Could someone explain this to me? Michael Vick admits that he murdered 6-8 dogs while participating in dog fighting. This all under oath in Federal court documents. The district attorney for Surry County, Virginia then goes to the grand jury and it hands down an indictment on Vick for only one count of killing dogs and one count of promoting dogfights. What happened to the other co-defendants who also offered testimony under oath(and accepted by the court) that they killed dogs. What more does a DA need?
The grand jury works as sort of a middle man between the prosecutor and the community itself. It is designed to stop overzealous prosecuters. The prosecutor gathers his evidence and then brings it in front of a grand jury to determine if there is probable cause. It is not the grand juries job to determine the guilt or innocence of a defendant. Finding that there is probable cause a crime has been committed is a very low burden to prove. Presenting just a copy of the signed plea bargain by Vick would have been overwhelming evidence of probable cause. In fact, it’d be enough to convict him.
It is impossible to assume that the grand jury was presented with the evidence we already know and still arrived at only a 2 count indictment - only one for killing of dogs. This DA should be fired immediately. He can not handle his job and as this has shown, can not prosecute even when a defendant admits to the crime, has 6 co-defendants agreeing with the events, and all while being under oath and in writing.
I find this all very interesting. When Michael Vick decided to plead out to federal charges last month there were no stipulations to his plea bargain that the state would agree not to press charges as well. His lawyers had to of informed him that if he admitted to dogfighting that the state of Virginia would then have a slam dunk case. Maybe Vick and his attorneys rolled the dice and assumed Pointdexter was so unbelievable incompetent that he would not be successful in obtaining an indictment.
Or there are other things going on down in Surry County, Virginia…
Technorati Tags: Crime, Current Events, Michael Vick, NFL, Law
Last night I decided to go for a ride to Door County in Wisconsin. This area is actually a pretty neat part of the state. It is primarily known for its tourist attractions in the summer months. There are tons of little shops and restaurants. I learned last night that for whatever reason driving down highway 42 in the winter months is somewhat “suspicious”. At least that is what the door county police said when they called me a 10-37. I was pulled over 3 times in less than a hour. I was not given a ticket for anything. First in Sister Bay, WI. I first heard my plate being called driving north on 42. Officer asked dispatch for a “27″(10-27, drivers license check).I took a immediate right giving the squad behind me something interesting to deal with. I then heard dispatch come back and say I was valid and stated my expiration date. The officer said “hold on to it” in reference to keeping the information up because he was going to pull me over. In the meantime the road I had turned off on turned out to be a circle. I had to drive back out onto 42. Sure enough, as expected the officer was sitting at the bottom of the hill waiting for me to drive by. His lights went on immediately after passing him. He came and got my license. This time requesting a “28″(10-28, vehicle registration check). Came back good. He came back and told me I was good to go. Not offering a reason as to why I was stopped. He told the dispatcher to “file the 27 and 28″. Meaning, close the call. About 15 minutes later that same officer chimed back in to dispatch asking her to run a criminal record check on “that green bay car” he stopped a few minutes ago. She promptly did so and came back with “I was unable to find any criminal record for subject”. 10-4 the officer replied. By this time I was heading up towards the Fish Creek area. I was pulled over again here. This officer also ran my plates..but did not do so until I was stopped. He said I should be careful in this area because of deer. Right, whatever. Now I was on my way back south down some on county road ZZ. I noticed a vehicle following me. It was right after shift change (10:44) so I figured i’d once again get some grief. I slowed down a bit and even took a left turn into a closed BP gas station. The vehicle passed and it was a door county police officer. I grabbed a peice of paper towel and then slowly went back to the road and saw that this police officer had slowed and was turning around. I then continued on my route. I then took a left on county road F and then eventually in a empty restaurant to turn around. It was here I was pulled over upon entering the road again. This time there was backup. I knew he had called for backup. After all, I was listening. He asked what I was doing. I told him the same story about just driving around. Then I changed my story and said I was going home. He said to make up your mind. I said if I want to go home i’ll go home if not i’ll drive around. After all, I wasn’t doing anything wrong by doing either. He said fine and let me go. After pulled away I heard more chatter on the radio. He asked the other officer to “go to B”(sic: referring to Channel B, Car-To-Car, or Tactical frequency. 154.9500 051DPL) . I recorded this exchange. The mp3 can be found here: HERE
They did not see the scanner in my vehicle…
Technorati Tags: Door County, Police, Radio Frequencies, Wisconsin
