Quote:
Originally Posted by SackAttack
So...he wrote five tickets against her, and four were "dropped." I'd love to know why. Especially that 'running a red light' ticket, since that seems to be common ground between the two cases.
The story that focuses specifically on the Thomas allegations has a statement from the lawyer saying that arrests on multiple violations isn't uncommon, but I have to ask - this isn't like, say, a domestic violence case where there might be multiple charges filed based on claims made by witnesses or the abused.
This is, theoretically, a police officer who saw the violations *in progress* and yet...four of the five were dropped?
Denmark. Rotten.
|
I don't know anything about the case, but it's very common for someone to plead guilty to one charge, in exchange for others involving the same incident to be dropped. Especially in a license/insurance situation where you'd rather have someone get in regulation than collect a fine.
For example, a plea offer for the 5 charges like that might be - plead guilty to all 5 charges, and sentencing will be set out. If you get your license/insurance/registration current by sentencing, the state agrees to dismiss all of those charges, and the red light violation, leaving you only with the u-turn ticket. That saves everyone a lot of time, and you encouraged the driver to hustle and get shit taken care of. If they get in regulation, they get off easy. If they don't, they get hammered with 5 charges at sentencing.
A enormous % of criminal charges are dropped/reduced. Neither prosecutors nor police have access to infinite resources.
In one typical prosecutor's office, the max amount of misdemeanor jury trials that could be held in a week because of staff/scheduling limitations is 3. Where that same week, maybe 500 cases are actually set for jury trial. The criminals have the bargaining advantage with those odds.