If you ever thought that your vote didn't matter much, read this story
Lucas Lanigan won re-election by one vote; and surprisingly it was right after he was charged with choking his wife! Prior to that, Patricia Kidder was ahead of him. Have Americans grown so distrustful of politicians that some just automatically align themselves with criminals?
That's what happened with the presidential election isn't it? We elected Donald Trump, a convicted felon, whose sentencing was pushed back until after the election. But Trump isn't happy about getting no punishment...what's called an unconditional discharge. The decision by the Supreme Court of the United States to go through with the sentencing, was as narrow as can be, 5-4. He plans to appeal Judge Juan Merchan's decision even though he received no punishment just because he doesn't like the label of "felon."
I don't know how Americans can have confidence in our government. He legally can't possess a gun but he's allowed to run our country. Other felons get penalized when convicted of similar crimes; the president shouldn't be above the law. And by the way, people use automobiles as weapons, so if someone really isn't safe to own a gun, should they be allowed to drive a car?
Back to Lanigan, this story says after posting a $3000 bail, he is not to have contact with his wife. My guess is that they are violating the order secretly. When two people don't want to or can't completely end a relationship, there should be mediation, supervised visits, monitoring of telephone conversations. As it is, even a phone call would be in violation of the order.
That could be why the Cardilli family didn't call police and Isahak Muse is dead, and Chelsea Cardilli's brother incarcerated...though it appears to me Mark Cardilli Jr acted in self-defense. There was a court order in place that the then teenager, and her boyfriend (Muse) not have contact. And if you read the 28 page decision by Justice O'Neil granting Mark Cardilli a new trial before the Somali community staged a protest, you'll see that Muse was intoxicated and wouldn't leave when asked to, and punched Cardilli in the face several times. O'Neil heard testimony from experts on self defense before making his decision.
After protesters got a meeting with the attorney general of Maine, A.G. Aaron Frey appealed O'Neil's decision to the Maine Supreme Court, and it reinstated the conviction. The decision and sentencing had been by Governor Mills' sister, Nancy Mills, in a bench trial.
The governor appoints judges, and the legislature confirms them; and from my experience, complaints to the oversights commissions and to our legislators, no matter how clearly wrong their decisions and behavior was, get dismissed. One of Cardilli's lawyers was Sarah Churchhill. She did not do enough to argue for self-defense. She was later appointed as a judge, and set Leein Hinckley free..and well here's that story.
The non-profit that organized the march in Sanford is Finding Our Voices, and they are listed in my side bar, and I posted the founder, Patricia McLean's interview with Randall Liberty of the Maine State Prison under my blog's cover photo. His father, was an abuser who was in and out of prison.
Well, I will try to end this lengthy post on a positive note. I just learned that there's a new state office that's been created in Maine: you can click on the name to read about the Office of Injury and Violence Prevention, a part of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
