Likely Pedophelia Charges Against Britain's Prince Andrew Possible, Why Was This Cuban Immigrant Sentenced to 110 Years in Prison? Runaway Jury Let's Murder Slide in Florida (The Five for 01/04/21)
Hey, welcome back to The Five!
Before we begin, I have to make one amendment to the year end pop culture list.
I’m not sure what I would strike from my top 5 songs, but Morgan Wade absolutely has to be there. I’m still not sure if she’s outlaw country or the musical rebirth of the alt-rock grrrl power scene that Alanis Morissette led when the seminal album Jagged Little Pill sold roughly 1 gajillion copies in the 90’s…so you’ll have to decide for yourself.
Subject matter wise, the song (which is set in Chicago), pulls me back to standing outside Schubas in the freezing cold, a hole-in-the-wall venue a stone’s throw from Wrigley Field with a stellar reputation of booking A-list talent before they got big (John Mayer, Death Cab for Cutie and dozens of others played for 150 people at Schuba’s before going on to fill stadiums).
You’re not going to bring the same experiences to listening to “Wilder Days,” but there’s no denying Wade’s powerful vocals and the resurgence of the 90’s alt-rock chorus.
Now that I’ve corrected my list-making error, let’s get into the news.
[one]
A truck driver sentenced to 110 years in prison in Colorado for a fatal crash had 100 years knocked off his sentence…thanks to public outcry.
Rogel Aguilera-Mederos' lorry crashed into traffic in 2019, killing four people in the US state of Colorado.
At trial he was convicted on 27 counts, and the judge said state law forced him to impose the lengthy sentence.
But on Thursday, Colorado Governor Jared Polis commuted what he called an "unjust" sentence.
Aguilera-Mederos was transporting timber in the Rocky Mountains foothills when the deadly crash happened in April 2019.
The lorry careered downhill into stationary traffic, bursting into flames and causing a major pile up in the city of Lakewood.
Four people - Stanley Politano, 69, William Bailey, 67, Doyle Harrison, 61, and Miguel Angel Lamas Arellano, 24 - were killed.
Aguilera-Mederos, a Cuban immigrant, told officials that his brakes had failed, and that he had tried his best to avoid other vehicles as he lost control of the truck.
Some news outlets have noted the stark contrast between Aguilara-Meredos’s case and the infamous “affluenza” case in 2015, where a drunk teenager got no jail time for killing four people…in part because his lawyer argued growing up rich made the teen unable to understand real world consequences.
One of my issues with the “social justice" movement is that the key figureheads and players just don’t seem to show up for cases like Carlos Augilera-Merderos…possibly because that crowd tends to be costal and elite…and perhaps being a blue collar worker in flyover country trumps the status of of minority and immigrant.
Either the traditional social justice crowd did not know about Augilera-Merderos, or they were apathetic to his fate.
Thank God Carlos’ cause got enough attention to know 100 years off the sentence. But recent history tells us that had Carlos been rich, he likely wouldn’t have seen a day behind bars.
[two]
British Royal Prince Andrew is reportedly living in terror after the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell, the girlfriend and assistant of Jeffrey Epstein, who ran the notorious “pedophile island,” which boasted some of the world’s most famous and powerful people, including the Prince.
Prince Andrew's lawyers were locked in emergency talks last night following the conviction of his pal Ghislaine Maxwell as they considered calling on one of her victims to help him in his US civil case which includes allegations of sex abuse and first degree rape.
The guilty verdicts left the British socialite - a second paedophile the royal is now known to have befriended - facing up to 65 years in jail after being found to have procured, groomed and trafficked girls for sex for Epstein abuse.
The jurors' decision has sparked fear in the Duke of York's legal team given the burden of proof in a criminal case is far higher than that needed in a civil case, like the one Andrew is facing.
Legal experts in the States point to how OJ Simpson was cleared criminally of Nicole Brown's death but was found liable in a private case brought by her family.
Crimes in America must generally be proved "beyond a reasonable doubt", whereas civil cases are proved by lower standards of proof such as "the preponderance of the evidence".
In 2019, was allowed Prince Andrew to “step down from public duties,” so the Crown probably knows the truth is going to get out sooner or later.
Andrew’s parents, Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth, were second cousins and their relationship began when Elizabeth was still a teen, and Phillip was a Navy officer. So, I guess the (literally) inbred Andrew was just repeating history in some ways…but thank God it’s possible he’ll face justice for these horrific crimes.
[three]
Jill Halliburton Su, who was tied up by burgler Dayonte Resiles, who proceeded to stab her 26 times.
A horrific murder case has ended in a mistrial after three jury members refused to deliver a conviction that would result in a mandatory life sentence…based solely on the criminal’s race, according to one juror.
The North Florida Sun-Sentinel reports:
Dayonte Resiles killed Jill Halliburton Su by stabbing her to death and leaving her lifeless body in a bathtub in her Davie home — on that much, jurors could agree.
But they couldn’t agree on a murder charge, according to the jury forewoman, because three members refused to sign off on a verdict that would send a young Black man to prison for the rest of his life. For a short time, the nine who wanted a first-degree murder conviction were willing to budge. A manslaughter conviction would send Resiles to prison for 15 years, not for life. All 12 jurors signed off on manslaughter late Tuesday.
