Frivolous lawsuit and genuine justice.

[dslartoo]

Haven't posted in a while but two recent news stories have me up in arms tonight.

First, word from The Smoking Gun is that Elecia Battle, the woman who claimed that she "lost" the recent $162M winning Mega Millions lottery ticket, and filed a lawsuit against the true winner, has admitted that she made the whole story up (surprise, surprise). She got all weepy and said, "I wanted to win so bad for my kids and my family. I apologize." She added, "I'm not a bad person, I'm really not."

Riiiiight. The same page notes that this isn't Battle's first brush with the law. Her rap sheet dates back at least a decade and includes busts for aggravated menacing, assault, criminal trespass, and credit card fraud (she was arrested for using a customer's credit card number to ring up purchases for herself at the drugstore where she worked in 1998). Somehow, she has managed to avoid anything but short stays in jail up till now.

However, there is yet hope. Since Battle admitted that she made the whole thing up, she's been charged with making a phony police report. With any luck, she'll spend some time in the slam this time. Bitch. How dare she lie, file a frivolous lawsuit trying to steal what is rightfully someone else's, then go back on her story and tearfully claim that she's "not a bad person?" I hope she gets hit with the largest sentence allowable (which, admittedly, won't be much).


Secondly, a story which warms my heart -- or, rather, the judge's sentence warms my heart. A quote:

Prosecutors said Jennifer Langston was drunk and talking on a cell phone in June 2002 when she crossed the center line and hit a pickup truck carrying teacher Glenn Clark and his pregnant wife, Annette. He died, his wife remains in a coma and their son, born by Caesarean section five months after the crash, is being raised by relatives.

Besides vehicular homicide, Langston pleaded guilty in September to reckless endangerment and reckless driving. A judge sentenced her to 30 days in jail, plus house arrest and probation, and ordered her to carry a picture of Clark for five years. Clark's parents gave court officials a photo of their son in his coffin.

Langston's attorney is now whining that the "spirit" of the agreement was that the photo would be of Clark while he was alive. Clark's family is unapologetic and I don't think they have any reason to be sorry. I think it is perfect justice that this woman should have to carry the photo of the man she killed. A photo of Clark while alive lets Langston fantasize that she didn't actually do anything that bad, that he's still around somewhere, somehow. A photo of the coffin reminds her that he is dead because she killed him. I hope the judge doesn't cave on this one and tells Langston's lawyer to piss off.

-- END OF LINE --

Currently playing: Queensryche -- Operation: Mindcrime. One of the best concept albums ever and definitely Queensryche's best album. What a shame they've gone downhill so much since then.

Comments

[richardf8]

The judge handed down a sentence that actually reaches her soul. And she finds this objectionable? Too bad. Really, in our money-for-blood legal system, I find this sentence to be one of the most enlightened I've seen. As for the picture of him in his coffin, she should consider herself lucky she isn't getting police photos from the scene!

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

See, that would actually have been MY sentence (if I had been cool enough to think of the picture angle in the first place). "Here's a photo of the crash scene and the gentleman's horribly broken and mangled body. Oh, and by the way, you have to carry this for the rest of your LIFE. Have a nice day."

cheers,
Phil