Republican Family Values

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Bicycle Bill
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Republican Family Values

Post by Bicycle Bill »

Former Republican candidate Joel Koskan sentenced to prison for incest
Sentenced to serve a decade in prison after pleading guilty to incest charges

The victim told authorities that Koskan had been “raping her since she was a young child”, and that he was continuing to monitor her via GPS and surveillance cameras after she went off to college.
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-"BB"-
Yes, I suppose I could agree with you ... but then we'd both be wrong, wouldn't we?

ex-khobar Andy
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Re: Republican Family Values

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

I hadn't heard this story. One piece of the linked article stood out to me:
On Nov. 7, a proposed plea agreement surfaced, in which Koskan’s attorneys and prosecutors had arranged a deal for Koskan to avoid prison time and avoid registering as a sex offender in exchange for a guilty plea.
Apparently the judge mulled this for a while before deciding 'no.' In what universe could a serial rapist - let alone the incest portion of this - get a deal like that? Good thing the judge decided not to go for it. But it seems to have taken five months to get there.

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Republican Family Values

Post by BoSoxGal »

ex-khobar Andy wrote:
Wed Apr 12, 2023 1:12 am
I hadn't heard this story. One piece of the linked article stood out to me:
On Nov. 7, a proposed plea agreement surfaced, in which Koskan’s attorneys and prosecutors had arranged a deal for Koskan to avoid prison time and avoid registering as a sex offender in exchange for a guilty plea.
Apparently the judge mulled this for a while before deciding 'no.' In what universe could a serial rapist - let alone the incest portion of this - get a deal like that? Good thing the judge decided not to go for it. But it seems to have taken five months to get there.
In the universe where sexual crimes have a sub 50% conviction rate unlike all other crimes, and that’s sub 50% of the couple percent of sexual crimes that ever even see a courtroom to begin with because the vast majority of such crimes are never even charged. Why? Because of the terrible conviction rate. Why is the rate so low? Because jurors and cops and prosecutors. Because a great many people in our society have biases against women and even children who make accusations of sexual assault or abuse, including cops to whom the cases are reported and prosecutors who make charging decisions and often care more about re-election than justice for victims.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

ex-khobar Andy
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Re: Republican Family Values

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

I don't disagree with much in your paragraph there BSG but it doesn't answer my question. He had already pleaded guilty, and my question is why did the judge - one Margo Northrup - take 5 months to decide not to accept a plea deal of no prison time and no sex offender status. Sounds to me like it should be a two minute "You must be fucking joking!" decision. But maybe the judge had a very full caseload and had to take the time to dress up the decision in proper legal language.

Big RR
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Re: Republican Family Values

Post by Big RR »

Andy--I think it may well depend on the state; if the judge rejects the plea bargain after the defendant has entered a guilty plea, he may well have to account for why. In this case it appears he took his time and, from what I recally hearing on the news, the defendant did get jail time.

As for why a judge might consider entering a no jail plea, I think judges defer to the prosecutor's view of the case; if it will be difficult to prove (and, as BSG said, jurors, rightly or wrongly, often do not convict, there may still be a benefit to the victim to hear the abuser plead guilty and allocute to what happened, even if the punishment is a slap on the wrist. I have worked with child abuse victims in the past and one of their biggest concerns is that they are not believed--a guilty plea can provide some comfort.

ex-khobar Andy
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Re: Republican Family Values

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

I think that the point I failed to appreciate - which explains why I didn't understand BSG's post - is that the initial plea proposal was "I'll plead guilty if you promise not to lock my sorry ass up" and if turned down by the judge, they would have to prove it and the "I'll plead guilty" statement falls away. So the judge, knowing that cases of rape often do not lead to a conviction, might have thought that a guilty plea with essentially no punishment was better - even for the victim - than the risk of a prosecutorial failure and a not guilty verdict. And the perp made it moot by pleading guilty anyway. So then judge took a calculated risk and I can see why it might take a while. Thanks BSG and BRR.

This is one of the reasons I'd like to see this board survive. We don't (usually) call each other names and because there are relatively few of us - unlike, say, a Reddit forum - we each have a handle (as with RL friends) on how the other thinks and their opinions on other subjects. Gob has hinted that he is losing interest and it may be that I have the resources (time and a few bucks) needed to keep it going and possibly even some of the skills.

Big RR
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Re: Republican Family Values

Post by Big RR »

Andy--you hit the nail on the head there; that is the real value of this board. I have learned a lot from the people here and have gotten insight into different viewpoints from my own; there really aren't a lot of places like this on the net--most are just name calling wastes of time.

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