Girls arrested for perjury

[The Kernel]

Of course not. If child labour laws don't cover community service, then have them do that. My original point is that I think they should be on the hook for the entire cost of the mess they made. Which could run at least a million once police and court costs are considered.

As much as I hate to defend these little shits, it is worth noting that the police seriously fucked up here too. There is no way in hell that these girls all had the exact same story and the police should have easily been able to see through this (I imagine the only reason they didn't was because the suspect was a nobody and it was a child molestation case). The girls are guilty here no question, but the police should be on the hook too; this would have never gotten as far as it did if they had done their homework.

[Rogue 9]

But the police didn't actively lie about it, making the girls far more culpable.

[Slartibartfast]

Do you guys realize that we're talking about little girls, right? I mean, these are living, thinking beings. One could say they're almost like human beings.

Would we imprison, say, our dog, if it caused some person to go to jail by incorrectly sniffing the evidence on purpose in order to avoid being bathed? Really, there's nothing here that a hot iron poker wouldn't fix.

[Rogue 9]

You're really saying that we shouldn't punish them for the crimes they have committed?

[Slartibartfast]

You're really saying that we shouldn't punish them for the crimes they have committed?

I'm saying that we should punish them in ways they can understand, as to ensure maximum suffering.

[KrauserKrauser]

My punishment for them:

Juvie for 8 months at least and then psychoanalysis to see if they've learned their lesson. If not give em the full sentence.

The guy should be able to sue the kids or their parents, the police department, and the state for as much as he damn well pleases. Fuckers gotta pay.

[General Zod]

My punishment for them:

Juvie for 8 months at least and then psychoanalysis to see if they've learned their lesson. If not give em the full sentence.

The guy should be able to sue the kids or their parents, the police department, and the state for as much as he damn well pleases. Fuckers gotta pay.

he can't sue the kids, as they're minors. however he could sue the parents, and the police, as the parents are responsible for their children and the police fucked up.

[h0rus]

Holy Salem Witch Hunt, Batman!

Right, just as long as they are brown, and anti-american, right?

[Rogue 9]

Holy Salem Witch Hunt, Batman!

Right, just as long as they are brown, and anti-american, right?

No, as long as they're shifting the blame for their crimes onto another person and letting him rot in jail.

[h0rus]

Damn, what a completely dicked up story. It makes it even worse that the girls are so young.

The question is.. what to do. I know most of you would probably say lock them up for 8 months too. But I'm hesitant for girls so young when they're clearly not violent criminals or real menaces to society.

I say there has to be some other means that they can pay back for their crime outside of jail sentance. A heavy fine, TONS (and I mean TONS) of community service and probably other services as well until they're probably 18. But I don't think jail would be appropriate.

You realize what they did, right? The purposefully and maliciously banished an innocent man to prison as a cover story for being late to school. I can see lightening the sentence of the one who had second thoughts and confessed, but the others? They were prepared to let him rot for years.

Yes indeed, but did you think rationally and understand how the world worked when you were 12? They made a BIG misjudgement, but an error that was caught thank God. I'm all for punishment, if we had canings still in practice, I'd say give them and their parents a good horse whipping.

But as for imprisonment, I think you'd just ruin two potentially salvagable girls.

Try as you might, I doubt you'll find anyone on this forum who did something that tops or matches this. These are sick, immoral, vipers, who will become garbage someday. I vote for incarceration. They need to feel the same degree of torture that man felt. No negotations, no sympathy. They fucked up intentionally, and must now feel the cold steel of the law.

[h0rus]

Holy Salem Witch Hunt, Batman!

Right, just as long as they are brown, and anti-american, right?

No, as long as they're shifting the blame for their crimes onto another person and letting him rot in jail.

Yes I caught that.

[Trytostaydead]

Girls Given Sentences for Lying
Three in Garden Grove get 30 to 45 days, plus community service, after fabricating an assault that sent a man to jail for eight months.








ORANGE COUNTY

LYING

ORANGE COUNTY YOUTH LYING SENTENCING

YOUTH

SENTENCING











By Claire Luna, Times Staff Writer


Three 12-year-old girls whose lies put an innocent man in jail for eight months pleaded guilty Thursday and were sentenced to Juvenile Hall and community service.

