Dean's Son Resolves Vt. Burglary Charge

[dajabr]

BURLINGTON, Vt. - The 17-year-old son of Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean agreed Tuesday to participate in a court diversion program for allegedly being the getaway driver while four friends tried to steal beer from a country club.

Paul Dean appeared at Vermont District Court with his father and mother, Dr. Judith Dean, and met with a court official.

"I think this is a good outcome for Paul and for his friends, and that's what the program is designed for," Howard Dean said.

The program allows first-time and low-risk offenders to resolve their charges without appearing before a judge. In a few weeks, the younger Dean is to appear before a community board that will determine his punishment, which could include community service, writing a letter of apology or making restitution.

Dean was called to court to answer a charge of accessory to burglary.

More: http://start.earthlink.net/newsarticle?cat=6&aid=D7SNRUKO0_story

[ProfessorPlum]

1. Wow, Dean actually shows up in court when his kids are there

unlike a certain governor of Florida I could name.

[TacticalPeek]

7. And, as Woody saith, that counts 80 percent.

Tut, tut, Jeb the No-Show, the 20 percent man.

Wonder if any reporters remember slimey Jeb as another "pol with kid offender"? Nah, that would take too much precious ink and air away from Kobe boarding with that funny looking camera bomb.

[VoteClark]

24. What do you mean WOW?

That is what parent is suppose to do! Geez!

[chimpymustgo]

2. Gosh he's lucky to be white and wealthy.

eom

[ProfessorPlum]

3. your statement is true.

it is always lucky to be white and wealthy.

[MercutioATC]

5. Nice insinuation...there's no merit to it, though...

Did you read the article? This program is designed for first-time and low-risk offenders. Paul Dean is at least a first-time offender (and he seems low-risk to me).

Your "white and wealthy" statement implies that preferential treatment was given in this case. According to the attorney quoted in the article, that's untrue.

[FoxNewsIsTheDevil]

9. What if he were black without a father?

[Nicholas_J]

19. Yeah

Dena cut5 funding for legal aid and public defenders, but he gave massive increases to th prosecutors and the police department.

An real indication on his beleif in his political chances would have been for him to let his kid wait for a Public Defender, rather than hire an attorney for him.

[VoteClark]

25. His ass would be in Jail, we all know that!

[UnapologeticLiberal]

13. I read an article a few weeks ago about Vermont's alternative sentencing

program, and I was very impressed. Dean instituted this program in I believe 1995 for first-time, petty offenders, and it had gotten very good reviews. It is ironic that his own son is now a beneficiary, but a crime like this would appear to be the kind of crime that the program is designed for.

[jiacinto]

6. Good point

If he were a black or Hispanic offender the book would have been thrown at him and then some.

[Le Taz Hot]

11. And your source would be . . .

I'll wait. :eyes:

[jiacinto]

12. Reality

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that minorities face harsher sentences in the criminal justice system.

[Le Taz Hot]

30. And that has to do with Dean, how?

n/t

[Fleshdancer]

8. The last sentence in the article:

"His attorney Mark Kaplan said the resolution of the Dean case is typical in cases where the defendant does not have a criminal record."

[Mairead]

16. The problem, of course

is that a poor kid, from a home devastated by poverty and perhaps untreated illness, is more likely to have been in trouble earlier, be a school dropout, been after something more useful than beer, etc, and so wouldn't get that near-pass. And such kids are more than likely also to be, mirabile dictu, Black or Brown.

Our social filters are quite subtle. Ugly, but subtle.

[searchingforlight]

15. He is white and I guess he is to some degree wealthy as he has a good

career, his wife is a doctor too, and he is well off by Vermont standards.

However, this program applies to everyone and has been used across the board in Vermont. Rich and poor, black and white have benefited.

Unlike TEXAS. We do not crucify our young for a youthful indescretion. Unlike Bush, Paul's father did not bail him out or pay his way out.

I am proud of Vermont for handling this well and proud of the Deans for making their son follow the process but standing by him in the doing.

Judge if you will.

[dsc]

17. Do you have anything at all to back this up?

Do you have evidence of a poor defendent or black defendend in Vermont since 1995 that got treated worse then Paul? Do you have any Vermont stats showing that blacks or the poor are not benefititing from this program? The article makes it pretty clear that a)this program is several years old b) was Howard Dean's idea and c) is intended to cover cases exactly like that of Paul Dean. Do you have a iota of evidence to contradict that.

