Follow up story on 18-year old getting 100 year prison sentence

[Horse with no Name]

This is infuriating.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=5057034
>>>snip
Aaron Hart, 18, cannot read or write. He’s difficult to understand when he talks, and his “best friend” is a string by the name of Jacob that he talks to and carries around in his pocket.

Robert Hart, 70, of 1055 22nd N.E. St. said he and his wife were devastated that their son got essentially life in prison for sexual play with another child, also mentally challenged.

When police approached Aaron Hart a short time after they were called about the Sept. 24, 2008, incident in the child’s backyard, Hart said: “I didn’t do anything. I won’t do it again.”

“He’s basically a child in an adult’s body,” Allan Hubbard, victims’ advocate with the district attorney’s office, told The Paris News.
http://theparisnews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=419664aea0b21ca6

[hlthe2b]

1. Oh, God.... What is wrong with our society that this can happen?

Where is our compassion, our common sense?

[babylonsister]

2. THIS is why he got 100 years? Really???

Gawd. No proof of anything except inuendo.



The alleged oral sex between Aaron Hart and the younger neighbor boy occurred at a backyard shed while Hart was supposed to be mowing the yard of the boy’s grandmother.

In a jail interview mid-week with The Paris News, Aaron Hart said the day of the incident the boy was friendly toward him, hugged him around the legs and told him, “I love you.”

A woman at the residence told police that when she looked out her window and couldn’t see the child, she investigated and found him and Hart at the shed with their pants partially down.

[rug]

19. It was a guilty plea by a special ed teenager with no physical evidence.

[Baikonour]

3. This judge needs to be taken off the bench.

“The judge said Aaron didn’t belong in prison, but he didn’t know what else to do with him."

Ever heard of a psychiatric hospital, dumb-fuck?

Our judicial system really needs to be cleaned out of shitheads like this guy.

[sandnsea]

5. He sentenced him consecutively

"Typically, a judge will order that the sentences be served concurrently. Clifford stacked them, for a total of 100 years.

“I just couldn’t take a chance on him being out in the community,” Clifford said, noting that Hart could have been paroled in 15 years on a 30-year sentence.

Because the sentences were stacked, Hart won’t be eligible for parole for 50 years."

What the hell. Put him in a community home with round the clock care. Do they not have those in other parts of the country?

[Baikonour]

13. It's Texas.

I don't want to paint with broad brush strokes, but...

[Horse with no Name]

22. I'm actually SHOCKED this judge MADE it to the bench

All I can say is that we obviously didn't have much to choose from and his family is VERY connected.

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/paris-tx/T4JA9VI17NHT13FQA
>>>snip
Former Paris Mayor, Eric Scott Clifford, d.o.b. 12-27-48, was arrested on 2-16-95 in Travis County, Texas, for solicitation of a prostitute, received a $200 fine and 6 months deferred adjudication probation.

[Warpy]

4. Aren't our judges allowed to have functioning brains any more?

This is crazy, homophobia at its absolute worst, railroading a retarded kid for doing something a guy with all his marbles might have been guilty of--but not this kid. Talk about diminished capacity!

At some point a judge has to step in and decide who was harmed, the extent of the harm, the intent of the harm, and the capacity of the perpetrator to harm again.

Aaron Hart might need counseling he can cope with. Chemical castration might be an option if he has poor impulse control. However, prison is just not the answer for this kid, certainly not 100 years of it no matter how homophobic the jury was.

Calendar age should have been the last thing anybody considered in this case.

[dustbunnie]

10. The story on the other thread said that all but two of the jury cried at the sentencing.

The other story also leads one to believe that the judge deplored the fact that there was nowhere else to send him. So, who knows, maybe it isn't about homophobia as you believe. He had oral sex with a young child. That is still a crime, not homosexual sex.

[Warpy]

11. It was the equivalent of two children, though

Sending him to prison isn't the answer. There has to be a better one and it's up to the judge to find it in this case.

[dustbunnie]

12. The judge can only work within the confines of resources available.

From the victim's advocate:

“We’ve seen less sentences for worse crimes where sex was involved. You don’t want to send him to prison for life, but you cannot put him back on the street and worry about what he may do to some other kid,” Hubbard said.

<...>

“It begs for some kind of institutional way to lock a person up where they cannot get out. But there’s just not a fit, and this office cannot create that, and the judge cannot create that.”

It seems it's the system that's lacking.

[Warpy]

17. It sure as hell is

Chemical castration was designed for people like this kid.

Prison shouldn't be an option for him.

Deinstitutionalization is really the hidden holocaust. It continues to wreak havoc.

[sandnsea]

14. See post #5

The judge is a pure idiot. I am one of the most ardent supporters of permanently locking up sex offenders - but this is ridiculous. This is a first offense. You NEVER lock up someone permanently on a first offense unless it's a particularly horrific murder. This individual is mentally retarded and has never been given the benefit of a group home setting with people trained to help him maneuver into adulthood. The judges comments are stupid beyond belief. I do not understand how people live in states that are just so fucking stupid.

[originalpckelly]

6. This is tragic, and it really doesn't make any sense.

Don't they have a psychiatric hospital out there anywhere? They'll release fully competent child molesters, but not a poor mentally challenged kid who had no malice?

[8 track mind]

7. I grew up in this town

People are totally fucking cruel there and there is NO support system for people with mental problems. The harsh punishment doesn't surprise me at all. Alan Hubbard is grooming himself for public office once again. This whole trial was a sham. They coerced a confession out of the kid, pure and simple. I don't know much about the judge, his name does sound familiar, but at any rate this fuck is one cold cruel individual. Stay away from this town at all costs. This place is a fucked up racist, bible thumping, homophobic paradise. I am so glad i got out of there.

[sandnsea]

15. Well bless your heart anyway

Glad you saw the light and ran ran ran.

[liberalmuse]

8. What the hell?

That's barbaric! This needs to be overturned. What kind of godforsaken country does this to a mentally challenged kid? Dear god, that judge needs to be impeached.

[8 track mind]

9. trust me

if you are not well connected in this place, you have no chance in hell.

[dkf]

16. This story makes me feel sick to my stomach.

Wow. How sad.

[Edweird]

18. This is wrong. No two ways about it.

[Horse with no Name]

20. Yes it is.

Sadly though...I doubt even if it is thrown out on appeals, this boy will make it through the Texas "Just US" System.
He has already been raped in County Jail and those guys are nothing compared to what is in the prison.

[spanone]

21. somehow i think of bernie madoff in his luxury new york apt.....