Two of the girls must each serve 45 days and the third must serve 30 — the shorter sentence granted because she was considered less culpable, her lawyer said after the closed-door Orange County Juvenile Court hearing. The girls have already served most of their time while waiting in custody since their arrest Feb. 9.

"Believe me, they are awake now to what they did," said attorney Paula Drake, who represented the girl given the shortest sentence. "They're very remorseful."

The Orange County district attorney's office had pressed for the Garden Grove girls to serve eight months and 13 days on criminal conspiracy charges, one day more than 36-year-old drifter Eric Nordmark was incarcerated.

Thursday's sentences mean that one of the girls will get out Tuesday and the other two will be released March 24. The sentences include counseling and formal probation until age 21.

Nordmark was jailed in May after the girls, all 11 at the time, accused him of attacking them in a park. It was a story they concocted as an excuse for coming home late from school. Nordmark's trial ended abruptly in January, when, after two days, the girl who was his principal accuser admitted they made up the story.

Nordmark, now living in Seattle, has criticized the prosecution of the three girls, saying they need discipline rather than punishment. On Thursday he was equally critical of the sentence they received, saying he holds police — against whom he has filed a claim — responsible for his arrest.

"That's terrible. They're only children, for goodness' sake," he said. "Prosecuting and sentencing these kids is just a way to get the cops off the hook."

The girls' sentence sends the message that false accusations carry severe penalties, said Orange County Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Fell.

"These girls' lies were very detrimental to the life of this homeless man," Fell said outside the Orange courthouse. "Their lies jeopardized the integrity of the judicial system."

The girls' attorneys, however, said their clients should have been released Thursday.

"The 25 days they've spent in jail more than emphasized to them the seriousness of what they did," said Shirley MacDonald Juarez, attorney for the girl who confessed that the story was faked.

Juarez said it was not fair of Juvenile Court Commissioner Michael Cassidy to impose different sentences. "I think they were all in this together," she said.

Two of the girls wrote letters to the commissioner, expressing their feelings of shame, and the third made a statement to the court through her probation officer, their lawyers said.

"My client said she would kneel down in front of Nordmark and ask for his forgiveness if he were here," said attorney Saul Reyes.

He said probation officers recommended shorter sentences than the prosecutor requested probably because the girls are unlikely to break the law again.

"This is a one-time thing that snowballed and got out of hand," he said. "They are all traumatized and ashamed."

Cassidy had recommended that, if possible, the girls' 60 hours of community service be completed at a homeless shelter.

The parents of the girl who confessed said before the hearing that the court system has been too hard on all three.

"Instead of being punished more, she should be appreciated because she came forward and told the truth," said her mother, Veronica Mendez Ochoa. "For something like this, the punishment is way too much. The arrest alone was enough to scare them."

Since her daughter's arrest, the mother has been allowed a two-hour visit each week with the girl.

The girl's stepfather, who identified himself only as George, said the girl will have learned a valuable lesson by the time she's released.

"I can tell her I'm going to send her away or punish her if she gets in trouble, but this is real," he said. "She's going to take us a lot more seriously now."

He added that she will have to work to regain her parents' trust.

"She'll have to do that on her own," he said.

Fell, the prosecutor, declined to comment about the possibility of pressing obstruction-of-justice charges against Mendez Ochoa, a suggestion police made after learning that the three girls had deceived them. Juarez said after Thursday's hearing that she thought "those charges weren't an issue anymore."

Garden Grove Police Chief Joe Polisar said he did not know whether the investigation against the parents was over.

*

Times staff writers H.G. Reza and Jean-Paul Renaud contributed to this report.

From the LA Times. I find the mother's attitude to be horrible, though understandable, no parent wants to see their kid in jail. Nordmark, the homeless man that was incarcarated blames the police and prosecution as a way to cover up for the police's blunder in handling the case. He also argues that the girls need discipline as opposed to incarceration.

[Captain Cyran]

I like the stepdad...

And I'd thought that the girls had made up the story for being late to school, but that said they made it up for being late GETTING HOME?! Jesus...