The Denver bar owner discussed in this post has made a plea bargain with the Denver Dumb Asses District Attorney. Christou pled to a tampering with evidence charge. (thanks to reader DZ for the tip) Want to know what the basis was?
"But prosecutors agreed Tuesday to dismiss that charge in return for his plea to tampering with evidence, a class 6 felony. The tampering charge stemmed from an allegation that Christou picked up a gunshell casing at the shooting scene and put it in his pocket." (emphasis mine)
I wonder how many cops have ran afoul of internal affairs for doing the same damn thing? (For you youngins out there, it was not an uncommon event for a cop to pick up his shell casings after or sometimes in the middle of a gunfight . It goes back to the way they were trained & those responses kicking in in real situations)
It's a deferred sentence & as long as Christou keeps his nose clean for the next two years the charges will be dismissed. So only 2 more years till he can legally own a gun for self defense. They originally tried for first degree attempted murder but the judge through that charge out. They agreed to the plea bargain because:
"Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the Denver district attorney's office, said prosecutors agreed to the plea bargain because 'we didn't believe there was a reasonable likelihood of conviction had we gone ahead with the first-degree assault charge."
I hope the Denver DA's office is proud that they've kept a person from being able to lawfully protect himself because, well, ya know - he lawfully protected himself.
Posted by Publicola at November 29, 2006 04:05 AM | TrackBackThat last line makes me think of the Soviet response to all the prisoners of war and partisans who fought behind the German lines in WW2. After the war, the Soviets accused them all of being collaborators and sent them to the gulags. The accusation was they had to have collaborated in order to survive, but the real reason was they had the gumption to do for themselves,rather than sit around waiting for government to do for them or tell them what to do.
Posted by: Windy Wilson at November 29, 2006 03:52 PM