Lifer
Jun 23, 2004
35,283
9,479
136
Don Vito Corleone said:
There are certainly some offenders who are inevitably going to re-offend, but I am not aware of any reason to think that this guy is such a person.
Click to expand...

Let's start with this guy being a pedophile. His desire is towards children, plain and simple. How does anyone change this man's desire? I mean... we could castrate him... medicate him... keep him locked up.... execute him. Did I miss something?

It's not like he made a "mistake" or had an accident. He's simply acting on what he desires. I don't see rehabilitation in that.
 
Texashiker

Texashiker

Lifer
Dec 18, 2010
18,811
198
106
Don Vito Corleone said:
. I would rather we focused on identifying which sex offenders are capable of being rehabilitated and helping them with that, that locking them all of indefinitely and/or making it impossible for them to live normal lives once released. There are certainly some offenders who are inevitably going to re-offend, but I am not aware of any reason to think that this guy is such a person.
Click to expand...

Before my wife and I moved there was a rent house across the street. One of the renters who lived there for a few months was a convicted sexual offender.

His side of the story was his ex-girlfriend got her teenage daughter to lie and say he touched her. He was not accused of having sex with her, just of touching her. I think the victim was around 14 years old?

Now the guys life is pretty much ruined. When he applies for a job guess what the background check has on it. He has problems finding any kind of job. The jobs he does find do not last very long.

There are people out there who do much worse, such as the guy in the opening post.

For the most part society treats all sex offenders the same. I hate to say this, but the treatment is not fair to some of them. You take a 32 year old guy touching a 14 year old girl. That is a lot different that raping a 2 year old child.

The punishment should fit the crime. With sexual crimes where is the balance?
 
Don Vito Corleone

Don Vito Corleone

Elite
Feb 10, 2000
30,029
67
91
Jaskalas said:
Let's start with this guy being a pedophile. His desire is towards children, plain and simple. How does anyone change this man's desire? I mean... we could castrate him... medicate him... keep him locked up.... execute him. Did I miss something?

It's not like he made a "mistake" or had an accident. He's simply acting on what he desires. I don't see rehabilitation in that.
Click to expand...

As I wrote above, sex offenders who victimize children in their own family are the category of offender most amenable to rehabilitation (with men who rape adults who are strangers the least amenable). I understand that intuitively we feel that child molesters are inevitably going to reoffend, but it's not backed up by the real-world statistics. I would have real concerns given this guy's history, but it's not at all out of the question that he could be rehabilitated.

Castration is intuitively appealing but the research indicates it is not necessarily effective at deterring sexual predation, which is a learned, compulsive behavior. Even offenders whose equipment no longer works due to age often re-offend through other means (digital penetration, etc.).

The point of all of this, I guess, is that relying on our common sense alone is not generally a sound philosophy in criminal sentencing. As it happens my mother was, for several years, the executive director of the state criminal sentencing guidelines commission, and worked on these issues. They are complicated and thorny, but I find it's important to leave emotion out of these things as much as possible, because it tends to lead us astray.
 
Last edited:
R

realibrad

Lifer
Oct 18, 2013
12,337
898
126
It seems like most want to punish these offenders into submission. Fear of punishment only works if they think they will get caught. If the offender thinks they can get away with it, then fear, no matter how severe stops working.

Castration does not work, physical or chemical.
Medication can work, but only if they take it.
Jail is expensive but that has to be weighed to the crime.
Execution seems a bit extreme for most cases.

Being moral means things are going to get expensive. The goal should be protecting children, not punishment. I would much rather have it not happen, than to punish after it has.
 
Stewox

Stewox

Senior member
Dec 10, 2013
528
0
0
That's because child porn is a big business in hijacked and corporate run governments, you gotta keep the competition out, must not let pesants get a share.
 
Texashiker

Texashiker

Lifer
Dec 18, 2010
18,811
198
106
Stewox said:
That's because child porn is a big business in hijacked and corporate run governments, you gotta keep the competition out, must not let pesants get a share.
Click to expand...

A little over 10 years ago I used to work for a cable modem provider. One day I was sent out on a service call for an elderly couple.

When I got to their house, the couple told me how they had a firewall their grandson had setup. A year earlier or so their computer had been hacked and had been turned into a FTP server for child images.

The FBI raided their house and seized the computer. The FBI concluded the couple were victims and no charges were filed.

After the FBI incident the grandson had put in a linux firewall.
 
Texashiker

Texashiker

Lifer
Dec 18, 2010
18,811
198
106
OCGuy said:
I'm sorry is this a pity party for convicted pedophiles? Yikes...
Click to expand...

What pity party are you referring to? Maybe the 22 year old female substitute teacher who had sex with a 15 year old boy?

With the guy in the opening post, where does society draw the line? How do we know who is going to repeat, and who is not? Is it fair to treat all sex offenders the same?

The young lady who killed those men, at 13 years old and belonging to a cult, where were the parents?
 
werepossum

werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
29,873
463
126
Don Vito Corleone said:
I don't know about that. I actually have a good deal of experience in this area, and once sent a serial pedophile to prison for life, which was by far the highest sentence ever adjudged by that court for a sex offense.

Among sex offenders, people who molest juveniles in their own families are the subset that is least likely to re-offend and most amenable to rehabilitation. The article doesn't describe the nature, extent or frequency of the abuse, other than that it happened over the course of a year. Certainly it's a serious crime, but 19 years in prison is a very long time, and I don't know that doubling that sentence would have made any sense under the circumstances.

Moreover, you're taking as accurate the word of a young woman who seems floridly mentally ill and has admittedly murdered at least one person (she claims 22, but the authorities don't find that credible). Her description of anything important to her must be taken with a grain of salt.
Click to expand...
Congrats and thank you. A convicted second offense child molester should never again walk free in my opinion, ever. Neither should a convicted first offense child molester serve less than ten years actual time.
 
werepossum

werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
29,873
463
126
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom