Unfettered Letters

Madoff robbed victims

Jon Hudson (3/18, Letters) doesn’t think Bernard Madoff’s victims should get their money back.

Doesn’t he realize that Mr. Madoff committed a heinous crime against the people he stole money from? They were robbed, just as surely as if he had stuck a gun in their ribs and stole from them. I do not see the comparison at all.

Many of the foreclosures are on houses that the people could not afford in the first place, or they had refinanced them to the point that they could not afford them. The stock market is always a risky business. The recession did not take the Madoff’s victims’ money. He did. That is why he is jail, and that is why everyone associated with him should be in jail.

Nina Gennetten
Gravois Mills, Mo.

‘Straight talk’ from Miami judge

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Spencer Eig should be given a medal instead of rebuke for trying to save a 15-year-old girl’s life and destiny (3/1, A-10, “Judge rebuked for blunt warning; The Florida jurist told a runaway, 15, she could become a ‘toothless, dead crack whore’.“). She had been to hell and back, through no fault of her own, making bad choices due to bad parenting. Judge Eig did her a favor by advising her where she was headed if she landed on the streets.

Judge Eig gave her straight talk, which apparently no one else has. No apology was needed, instead an evaluation of her situation and further assistance were needed.

Chief juvenile judge Cindy Lederman, who apologized to the girl for Judge Eig’s remarks, was wrong. She should have counseled her further on the realities of the life she was choosing and provided her with further social services assistance.

Josephine Byrne
Raytown

Allow ex-felons to vote

Ex-felons should have full citizenship rights restored, including voting, after they are released from incarceration. Having served their time, it would benefit their re-integration into society, which is in society’s interest.

In some cases, they may still have legal and financial debts to repay. But these obligations should not stand in the way of the restoration of full citizenship rights, including voting. Just because someone is a debtor, that’s not cause for the withholding of voting rights.

Studies have shown that ex-felons with voting rights are 50 percent less likely to re-enter the criminal justice system than those without voting rights. We need more participation in democratic processes, including voting. When people have ownership in society, they are less likely to behave in a deviant way.

Ken Gates
Overland Park

Punishing financial thugs

What the U.S. needs is some penal code modifications to make it easier and quicker to put finance miscreants like Bernie Madoff in jail and seize all their assets.

Just as drug dealers can lose any belongings used in a drug deal, executives who cost retirees, future and present, their savings should lose every asset they own up to the amount they lost.

Suing these crooks in civil court is way more civil than they deserve.

Joe McCarthy
Kansas City

‘Lucky sperm’ = light sentence?

A young, drunk driver named Curtis Mertensmeyer speeds down Ward Parkway, then hits and partially dismembers a young pedestrian with his whole life ahead of him. The pedestrian dies, doomed by a driver who fled the accident scene with no regard for the eventually fatal injury. All of this is undisputed by the guilty party. The guilty party gets five years instead of the maximum seven from Judge John Torrence (2/14, Local, “Five year prison term in hit-and-run”).

But wait! It gets better. Mertensmeyer may serve only 120 days and then be paroled. Could it be because he is from Mission Hills and has high-powered attorneys? If not, why the leniency? How many other times has a DUI, speeding, hit-and-run resulting in death resulted in 120 days? Where is the precedent-setting case, please, or the rationale?

Sadly Mertensmeyer has learned only that being the result of a “lucky sperm,” to quote Warren Buffet, means he never has to truly be responsible for any of his bad decisions. Maybe a judge recall and civil action is one way to re-tip the scales of justice.

James Rodewald
Mission Hills

Light sentence in hit-and-run

A Mission Hills resident is convicted in the 2008 hit-and-run killing of Daniel Riemann (2/14, Local, “Five year prison term in hit-and-run”). The 20-year-old perpetrator, Curtis Mertensmeyer, pleads guilty to (underage) drinking, speeding, hitting Mr. Riemann and leaving the scene.

Mr. Riemann was thrown 139 feet, with a leg severed, and left to die because his killer sped on and did not seek help. And for this, the admitted killer is sentenced by Jackson County Judge John Torrence to only five years in prison with possible probation in 120 days? That’s four months in jail for taking a life, if probation is granted. How is this justice?

As a citizen, I am outraged that the maximum sentence was not imposed in this case. As a mother, I am angered by the message this inept judge is sending our young people. Apparently you can drink, drive and even kill a pedestrian without suffering undue consequences. Of course, it probably helps if you live in the “right” part of town with affluent, well-connected parents.

To Mr. Riemann’s family, my condolences. To the judge and legal system that would let this convicted criminal go free with a slap on the wrist: for shame.

Jennifer Jarrell
Leawood

Municipal jail serves community

While we understand that Kansas City must solve its budget problems, the poorest of the poor should not bear this burden disproportionately.

Last summer we started a vegetable garden with the female inmates at the Municipal Correctional Institution. The women incarcerated at MCI have problems such as substance abuse, homelessness, mental illness and poverty. As we worked in the garden side by side with the inmates, we could clearly see the importance of the programs provided by superintendent Nancy Leazer and her staff. These programs help them leave MCI better able to cope with their problems and more likely to live productive lives.

As a result of our firsthand experience, we are proud of MCI and believe strongly that it should remain open. It is one thing that Kansas City is doing right!

Kathy Hoggard
Kansas City

Joanne Katz
Merriam

Incarceration of Peltier

While history is replete with examples of deplorable treatment of Native Americans, the prosecution and incarceration of Leonard Peltier is not one of them (2/9, Local, “Behind case lies a larger cause”).

Peltier was present at the scene of the execution of the FBI agents, and if he did not commit the act, he knows who did. If he did not do the murder himself, his misguided loyalty to whoever did and his unwillingness to cooperate in the investigation make him a conspirator, which is adequate justification for his imprisonment.

He has always held the key to his own freedom if he is innocent, but he has chosen instead to play for sympathy from “celebrities and countless others of influence,” which, if successful, would be a miscarriage of justice and would in no way undo past and present mistreatment of Native Americans who have committed no crimes.

Mike Wheeler
Kansas City

Unequal treatment for tax evasion

The 2/7 Star  had a small article about a Liberty pathologist who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for tax evasion (Local, “Prison term for unpaid taxes”).

Since we know justice is supposed to be equal under the law, does this mean that we should be seeing everyone who fails to pay taxes treated likewise? Or does Lady Justice give the wink to certain people?

Shelley Theis
Mission Hills

Perplexed by plan to close Gitmo

I am very perplexed by all the chatter regarding the closing of the prison at Guantanamo Bay. George W. Bush, Barack Obama and John McCain have all expressed that they wanted to close the place.

Since 9/11, the U.S. government has spent billions on Homeland Security. Did anyone think about the need for housing for enemy combatants? If we have another attack and have the need to detain thousands, where would we put them?

If Homeland Security doesn’t have a plan, and the U.S. government can’t come up with a facility to handle 200 people, then we’re in more trouble than I thought.

Oh, I almost forgot. This is the same Homeland Security that handled Katrina.

Vicki Bronson
Overland Park