Western New York: A Monster Walks Among You

So tell me WHY this fiend-in-grandpa-shape deserves to get out of prison--EVER?

A 100-year-old paedophile has been released from prison in the US despite fears he is still an "active threat" to children.

Theodore Sypnier was freed from jail in upstate New York and is being moved from a half-way house to a flat in Buffalo.

Residents say the sex offender should spend the rest of his life behind bars, and fear he will prey on youngsters in the area.

"I want him away from society as long as possible," Erie County district attorney Frank Sedita told wgrz.com.

It doesn't matter to me that he's 100-years-old. He's evil. He's a paedophile. Paedophiles are the worst.

"It doesn't matter to me that he's 100-years-old. He's evil. He's a paedophile. Paedophiles are the worst."

Sypnier was charged in 1999 with raping two young sisters, who were aged four and seven at the time.

The minister in charge of the half-way house said Sypnier has remained completely unrepentant of his crimes in counselling sessions.

Reverend Terry King said the elderly paedophile can still walk for miles and should be kept away from children.

He added: "He has been adamant that, 'I'm 100, and I'm not gonna change'."

As a Christian, I certainly will pray for this man's soul. But that doesn't mean that he should ever be allowed out of prison. EVER. There are more details in the story from the Associated Press here. Here are the highlights:

He was sent to jail ten years ago for raping and sodomizing two little girls, aged 4 and 7, and took pornographic pictures of them. He was first arrested in 1987. I suggest you go to the link so you can memorize what this monster looks like, especially if your live near Buffalo.

Even though he expressed no remorse nor has taken any responsibility for his crimes, he will walk free into society now.

Lesson? The law does NOT exist to protect society, and rape is not taken seriously as a crime against the soul as well as the body.

Texas Fight Club case sentence comes in

One of the workers at the Corpus Christi (Texas) State School for the disabled has pleaded guilty to running a "Fight Club" among the students (and if that wasn't bad enough, the kids were often forced to fight). Here is the link to the news article.

In exchange for pleading guilty to a reduced charge, Vincent Johnson received a suspended two year sentence, 150 hours of community service, a $2000 fine, and five years of probation. He will testify against other employees implicated in this shameful episode.

Disgusting. And you know, plea bargains are one of the reasons I didn't go to law school.

Whoa. Remember the "Twinkie" defense?

Oh, yes-- an addiction to VIDEO GAMES certainly ameliorates matricide. At least-- that's what his lawyer says....

ELYRIA, Ohio – Although a teenager's obsession with a violent video game may have warped his sense of reality, the boy is guilty of murdering his mother and wounding his father after they took "Halo 3" away from him, a judge ruled Monday.

"I firmly believe that Daniel Petric had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents they would be dead forever," Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge said.

Nonetheless, Burge rejected the defense attorneys' argument that Petric, 17, was not guilty by reason of insanity.

The defense didn't contest that Petric shot his parents in October 2007 after they took the game away from him, but insisted that the teen's youth and addiction made him less responsible.

Petric may have been addicted, but the evidence also showed he planned the crime for weeks, said Burge, who found the teenager guilty of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder and other charges.

Tried as an adult, Petric faces a maximum possible penalty of life in prison without parole. The judge didn't set a sentencing date.

The teen's mother, Susan Petric, 43, died of a gunshot wound to the head. Her husband, Mark Petric, a minister at New Life Assembly of God in Wellington, also was shot in the head but survived.

After the verdict was announced, Petric turned to look at his father seated behind him in the courtroom. Mark Petric, who previously said he has forgiven his son, gave an encouraging nod.

Mark Petric and other relatives left the court without comment.

Prosecutors said Petric planned to kill his parents because he was angry that his father would not allow him to play the video game, in which players shoot alien monsters that have taken over the Earth.

On the night of the shooting, Petric used his father's key to open a lockbox and remove a 9 mm handgun and the game.

