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April 24, 2005
I wonder how Virginia would assess Martha Stewart's risk
Two interesting news items today from east coast posts almost cry out to be merged: this story from the New York Post reports that the "feds are investigating whether former jailbird Martha Stewart violated the rules of her house arrest when she attended a Time magazine gala last week," while this story from the Washington Post reports that Virginia is set to expand the use of its controversial "risk assessment" instrument to "help figure out whether criminals who violate the terms of their probation should be sent back to prison for years or diverted to lower-security detention centers for several months."
Reading the stories in sequence led me to wonder what Martha might score on Virginia's risk assessment measures. My guess is that all white-collar offenders do pretty well within Virginia's risk assessment instrument (and I think this sample worksheet from Virginia might be similar to what would be used to "score" Martha).
Needless to say, the NY Post treats the Martha story with levity (quoting comedian Jon Stewart), while the Wash Post treats the Virginia story with gravitas (quoting Virginia sentencing commission director Rick Kern). Meanwhile, Ellen Podgor over at the White Collar Crime Prof Blog in this post raises some interesting questions about the Martha story.
April 24, 2005 at 07:54 PM | Permalink
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Comments
dEFENSE ATT
Posted by: Jim Brice | Sep 27, 2005 6:03:48 PM
Posted by: | Oct 14, 2008 10:14:06 AM
DAB,
I am a mechaniclly inclined person with little knowledge or concept of "the law". I am working as an Electronics Tech right now but with no education at all outside of High School. I live in VA and have a Property Settlement Agreement with my (now) Ex-Wife that I cannot possibly pay. It was appealed to Circuit Court and upheld although her attorney is being investigated by the bar for misrepresentation of his service to me. I understand that further appeal would not consider that fact; only what was heard by Circuit Court.
What is the max. penalty if I just refuse to pay her anymore money at all.
That is basically what I am doing anyway.
Of course it is more complicated and convoluted than just that since she was to stay in the house we rented for 4 years and continue to raise her grandchildren (my step grandchildren that I currently have custody of )but her lawyer didn't put that in the agreement "HE & I ALONE" drafted; then she blackmailed me with the children to sign the agreement since she had "legal" custody of them at the time.
Posted by: Thomas Ferguson | Oct 30, 2008 4:46:30 PM