Ok, even as a criminal defense attorney I do not get this one. Mauricio Lopez, 34, pleaded guilty to child abuse that resulted in his breaking 30 bones in a 5-month-old baby. For that horrific crime, Lopez will get just seven years.
Originally, the family insisted that the baby may have been responsible for the injuries and that investigators got the mother to lie.
He now admits that he beat the baby.
Unfortunately, Lopez has been procreating with five children by several different women while he has been out of jail — he has a 1995 carjacking conviction.
What does it take to get a serious sentence in El Cajon, California? This beating obviously could have killed the baby, but he is being sentenced as if he was nailed for tax evasion.
For the full story, click here.
“Although we’ve never actually met, I do consider many of you friends too. Good people. People I’d be glad to make dinner for or buy a drink. People that make me smile for all the right reasons.”
************
Ditto here. I can say with some measure of assurance that I know many of you as well as I know many of my real time friends. Everyone wears a mask, but it’s hard to keep it in place among our group of intellects who keep everyone on their toes and honest in their thoughts. Familiarity may sometimes breed contempt, but it is enlightening and rewarding as well.
And the lady friend is just fine aside from her father being in the hospital and one of her cats being missing. 😀
Patty,
Thanks for the offer, but I’m not looking to offload my personal hassles on you guys. It isn’t fair to either you or our host. I also take your point it’s not fair to make such an allusion and give no detail. It’s not what friends should do. Let’s just say it’s family health and money issues compounded by people who have been more difficult and confrontational than required. Nothing special. With the current state of economic and political affairs, problems many are facing today are just as bad as mine if not worse.
I wasn’t seeking pity or looking to complain, but I am feeling a little bruised and battered. The slings and arrows of ignoble fate have been scoring blows both physical and psychic. Blogging here, what was once a hobby, has become a kind of refuge as of late. All of you here help me keep the notion alive that there are good people in the world – people interested in making the world better for all for no other reason than it’s the right thing to do. All I’ve seen IRL lately is the bad side of human nature – selfishness, greed and ignorance. It’s nice to know that no matter how bad it gets “outside”, I can still login to find my friends here fighting the good fight.
Although we’ve never actually met, I do consider many of you friends too. Good people. People I’d be glad to make dinner for or buy a drink. People that make me smile for all the right reasons. People I’d help move. People I’d defend with my life if need be. As real to me as my friends I can touch. For that, I’m thankful. To know one is not alone in their way of thinking can be a great comfort in trying times.
That is where I am at right now. I hope that allays your curiosity.
Whatever he is suffering from will not benefit from our sympathy.
We can be empathetic without internalizing his ‘stuff’.
I suspect it has something to do with his newfound ‘lady friend’ who may not be willing to be ‘new’…
… Just a guess!
I am available for opinion – suspected or not 😉
Patty C,
I think BIL is suffering Frustrafunkadelic Syndrome. I looked up that term in my Merck Veterinary Manual but I could not find the diagnoses. How about your medical Merck Manual of Diagnosis?
Buddha, don’t allude to ‘goings on’ if you are not prepared to share.
I deal with crap all day. None of is prepared to beg to hear more.
Out with ‘it’ or not – it’s your choice.
We are here. Just know that none of us think of this as
‘Good Duty’…
Cadrl,
See my response to your nonsense in the two other threads that you have posted the very same garbage. Try the facts next time.
Buddha,
Good luck with the issues that are troubling you. I was out of work for 6 months in 2008 and things worked out and I am sure you will have better days soon.
As to this punk who calls himself a man, he should be serving life in prison without parole, period. If you beat a child, you do not deserve to see another free day. Professor Turley, are you sure this case didn’t happen in Texas or Florida?
Gyges,
At my age, I have a good excuse for not remembering names…senility.
The Cake’s did a very good rendition of ‘Ruby’ that I just viewed on YT. Thanks.
“We lawyers are compensated by the hour or by the result and pound out a fine living while basking in some degree of notoriety, at least in our local communities if not more.”
—–
You’re certainly notorious around here, mespo… 😛
Just as noted in the article I posted yesterday about ‘Schools and Scoundrels’, regarding successful CEO’s being ‘risk-takers’
who sometimes cross the line, entrepreneurs are a different breed.
It takes ‘moxy’ to put yourself out there, everyday.
We’ve all heard the disillusioned public servant sarcastically say, ‘Good enough for government work’, too.