Mark Petric testified that his son came into the room and asked: "Would you guys close your eyes? I have a surprise for you." He testified that he expected a pleasant surprise. Then his head went numb from the gunshot.

Deputy prosecuting attorney Anthony Cillo argued during the trial that the teenager had planned to make it appear to be a murder-suicide by putting the gun in his father's hand.

Defense Attorney James Kersey said that when the teenager fled the grisly scene, he only took one item with him: the "Halo 3" game.

A message seeking comment was left Monday with a Los Angeles public relations firm that represents the game maker, Bungie LLC.

Just when I think that the lack of shame has reached an all-time low, I get brought up short. A teenager not understanding that "dead" is forever. Killing-- or trying to kill-- both your parents over a video game.

Makes me feel a little less like an ogre for my rules about this kind of stuff at Casa Cornelius. Even if I AM the meanest mother ever in this Facebook-free, Myspace-free, text-message-free, instant-messenger-free house.

But somehow I don't think that those kinds of things are the problem here. There is something else seriously, seriously wrong with a society that wants to make excuses for this kind of behavior, no matter what.

Charter schools for inmates

Oh, heck, why not?

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Albert Aragon dreams of working in real estate one day, but the 29-year-old jail inmate is a high school dropout who believes employers don't hire people with general equivalency diplomas.

Now he has a chance to get his high school diploma, thanks to a new Albuquerque charter school, one of a handful of charter schools nationwide serving current and former jail inmates.

"When they see a high school diploma, they see that you stuck in through the thick and thin, through the tough times, and when you're out getting jobs, they don't want GEDs, they want diplomas," he said during a break in his language arts class.

The Gordon Bernell Charter School at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque and the Five Keys Charter School in San Francisco have turned their state laws on charter schools into opportunities to grant high school diplomas — rather than GEDs — to jail inmates regardless of their age.

Wearing orange jumpsuits, students at the Albuquerque jail attend high school math and language classes and science labs in secure rooms next to their pod, which is segregated from the rest of the inmate population. Students are given homework to complete in their cells at night.

San Francisco County Sheriff Michael Hennessey, who helped start Five Keys Charter School in 2003, said it wasn't easy to get the school board to approve a charter school for inmates.

"After they got over the kind of shock of sanctioning a high school inside of a jail, they said they would be happy to support it," he said.

The school board eventually gave Five Keys unanimous support when its charter was approved in 2002.

"A lot of public school advocates believe that the charter schools are taking away the students from wealthier families, are creaming off the better students, and as a result it is diminishing the effectiveness of the public school movement," Hennessey said. "I'm certainly not taking the better advantaged students."

In Albuquerque, classes are fast-paced and allow students to earn high school credit as quickly as they can master each curriculum standard. But they must score 80 percent or better to get credit.

Language arts teacher Kimberlee Hanson wrapped up a recent class with a head-spinning list of upcoming tasks.

"Tomorrow we're typing stories. Write your stories. Your literary analysis is sticking with you. Monday's our final that ends this unit and then it's off to superheroes for persuasive essays," she told her students.

In addition to a basic high school curriculum, both charter schools teach their inmate-students life skills designed to help them be better citizens.

Psychologist Ron Gallegos works with inmates on how to make better choices by teaching them about morality.

In one assignment, the students had to document 10 hours of doing things for other people while not expecting anything in return, which is the antithesis of prison society, he said.

Gallegos said the school helps give inmates a sense of achievement.

"I think they are stunned to discover that they have some ability to be successful in the academic world," he said. "You see a pretty overwhelming sense of joy and pride in them when they accomplish writing an essay or solving a math problem or getting a science project."

Teachers at Gordon Bernell agree that student discipline is the least of their problems. The school has a zero-tolerance policy about drugs, violence and gangs.

When inmates are released, they can continue at the school's downtown campus, said Gordon Bernell's director, Greta Roskom.