[jiacinto]

18. Think of the broader issue

I think the poster has a point. That if this defendant were black and poor the system would be harder. Maybe not in VT; but, in all too many states, it does not take rocket science to realize that the laws are often enforced more harshly against minorities than wealthy whites.

[Nicholas_J]

20. Did Paul have to wait for a Public Defender?

Dean cut the budget to them, but gove the posecutors a whopping big increase:

For the Defense

Dean chose not to reappoint Appel for a third four-year term as defender general, the state official who heads the state’s public defender program. In appointing Valerio, of Proctor, the new defender general, Dean had kind words for Appel. But Appel had clashed with Dean on numerous occasions in his efforts to secure for his office the resources necessary to fulfill his duties conscientiously.

Just two years ago Dean tried to prevent Appel from accepting a $150,000 federal grant aimed at assisting defendants with mental disabilities. For Dean to block a government agency from receiving federal money was unusual in itself. But Dean’s openly expressed bias against criminal defendants provided a partial explanation.

Dean has made no secret of his belief that the justice system gives all the breaks to defendants. Consequently, during the 1990s, state’s attorneys, police, and corrections all received budget increases vastly exceeding increases enjoyed by the defender general’s office. That meant the state’s attorneys were able to round up ever increasing numbers of criminal defendants, but the public defenders were not given comparable resources to respond.

The problem with giving a disproportionate share of state resources to prosecution and enforcement is that it throws the justice system out of kilter. A just result occurs in court only when the prosecution and defense both are ably represented. Thus, Appel felt compelled two years ago to notify the court that the Rutland public defender’s office would take no new cases unless the defendant was in jail. The Rutland office was so short of staff that case backlogs threatened to overwhelm the public defenders.

Vermont is not Texas, where the public defender’s program is notorious for signing up incompetent, inebriated, or sleep-deprived lawyers for indigent clients. But lawyers who are short of resources cannot serve their clients well. Thus, Appel found himself in a bind five years ago when the court ordered him to provide expert testimony on behalf of Ruth Lizotte, a Rutland woman who was charged with murder by arson.

Appel noted that the public defender didn’t have the money to pay for expert witnesses. Thus, the burden is on the legislative and executive branches to make sure the judiciary has the resources it needs. And the judiciary includes the system as a whole — police, prosecution, defense, and courtroom personnel. Making the case for adequate funding of the criminal defense system will be one of the principal jobs of the new defender general. Valerio, an experienced criminal defense lawyer and the incoming president of the Vermont Bar Association, will owe his appointment as defender general to Dean. But he will owe it to the people of Vermont to push Dean to include in his budget adequate resources so the state’s public defenders can do their jobs.


http://www.talkleft.com/archives/003681.html#003681

It would be difficult to see how blacks ar treated in Vermont given that the black population of the stte is about 3000, out of 600,000 people.

But I bet Paul had the best attorneys his father could pay for.

After his practical destruction of the system of public defenders for the poor, one wonders about Deans sense of justice. One system for rich doctors, and another for the poor?

[LuminousX]

21. Community Board

Paul didn't go before a judge. But why wouldn't he have the best attorney his father could afford? And fundamentally, if Vermont was so devastated by Dean, why did they elect him 4 or 5 times?

HMMMMmmmmm?

[Nicholas_J]

23. Dean was largely elected by Republicans

The argument as to why he was elected so many times could be answered by Vermont progressives who stuck to Vermonts campiagn finance limits, when suddenly Dean reversed himself.

If he happened to be so well liked by democrats wht did large numberso of them leave the democratic party to join the more liberal Progressive party. This almost lsot Dean his last term. I mean if you want to vote a guy who was more popular with repuublicans than democrats and even so popular withe Republicans that a large number splintered off and formed a "REPUBLICANS FOR DEAN" group. Then so be it. But that WHy was he elected five time is OLD. You must also ask. "WHO ELECTED HIM FIVE TIMES"


Progressive Party leader says of Dean:

*Howard Dean:

Howard Dean is clearly the runt of this litter. Dean is shallow, glib, mean spirited and overly ambitious yet Vermonters continue to reward him with term after term. On issues that matter, Dean is regressive and responsive only to the needs of elite vested interests. Taking his lead from the new generation of grossly hypocritical, Bill Clinton type Democrats, Dean mouths the ancient words of Democratic Party idealism but then repudiates labor and the poor confidant that they have no where else to go. Big money motivates Howard Dean, a spoiled brat rich kid from Long Island who always gets his own way.