There used to be security and structure in ‘9-5’, whether in the private or public sectors. In government, there’s also usually been authority AND great benes without the overhead!
Not to worry, you deserve your success, ‘butt-buddy’!
Cheers!
p.s. What’s shakin’ with BIL? I missed it…
Buddha:
I was saddened to read about some tough times in your venue. Like everyone else here I am hopeful they resolve post haste. I join in your admiration for our regulars, particularly our former civil servants (Mike & FFLeo), who did and do so much above and beyond the call with little fanfare. We lawyers are compensated by the hour or by the result and pound out a fine living while basking in some degree of notoriety, at least in our local communities if not more. The public’s servants reap no such financial reward and perform their jobs for the pride in their work and the self-satisfaction of seeing their important mission through. One has to wonder if we, under those circumstances, should feel some pang of embarrassment when we sometimes haughtily laud ourselves as “true professionals.” I think that term is reserved for those for whom the work is an end unto itself, and not just some mundane, though occasionally glittering, way of making a living.
FFLEO,
If Bron hadn’t turned into a real person that actually makes new and interesting contributions to discussions (no easy task here), I’d be insulted.
As a side note, one of the things I enjoy about the discussions her is that the make me look something up at least once a day.
As a complete non-sequitor, have you heard Cake’s version of “Ruby, Don’t take Your Love To Town?” I think Cake would have made a great Old-style Country band.
Buddha,
My military service and civil service career were both rewarding and I would not have wanted that any other way; I know Mike Spindell thinks the same of his public service career.
You are a positive catalyst for this blawg and as someone (Gyges?) stated earlier, “I (we) miss your greenness” (somewhere in that “frustrafunkadelic” discussion) whenever you are gone. I know there are some especially good comments occurring within these virtual walls when I see the juxtapositioned green and red colors of Buddha Is Laughing and Mespo72 stacked vertically in the Recent Comments column.
Mike and FFLEO,
I feel like Diogenes wandering about in with my lamp in the dark only to have stumbled upon a room fully lit. Like a moth, I keep returning to this glow of honesty, equity and justice exemplified by the regulars. If I haven’t said thank you to either of you for your service(s) to society, I have been remiss and thank you now. We need more men and women of conscience in both law enforcement and social work. Thank you both for being good role models here as I am sure you both are IRL.
I’ll stop now before the trading cards and bobble heads come out. 😀 But thanks to you all for reminding me there are still like minded people this world. It has made the last two weeks – difficult on the home front here – much more bearable.
FFLEO,
Thank you for your kind words and you know the drill, I never made a lot of money, but at least now I have great health care. Those 8 years in CW were the best and worst of times. The best because I felt a sense of mission and the worst because of the tragedy I saw. They were definitely the most fulfilling of my 32 year NYC career. Though I was never a contender, I’m satisfied with my life and feel proud that I never sold out my integrity. My guess is that it’s the same with you.
Mike Spindell,
What is somewhat ironic is that because this child was just tough enough to live, the thug got off relatively easy. My guess is that child abusers have a high rate of recidivism.
I respect you for all those years of CW work you preformed down in the trenches and as a supervisor. As a former civil servant, I know that you were never fully and financially compensated for working those extra long hours required in your line of work. However, your comments and concerns throughout this blawg demonstrate that you were rewarded both professionally and personally.
FFLEO,
As a former Child Welfare Supervisor and Executive I’ve had a few past fantasy’s of what should be done with people like this. There was a point in my CW career where I was offered a position to develop a series of exclusively Sexual Abuse units
NYCitywide. I turned them down flat because part of the mission was to reunite family’s and I am somewhere to the right of Attila The Hun in my ideas about punishing people who abuse children and ensuring they never again have access to the children they’ve harmed.
I know of a definitive resolution to this crime against a truly innocent and defenseless infant.
The sad thing too is that with parole this turd will get out in 5 years and then again have access to abuse these children.
30 bones.
This is the kind of crime where repayment in kind doesn’t sound like cruel and unusual punishment. It sounds like justice. I just hope every guard in the facility he’s shipped to has a loud mouth as to why Lopez is behind bars. Pedophiles are the absolute bottom of the prison food chain, but this? This cannot be too far behind. Should his fellow inmates find out the nature of Lopez’s crime, there is still hope he could be the lucky winner of 30 broken bones of his own.
This isn’t a man. This is a reptile in a man skin suit.