Mom Sent To Prison For Making Child Steal ($1.85....)

[The Straight Story]

Mom Sent To Prison For Making Child Steal

POSTED: 11:03 pm EDT June 13, 2006
UPDATED: 11:06 pm EDT June 13, 2006

LAKE HARMONY, Pa. -- A judge sentenced a woman to prison for making her 6-year-old daughter steal a volunteer fire company's fundraising jar, a crime that netted the family $1.85.

Judith Weidner, 42, had told police she needed the change for gasoline, but in court she blamed a heroin addiction.

Judge David W. Addy sentenced Weidner on Monday to one to three years in prison for the January 2005 theft.

Security films show Weidner distracting a convenience store clerk while her daughter took a small fireman's boot used to collect change for a volunteer fire company effort. The boot was later found in the trash at a car wash.

http://www.local6.com/news/9366417/detail.html

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Seems like a rather extreme sentence

and OMG your sigline cracks me up! :thumbsup:

[Mythsaje]

2. Oh, that just makes my head spin...

[blonndee]

3. So, so sad. The crime AND the punishment.

As well as the circumstances, whatever they might be, that could lead to such a pathetic crime.

[rocktivity]

4. She should have been a runaway bride.

(The defendant)...a mother of five...suffers from bipolar disorder and other mental-health problems. She pleaded guilty last year to corruption of minors and conspiracy to commit theft but failed to show for a November sentencing date...(Her) attorney said her children are no longer in her custody.

The children should have stopped being in her custody the day she was convicted. And a combination of rehab, community service, a fine, restitution and probation would cost the state a lot less than three years in jail.

On edit: A dollar eighty-five for gas? She's a drug addict, all right.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Rose Siding]

5. And the guy in NH who helped throw an election got 6 months

This woman did an awful thing by manipulating her child to break the law. She clearly has drug and mental problems, but three years for what amounts to the theft of less than two bucks is draconian.

[The Straight Story]

6. Got to agree with you on that count

Skip the jail time, go straight to some rehab or something.

[Dogmudgeon]

9. But punishment is so much more fun!

America -- where sadomasochism has become a form of political "discourse".

--p!

[Ilsa]

7. Something HAS to be missing from this story, right?

Well, not necessarily. I know that. I can only hope.
Shit.

[Stargleamer]

8. That's more time than Jankow got for running someone down. . .

As I recall, the Republican barely got a month in jail. And he had a history of repeatedly speeding.