Angela lied to everyone. She said she was not seeking life without parole for Cristian but she never explained her original actions of obtaining a grand jury indictment for murder and aggravated child abuse (which carries a mandatory penalty of life without parole when the person is convicted).
She used the threat of that sentence to coerce a 12 year old child into accepting a plea deal that branded him as a murderer and exposed him to possibly having to serve three years in an adult prison.
When he rejected her deal she turned around and said she would indict him on another charge that she had knew about all along. For someone who claims to care about victims, she has failed to address her reasons for waiting to file this charge until the plea deal was rejected.
Angela, maybe a handful of your voters as well as your family are fooled by what you are doing, but I am not.
http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/400601/ron-littlepage/2011-12-07/ron-littlepage-angela-corey-plays-two-faced-gameSubmitted by Ron Littlepage on December 7, 2011 - 12:08am
Ron Littlepage's Blog
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State Attorney Angela Corey can’t have it both ways in the Cristian Fernandez case.
In a statement on her office’s website, Corey says: “We never, ever demonstrated any intention to seek a life sentence on Cristian Fernandez, nor even a lengthy prison sentence. We also never said this was premeditated murder.”
So how does she explain the indictment the grand jury returned against the boy under her office’s guidance?
It’s for first-degree murder, and upon conviction, the only possible sentence is life in prison without parole.
Plus, the indictment reads that Fernandez acted “unlawfully and from a premeditated design to effect the death” of his 2-year-old half brother.
Now, unable to reach a plea agreement with Public Defender Matt Shirk, Corey is threatening to file a second charge against Fernandez that could result in a life sentence.
If the first-degree murder indictment was sought without “any intention to seek a life sentence,” as Corey says, but was meant to be used as a bargaining chip, there are those in the legal community who say that would be an “egregious violation of the rules of professional conduct which prosecutors must follow.”
The spectacle of a 12-year-old neglected and abused child facing life in prison continues to get worse.
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Here’s something else that grates.
Shirk is gearing up for re-election. A fundraiser for his campaign was scheduled Tuesday night at the home of Republican money man Mike Hightower.
Listed as hosts of the event were Corey and Sheriff John Rutherford.
As Shirk’s job is to represent his clients by going head-to-head with Corey and challenging Rutherford’s officers in court, that’s a little too chummy for me.
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While I’m writing about things that are maddening, here’s another.
If you visit the City Council’s website at coj.net, you will find an invitation to “View City Council Email.”
As most of the emails are public record and reading them can provide insight into the issues important to their constituents and how council members handle them, posting them online helps make government more transparent.
Yet the emails aren’t there as they have been with previous councils.
As of now, the only individual council member posting emails is Council President Stephen Joost.
There’s no excuse why the other 18 council members aren’t doing it, too.
The General Counsel’s Office did issue a warning a while back that some emails containing confidential information such as Social Security numbers could mistakenly end up online.
That’s easily solved by having the council members’ well-paid assistants review the emails before posting them.
Mayor Alvin Brown and his top staffers are managing to get their emails online.
Ask council members if they believe in transparency in government, and they say they most certainly do. Prove it.