Though charter school laws differ by state, Hennessey said the California education secretary and several communities around the state have expressed interest in replicating Five Keys Charter School. Roskom said New Mexico's charter school has attracted the attention of national correctional educators.

First, this gives the inmates another reason to behave, since it seems that they are not allowed to attend if they are behavior problems.

Second, it gives them something intellectual to do while they are in jail-- like seriously addressing what got them in jail in the first place. That's a great idea.

Third, education gives people opportunities and choices. Hopefully, this will reinforce to the inmates that they have choices-- and they had them before they got into jail, too.

It would be interesting to see what the long-term record of inmates who successfully complete this program, if this cuts the recidivism rates versus a control group.

Okay, that's it, I've had it.

Subtitled, Is that rain, or are angels pissing on my head?



Monday, TWO wee pets died at Casa Cornelius.

Tuesday, the return of insane shrieking banshee mom claiming all sorts of malfeasance on my part and that I've made her daughter HATE school when the kid sits there and smiles at me every blasted day.

Wednesday, trials with relatives who seem to just push my buttons-- which makes sense, because they installed them.

Today, I get a nearly $100 ticket from a cop over my bike rack. MY BIKE RACK. She said it was "illegal." I hope the folks at Yakima know this.

I can't wait to see the joy and brickbats Friday may bring.

Those wishing to help may send margaritas by the gallon to:
Ms. Cornelius
c/o 1313 Mockingbird Lane
Bite Me, Frigid Midwest OU812

Tchah.

Educating rapists on the taxpayer dime

Incredible.

Some of the nation's worst sex offenders will no longer be eligible to receive generous educational financial aid packages while they are confined in treatment centers under a bill approved by Congress.

A little-noticed provision of a broader higher education bill makes such offenders ineligible for Pell Grants, the nation's premier financial aid program for low-income students, starting July 1, 2009.

Both the Senate and the House approved the bill late last week and President Bush is expected to sign it into law.

The Associated Press reported in March that dozens of rapists and child molesters have taken higher education classes at taxpayer expense while confined to treatment centers.

"Today, the most insane wasteful spending program in America comes to an end," Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla., said on the House floor Thursday before his plan won approval.

Keller cited the AP report that some offenders were using the financial aid to buy clothes, DVD players and music CDs — sometimes after they dropped their classes.

U.S. Department of Education spokeswoman Stephanie Babyak said she did not know how many such offenders have received Pell Grants and how much the provision would save taxpayers. Keller predicted it would save taxpayers millions.

The provision affects 20 states that allow violent sex offenders to be held indefinitely after they have served their prison sentences because they are likely to re-offend.

Prison inmates are ineligible for Pell Grants under a 1994 law, but sexual predators have qualified once they are transferred from prison to treatment centers.

First, I think we should direct federal financial aid money to people who HAVEN'T committed violent crimes against people. When you consider how much federal aid to deserving students has stagnated and even in some cases decreased in the past twenty years, then you have to say that rapists should be able to be rehabilitated without demanding a free college degree to do it. If law-abiding students were able to get enough aid to meet their needs, then that would be a different story.

The only way I could afford college-- as the first person in my family to attend college-- was through a combination of academic and music scholarships, work study, and loans. Lots and lots of loans. That I then spent ten years paying off while earning a whopping $11,000 a year.

Imagine-- just imagine-- if our government would concentrate its trillions of dollars of spending on programs that actually benefit the citizens, not oil corporations or criminals. But I repeat myself. And I'm sounding like John Lennon.

It's about justice. Justice for those who follow the law and don't hurt people.

Unspeakable. Hanging IS too good for him.

He killed her mother, her brother, and her mother's boyfriend by bludgeoning them to death. He then kidnapped her and her brother. He raped them repeatedly and then killed the brother with a shotgun. The only one left is one little girl.

I don't care how troubled his childhood was. And this is why I am not a lawyer--either as a prosecutor who would have to make deals with this piece of excrement, or even having to believe that this thing deserves a lawyer at all, much less defending him.