Saturday, February 21, 2009

Only In Missouri

Only in Missouri, people. Only in Missouri.

A woman was recently sentenced to 12 years in prison for animal abuse. A Missouri state representative may be sentenced to up to 4 years in prison for a hit-and-run accident where the injured man had to be airlifted to the hospital.

This wasn't a normal hit-and-run. The congressman, soon to be a convict, so we'll call him Con, was driving home New Year's Eve in his tricked out pick-up, hauling his wife, two couples, and a dude. That's seven people in a truck, people. What's up with that?

Con hit something, declared, "I think I hit that guy," and kept driving. Not far. He pulled into the parking lot of a nearby high school, switched seats with his wife, drove home, called the county sheriff, and asked him what to do. Oh, but it gets better.

Con's wife drove back to the accident scene, but not in the truck, which was missing its passenger mirror, said mirror having broken off when colliding with the flesh and bone of the road-walker. Who, by the way, was walking home because he was too drunk to drive.

At some point, a passerby female had called 911 upon seeing the hittee lying in the roadway. Con did not bother to call 911, only the sheriff. The passerby did not stop her own self, because she was afraid the man might be merely drunk, and go all belligerent on her a$$, what with it being after 1:00 a.m. on New Year's Eve, and her being alone in her car.

When the ambulance arrived, it found two women working on the hittee. One was Con's wife, who is a registered nurse, and the other was one of her passengers. Both women told police that they found him on the side of the road, but did not know what happened. There was no sign of a vehicle at the scene. That's because her cowardly husband, Con, sat in it on a different parking lot on the other side of the accident scene, THEY say. From there, Con says he called the sheriff and told him his truck had been involved in an accident. The sheriff got another call on his way there from one of Con's passengers, asking Sheriff to meet them at Con's house.

Wouldn't you just know it? The school has security cameras! Guess what that camera recorded? You got it. The Chinese fire drill after the accident. Con called the couples and the dude to his house a few days after the 'accident'. He told them: "The only way this will work is if we stick to this story. My wife was driving when we hit the guy. She stopped and switched places with me. When we got to the school, we switched back." Con insisted in court that he never left the scene, as he was right there on that other parking lot when he called the sheriff. Except...I saw that school surveillance video online, and Con's truck pulled out of that lot headed toward his house, not toward where the hittee was lying in the road, the direction from which they came.

Funny thing, Con, at his house, gave the sheriff a cell phone that supposedly belonged to the victim, though Con said he didn't know whose it was, but that he found it at the scene. I would like to know more about this cell phone. Makes you wonder if Con's wife swiped it when she went to tend to the hittee, and simply 'forgot' to give it to the EMTs or police. Wouldn't you think that a phone on the road might belong to the victim? And perhaps have phone numbers to notify next of kin? Maybe those women were really just looking for evidence, or a pulse, and heard the sirens and started working on the victim so they wouldn't be caught in their shenanigans.

The passenger witnesses all recanted their original written statements to the police in exchange for not being prosecuted. They sang the song of Con, how he had told them it was an election year, and better if his wife was the one driving. The wife pled guilty to a false police report and was sentenced in October to two years of probation and 60 hours of community service.

Now Con can get up to 4 years in prison. Sentencing is March 26. He should thank the Gummi Mary that he didn't leave any animals without food and water. The penalty for that is 3 times as severe.

Here are some good links about the incident:

Trial 2-18-09
Trial 2-19-08
Trial general info
Surveillance video go to this page and click on link in upper right "Surveillance video shows driver switching places." It is chilling if you know what happened. The lights of cars passing are on a highway just past the outer road where the school is located and where the guy was run over.

As for the animal abuser...

5 comments:

Mommy Needs a Xanax said...

No, it's not only in MO. This failure in logic is universal these days.

I recently read a story about a black guy who stole $100 from someone because he was apparently in a desperate situation, not that that makes it okay. He felt guilty, and was caught when he went to return the money. They sentenced him to some serious time. Meanwhile, aholes like Madoff can steal billions of dollars and get a few years probation.

I'm looking for the link to the story. It'll boil your blood.

Hillbilly Mom said...

Miss Ann,
Thanks OH SO MUCH. It seems I can never find quite enough things to boil my blood.

Stewed Hamm said...

The animal abuser's sentence is stiffer either because she's a serial animal abuser, or because they're tacking on the full sentence from her earlier probation. Or she finally ran across a judge that isn't putting up with anyone's crap anymore.

Setting all that aside, you've GOT to admit that someone who has 119 animals confiscated from them deserves a couple years in the pokey. I'm shocked she only got probation at the time. 119 animals is a lot of abuse. Let that soak in while you say it: One Hundred and Nineteen.

I suggest that she be sentenced to play in traffic near Con's house. Two birds - one stone.

Word Verification: skint. A common malady of the leg, especially in younger persons e.g. "Ma, I tripped in the parking lot, and skint my knee!"

Hillbilly Mom said...

Stewletmeclarify,
I don't take issue that Cruella got time. I take issue with the fact that Con was the worse criminal, and will get LESS time. We're talkin' human life compared to animal life.

Granted, Cruella should have been sentenced to a hefty chunk of contemplation time when her 119 not-Dalmatians were discovered. But no, she was given another chance.

Hush up with the stoning birds reference. You may get 6 years for that kind of cruelty.

No cruelty intended, another 'skint' usage: "I found that possum a-layin' all still in the middle of the road, so I stuffed it in my poke and when I got home, I skint it to make some STEW."

Stewed Hamm said...

I totally agree. Con is apparently well-connected in the weasel community. However bad his special crime is - and no mistake, it's bad - he's being punished for 1 crime, while Cruella is getting hers for two. Or more - the article was light on details of any other previous capers she was involved in.

That being said, I'm the LAST guy who will tell you an animal's life is equate to a human's. Any sort of comparison of the two only leads to cheapening human life.