disgusting decision.

This is so far beyond disgusting and a miscarriage of justice!!

shit walks.

Won't be buying any Johnson products ever again!

Remember their names:

Circuit Justice Eugene Gasiorkiewicz
Judge James Dixon
Texas District Judge Jean Boyd
Superior Court Judge Jan Jurden

Not just Johnson's case - your link provides stories of four judges who thought rich people shouldn't serve sentences for raping children, killing people while drunk, and so on... because they're rich.

Guillotine.

Agreed.

Maybe he's part if one of those wealthy pedophile rings that protect each other like Sandusky.

one for the rich, one for working class whites, and one for minorities.

That is by design. Like the billionaire that raped his daughter and got sent home for being too rich to fail. We're sick. Our society is ill.

That's why I asked how long before we destroy it.

Our plutocracy is too big to fail donchaknow?

as a sex offender. But he owns and runs this cafe in town and everyone loves their breakfasts. A friend of my sisters wanted to take her there for lunch the other day and my sister refused and told her friend to google it and find out for himself. He refused to, he said he went to high school with the guy and he trusted him with his life. I said something to a woman I work with a couple of years back and she said but he only owns the place he doesn't work there at all. Another person told my girlfriend, well they were his stepdaughters, they're now divorced and moved up to Canada, so I don't see the problem.

I can't believe people actually eat at a place that is owned by a child abuser. Even if it's just owned by him he is still profiting from it. If it didn't mean people would lose their jobs that had nothing to do with what that disgusting man did, I would say I hope that place goes out of business.

every year. He comes from a good family or so they tell me.

We go way too light on child predators in this country. The rich get off with virtually no jail time, and even those that aren't rich seem to never serve enough time. Maybe 5 years at the most. It's ridiculous.

Because Johnson’s victim was unwilling to testify in the case, the prosecutors had to make a plea deal with Johnson and his legal team.

Maybe we should make bribing people to not testify illegal. It seems to be part of how billionaires get away with this.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

he gave her the "gold or Lead" ultimatum, after all, it is not like he did not have means to threaten her.

I figure the lead would be a bullet. What would the gold be? A wedding ring?

As a stepdaughter, she would be entitled to exactly none of the family's wealth. He divorces her mom, and I'd bet there's a big pre-nup that cuts them both off.

I don't think he would even have to make a threat. I am sure her mom thought this through as well. I would not be surprised if I learned she had a big hand in convincing her daughter to not testify because it would mean giving up her lifestyle. Which, if true, is its own level of reprehensible.

where cops either take a bribe, or die.

Thank you for explaining. I had never heard the phrase before.

I think in this case it is the deal which drove this sentence.

that says that after the reduction of charges the max would've been a year. Yep, the judge couldn't even bear to give him a single year sentence for sexually assaulting a child.

(scroll a little, the page has a few stories) http://www.beloitdailynews.com/news/news-in-brief/article_f707b362-edc7-11e3-9930-001a4bcf887a.html

but the main problem was the deal necessitated by the lack of testimony.

more likely, it was a combo of "gold or lead" meanign that if she refused, she knew a team of whatever hired guns could be bought, from lawyers to hitmen, would make her life shorter and a lot less pleasant.

The fact is that testifying under such circumstances is very stressful and many victims prefer not to or simply refuse to. It's a significant problem for the criminal justice system. It doesn't do any good to pretend the issue isn't there.

Character assassination is a strong disincentive.

Affluenza works in all US states and most countries of the world. Having big bucks can buy you a 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card. Seems to work every single time.

Happens to child abusers once they are sent to prison, I would venture to say that this man's justice still lies ahead of him. And most deservedly so.

There are so many secret laws we didn't know about and it's evidently it's all in 110% favor of the rich and powerful people. If Boehner cold bloodied murder someone, he'll get away with it as long as he agreed to step down from speaker of house.

(I get that this question only makes sense to folks in my age groups.)

The child and her mother would not testify so Johnson could not be convicted of a serious crime. The prosecutor was forced by lack of admissible evidence to agree to a plea bargained misdomeanor. The judge said he had never seen a first time offender get the maximum sentence (which I guess would be a year) so he did not sentence him to the maximum term. Sometimes there is not enough legally admissible evidence to achieve justice.

The victim was refusing to testify. If the prosecution had no other evidence, they might have had to drop the case entirely if the judge didnt accept the plea deal.

...which would lead most people to believe they were paid not to testify.

The reason the girl told her mother was to prevent him from abusing her little sister.

Last edited Mon Jun 9, 2014, 05:08 AM - Edit history (1)

Gee, can that have anything to do with the fact that she knew that her life would be made a living hell if she did? It's not like lawyers would "slutshame" her till her life was ruined, doing as much psyhological damage to her as they could, then sue her...(sarcasm)

Testifying in a case like this can be traumatic for victims, especially those abused in childhood by a family member. Not to mention the additional problems you cited, especially when you're testifying against a powerful billionaire.

will definitely burn in hell.

If there is any justice in the world.

Disgusting display of our new royal classes privileges.

I think it was money. Money to the family of the victim, money to the judge, maybe both.

Billionaires get their way in these smaller circuit courts. This is an old, powerful family. No surprise justice is for sale at a price with the old money.

Do you think its neat that a billionaire can buy a basketball team for 2 billion dollars? Rather then employ 1000 people at 50000 dollars a year for 40 years or is this just another form of wealthy rape.

I'm so sick of this shit!

and the judge too.

disgusting