Dean has never had serious opposition in any election campaign. He slid into the Lieutenant Governor's office and took over the top job when Snelling died. He has won easily since because Republicans like to vote for him while their own Party candidates have been either little known or hopelessly right wing.

Of our six modern governors over the last thirty five years, Deane Davis gets my vote for number one, definitely a good guy. I'll rank Phil Hoff a not too shabby number two because Vermont really needed a good kick in the ass. From there, they go down fast. Dick Snelling gets a grudging number three because he represented stability and administrative competence. We'll give Madeline Kunin number four simply because she was less of a snake oil salesman than Tom Salmon, our choice for number five. Howard Dean, of course, is the worst in modern memory.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to plot the trend.

So what's happening here? Are Vermonters really getting dumber or do we just not care any more? If the past be any guide to the future then we got trouble down the road.


http://www.sover.net/~auc/6govs.htm

A little more to back that opinion up:

The group, known as "Republicans for Dean" represents the first organized GOP endorsement for Dean in any of his five campaigns..

Gilbert, a former member of the late Gov. Richard Snelling's administration, said he took the initiative to form the group, which boasts a membership of more than 30 moderate Republicans from around the state who back Dean.

He said the committee would support Dean's candidacy by reaching out to other moderates in the party as well as helping Dean with fund-raising.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/election2000/repbackdean.html

This was the first organized REpublican group to form to support Dean because the Progressive PArty became So laege as a direct result of Deans coservatism.

Many Democrats blame thi directly on Dean:

Certainly the Democratic caucus was never 100 percent behind him and where there were differences, it was around how progressive or how moderate he was," Chard said.

Rivers blames Dean for helping a third political party to flourish in Vermont that many say siphons votes from Democrats. "The Progressive Party gained some momentum during his years as governor because he was so conservative," Rivers said, although she said she still may support Dean for president

http://premium1.fosters.com/2003/news/may%5F03/may%5F19/news/reg%5Fvt0519a.asp

Chard was actually one of Deans few remaining Democratic part supporters in the legislature.

Another thing to consider. The same large businesses that Supported Bush's campaign in Vermont in 2000, were thhe same companies rooting for Dean for Governor.


Or as the progressives say of Dean:

Incumbent Governor Howard Dean is a DLC-type Democrat who never met a corporation he didn't like or a mountaintop he wasn't willing to sell to a ski-resort developer. Pollina, who had led Vermont's successful fight for public financing of statewide elections, became the first to benefit from it. As required by law, he raised $35,000 (from donations averaging $22), then qualified for $265,000 in public money, the only funds he can spend. Pollina was on an equal money footing with Dean. But not for long. A court threw out the law's spending limit, and immediately Dean inoperated years of pious blather about campaign finance reform. Five days after lauding such reform at the Democratic convention, he rejected public financing and put himself back on the block for corporate contributions and soft money from the Democratic Party.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Political_Reform/VoteHopes_NotFears.html

So the answer to how Dean got re-elected five times. By backing andsuporting Republicans, and by being a corporate whore. Thats how.

The same kind of behavior you guys criticize in the DLC.

[Droopy]

4. That's good news

I mean it's bad what his son did but it's good that he's getting it resolved, especially without jail time. I don't think this will hurt Dean's campaign. Wasn't there some minor scandal involving alcohol with Bush's daughters during his campaign?

[LuminousX]

10. I think this will help

the campaign over all. I know it is crass to look at these things in a political light, but we are in a political environment. This gives Dean more media coverage. At this stage of the game, as long the as the news ins't about something horrible and despicable, it helps keep his name in the papers.

[VoteClark]

28. Burglary is not terrible???

:shrug:

[JeniB]

22. Yes,

But it was for drinking it, not stealing it. I'm no fan of Bush or his daughters, but let's be fair here. If you Dean people want any creditbility, you're going to have to admit that this was not a good thing and it definately shouldn't be good for his campaign.

[VoteClark]

26. Big difference

I think there is a huge difference between a couple of teens drinking and one that robs the country club. Look at Bush Jr. His parents let him get away with stuff and boy is he a mess.

[SGrande]

14. god, the media should leave his damn son alone

leave family out of this.

[VoteClark]

27. I agree but

If Americans would have looked at the way Bush Sr. Raised his son we would not be in such a mess now.

[DrFunkenstein]

29. Not Easy Livin' In The Old Man's Shadow

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