But that, according to the forewoman, would not have been justice. Not for her. Not for the defendant. Not for the victim. “What have I done?” she thought.
As the verdict was being read, a 36-year-old Puerto Rican woman recanted her vote for manslaughter on the spot, saying it was murder.
According to the woman, who asked not to be named, three members of the jury refused to send a young black man to prison for the rest of his life, regardless of how heinous his crimes were.
The article continues:
“I just got a knot in the pit of my stomach. I looked at the defense table. They were just cheering and patting him on the back, like he graduated high school or made the winning touchdown at a football game,” she said. “I thought, what have I done? Is this the world I am creating for my children, a world where someone can get away with murder because of the color of their skin?”
The woman’s decision resulted in a mistrial, meaning Resiles will go back on trial shortly with a new jury.
This is the case we know about…but we don’t know how many cases have been decided in recent years by juries who are deciding not to interpret the law, but to BE the law. (To be fair, I have no idea whether it’s 5 cases, 500 or 5,000…but it’s not zero).
In the book of Genesis in the Old Testament, the rape of Dinah is recorded. Dinah’s brothers promise to give her in marriage to the rapist and join tribes, if only the men of the rapists tribe will become circumcised
Picking up at Genesis 32:25
Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. 26 They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where. 28 They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields. 29 They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses.
If you’re not familiar with the Bible, the lesson of scripture here is not that God is OK with this…instead, this passage introduces the idea that you can’t just slaughter a city and carry off their stuff because of the crimes of one person.
The world got better because of that idea.
But if juries refuse to do their jobs, we’ll see mob violence return.
If you think cities are bad now, wait until we hit Hatfield and McCoy cycles of violence if juries regularly deliver injust verdicts. Not everyone will take seeing the murder of a loved one laying down.
The phrase “threat to democracy” is widely overblown and over-used.
This time, it applies.
[four]
A major sting last week freed five underage girls from sex trafficking and put 30 sex offenders behind bars.
The annual operation sponsored by the U.S. Marshals, dubbed "Operation Boo Dat," took place from mid-October to mid-December around the New Orleans area along with several Louisiana police and sheriff departments. The five missing girls found ranged from ages 14 to 17, according to a U.S. Marshal news release on Dec. 27.
One of the girls found was a 16-year-old who had left her home by allegedly stealing a relative's vehicle and handgun, according to the release. She was found at a New Orleans home, living with several adults, including a strip club dancer, the agency said.
According to the agency, a second recovery included a 14-year-old "with possible sex trafficking ties" found in New Orleans alongside a 17- and 15-year-old. The trio said they were stranded by adult males because one of the men's cousins was shot. A third recovery found a 15-year-old runaway with "prior human sex trafficking issues" in Baton Rogue, Louisiana, but their sex trafficker had recently been murdered.
A fourth and fifth recovery found two sisters, ages 15 and 16, in a Baton Rouge apartment who, "may be victims of adult(s) felony criminal sexual activities," the agency added.
The nonprofit Together Freedom, which tracks domestic sex trafficking stats, puts the number of minors forced into sex work between 30,000 and 650,000, with many at-risk children being “groomed” to run away to a predatory adult, only to be trapped in a living hell.
There’s an odd attitude I see reflected on social media that sex trafficking minors is simply a “conspiracy theory,” due in part (I’m sure) to the debacle of PizzaGate, an extremely odd internet conspiracy theory that resulted in a man storming a Washington D.C. Pizza restaurant with a rifle…to free the children trapped in the basement…only to discover Comet Pizza had no basement.
But we can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater here, considering Pedophile Island is real, the guy who ran it died under mysterious circumstances and the charges against the prison guards who were allegedly negligent (or in on) his death have been dropped with no explanation…
…and, well, a Prince of England visited and may wind up in court very soon.
Not believing sex trafficking is happening, in the face of the headlines, is the real conspiracy theory.
[five]
One of the largest ponzi schemes in history is facing decades in prison, a significant story that…somehow has been largely ignored.
Elizabeth Holmes has been found guilty of defrauding investors as founder and CEO of Theranos. After four months of court proceedings and seven days of deliberations, the jury has reached a verdict that will have lasting implications in Silicon Valley and beyond.
The former youngest and wealthiest female self-made billionaire was tried for two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud. Holmes was found guilty of conspiring to defraud investors, as well as defrauding investors from the DeVos family, hedge fund manager Brian Grossman and former estate and trust attorney Dan Mosely. She was not found guilty of charges related to defrauding patients.
Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 after dropping out of Stanford. She pitched investors and partners on technology that would revolutionize the healthcare system -- instead of drawing blood intravenously and waiting days for test results, her technology would prick a tiny bit of blood and instantly conduct dozens of tests on it. Soon she was the CEO of a company with a $10 billion valuation, but there was one problem: the technology didn't work.
The case should have received much more attention than it did (but then again, there were an unusual number of high profile cases in 2021), but perhaps the forthcoming movie on the scandal saga, starring Jennifer Lawrence, will tell the story to more folks than the under-reported headlines did.
Until the next one,
-sth