in the Albany, NY, Times Union, and found an "oh boy" story that shows how political power and money corrupt our criminal justice system.
The son of a congressman, represented by the best and most expensive defense lawyer in the area, got probation and no jail time for a felony assault.
Here in a blue state, it seems that justice is not blind to the influence of thug politicians protecting their thug sons.
Details below.
The congressman is John Sweeney, the Pataki/D'Amato political operative who is forever the Miami Mob Leader for issuing the "Shut it down" order that unleashed a violent mob of DeLay staffers on lawful vote counters in 2000.
His son and namesake pleaded guilty to second-degree assault yesterday, admitting that he violently assaulted another young man, causing permanent injuries.
In NY, as elsewhere, a felony is a serious matter, punishable by more than a year in state prison. Almost everyone convicted of a felony is sentenced to some jail time, but not John Sweeney's thug kid.
In a fight over a girl (from the Times Union story):
Sweeney knocked Brady to the ground and kicked him in the head, while Manupella (another connected young man who get the same sweet deal) kicked his ribs, according to court records. Brady received a fractured skull and still suffers from double vision.
A Republican judge disregarded the plea deal, which would have involved 45 days or four months of weekends in jail, and gave Sweeney's son the following sentence:
six-month suspended sentence, five years probation, youthful offender status, sealed records ... 40 hours of observation at the Albany Medical Center Hospital trauma unit, 200 hours of community service and $9,000 in restitution. They (Sweeney and Manupella) must hold a fundraiser for a charity selected by Brady.
In upstate New York, and surely elsewhere in the country, no poor black kid would have gotten such a revised-in-his-favor deal.
But, of course, the congressman who funded this deal, one way or another, thought he was the victim in this, rather than the poor kid his son kicked the shit out of.
"I'm sorry it became too much about me," the congressman said.
Well, he should be, since he faces the first strong challenger of his six sorry years in office. And when voters have in the back of their minds that the violent-thug apple does not fall far from the tree, the Miami Mob Leader may be headed to K Street a lot sooner than he had planned.