Jail time for taking food from trash

[geo8rge]

There are many posts about drivers who kill bicyclists not getting any jail time. Here is a story about who is getting jail time.

Sweet Pea owners: 'We didn't want this'
Jail time for taking food from trash ‘ridiculous,’ Hieb says
By Scott Stanford (Contact)

(links to same story)
http://media.steamboatpilot.com/drudge/food.html?local_news
http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2006/sep/02/sweet_pea_owners_we_didnt_want/

[Blue Order]

It's anazing that you can't get many prosecutors to take real crimes-- including assault and vehicular homicide-- seriously, and then along comes this power-drunk ***** who decides that dumpster diving should be prosecuted as a felony, even when the "victim" doesn't want to press charges.

[slowandsteady]

Weird

[CommuterRun]

I think if I were that D.A., I would be heavily on that assistants butt for making a joke of my office.:mad:

[DieselDan]

I thought once something was thrown out, it was public domain.

[nelson249]

I thought once something was thrown out, it was public domain.

Apparently this rotten produce was behind a fence on private property so it was technically break and enter. In some jurisdictions, even garbage left out on the street is the property of the municipality and hence removal of any object constitutes theft. This sounds more like a pro(per)secution to keep the people who go to the "Rainbow Family of Living Light" gatherings in line. As the DA told the owner of the grocer, he wants to make an example of these two guys. The example being that poor people better stay out of my county or else we'll find something to chuck you in the slammer for.

Getting jail time for taking rotting food is an absolute crock. Why not just have them drawn and quartered while you're at it?

[N_C]

I thought once something was thrown out, it was public domain.

Only if it is on the public ROW. This was behind a locked fence on the business property.

The worst these 2 did was tresspassing. They should have just been fined & sent on their way.

[SingingSabre]

This case is absurd. I hope the per..er..prosecutors get insomnia and hershey-squirts.

[Keith99]

Only if it is on the public ROW. This was behind a locked fence on the business property.

The worst these 2 did was tresspassing. They should have just been fined & sent on their way.

Actually some of the followup articles make it illo like it was just behind either a chest high fense or perhaps even just a driveway chain.

[twahl]

Free room and board for 6 months.

This is tupid though, I agree.

[vulcan]

The only way to rule innocent men is to find a way to make them criminals.

[tomcryar]

I think most people missed the part where they said the two were on their way to a rainbow family function. My experience is when they come through, they have no respect for the laws. They are (or were, my experience was 20 years ago in Alabama and 15 years ago in Tennessee) very dirty, drug-laden people who really don't realize what they're doing, because they don't care--they just go around the country scrounging whatever they can to stay alive--and some don't--and they just leave those people. The hippies in the 60's and 70's at least had some purpose--for the most part--these people have no purpose other than to get ****ed up and get what they can get. If that's not how it is now with rainbow, somebody please correct me.

[bmclaughlin807]

http://9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=867fa09d-0abe-421a-0050-8ae5a1aeb719&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf



STEAMBOAT SPRINGS (AP) - Authorities on Wednesday released two Rainbow Family members who were sentenced to six months in jail for plucking discarded fruit and vegetables from the trash after prosecutors said their vigorous prosecution was based on faulty information.

Giles Charle, 24, and David Siller, 27, were released from the Routt County Jail at about 5:45 p.m., said Sgt. Dave Shulz, a guard at the jail. The two had served 10 days.

"Weve had a lot of mood swings in the last 24 hours," Siller told the Steamboat Pilot & Today shortly after being released.

"Our hopes were down and then all of a sudden, it's all over. We were really beginning to accept that this was going to be our home for awhile," Charle told the paper.

In a letter sent to the men's attorney Wednesday and posted on the newspaper's Web site, prosecutor Kerry St. James said one of the Sweet Pea Produce owners originally estimated the items taken by the two were worth $15 retail. He said another co-owner has since come forward to say the items were worthless.

"As such, we will agree to a stipulated reduction of sentence in these two cases to the time that the defendants have served," St. James said in the letter to Wayne Westphale.

Charle and Siller were arrested June 26. Authorities said they took five cucumbers, four or five apricots, two bundles of asparagus spears and a handful of cherries from a garbage can.

Charle, of Somersworth, N.H., and Siller, of Wayne, Pa., admitted they went over the fence to get to the garbage. They were charged with felony second-degree burglary and misdemeanor theft. Last week they accepted a deal and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor trespassing, agreeing to a 6-month jail sentence to avoid a felony conviction.

A message left by The Associated Press for Westphale seeking comment and a way to reach Charle and Siller, was not immediately returned.

The two were on their way to the Rainbow Family of Living Light gathering in northern Routt County, about 30 miles north of Steamboat Springs. The weeklong event drew thousands of campers to a National Forest. Hundreds were cited by federal authorities for gathering without required permits.

The store has lost business because of the arrests, St. James said, and this weekend Sweet Pea co-owner Jonathon Hieb said he told prosecutors he wanted nothing to do with the case.

St. James added: "we are willing to compromise our position and hope that the message still remains that it is unacceptable to burglarize a local business."

[geo8rge]

"I think most people missed the part where they said the two were on their way to a rainbow family function. My experience is when they come through, they have no respect for the laws."

The point of my original post was that cyclist deaths were not given a high priority. The arrest and jailing of a rainbow familly member for garbage picking (without even a citizen's complaint), and perhaps to send a message to other rainbow familly members, proves my point.

The real question is whether or not 6m in jail for anyone that kills someone with an automobile is a good idea. I myself an not 100% sure it is.

[Blue Order]

The message has gotten through: Prosecutor Kerry St. James is a power-drunk ass.

[tomcryar]

"I think most people missed the part where they said the two were on their way to a rainbow family function. My experience is when they come through, they have no respect for the laws."

The point of my original post was that cyclist deaths were not given a high priority. The arrest and jailing of a rainbow familly member for garbage picking (without even a citizen's complaint), and perhaps to send a message to other rainbow familly members, proves my point.

The real question is whether or not 6m in jail for anyone that kills someone with an automobile is a good idea. I myself an not 100% sure it is.


I think that would have to be taken case by case. There are extenuating circumstances to every situation--such as, a drunk driver blows a light or sign and kills a cyclist. Or, a driver blows a passenger-side front tire and veers into a cyclist. Do you see my point? Accidents do happen, but it's up to each case to determine the justice involved. As much as I hear about injustices, I believe our legal system does a pretty good job for the most part. We don't hear about the thousands of cases that don't make the paper...............