“Justice” fails again, in a most peculiar way
August 29, 2007Criminal charges against 191 defendants dismissed
The Johnson County [Indiana] prosecutor today announced the dismissal of misdemeanor criminal charges against 191 defendants whose files were submitted to the Greenwood City Court in 1998 and 1999 but were apparently hidden by a former court employee.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070829/LOCAL/708290528
Oh my dear God, what a disaster this was for the State! Can you imagine what would have happened if there were felony charges mixed in with the lot? I don’t know what Indiana’s statute of limitations provides, but even a violent crime might be time-barred by the passage of more than 5 years.
Weren’t there victims complaining when their cases disappeared into the fog? Weren’t the arresting officers curious that there were never requests for their reports on the incidents, or that no one ever interviewed them for either defense or prosecution? How could 191 cases just disappear without anyone noticing?
And if 191 criminal cases had to vanish into a black hole, why couldn’t some of them be mine?
There wouldn’t be felony cases mixed in; City Court does only infractions and minor misdemeanors. But that doesn’t answer the rest of the questions. Beloved Husband’s first one was “Doesn’t the Prosecutor have their own files?”
And if you want your cases to vanish in like fashion, perhaps you should move to Indiana!