🚀 go-pugleaf

On Mon, 06 Jul 1998 04:45:22 GMT, E. Faubion <in@the.sig> wrote:
>eta@my-dejanews.com (Eric Anderson) wrote:
>
>>>The ratio of the actual recorded rate (as in a test)
>
>>The rate of what?  
>
>Never mind.  It's obviously beyond you.
>
>>No, but you're dealing with someone with a solid grounding in basic (and even
>>some quantum) physics, and I recognize that this is something you're missing.
>>Pretty odd considering your claim to "expertise" in this area.
>
>In 1992 I wrote a computer program for accident investigators and the
>last update was last year.  Seems odd I could write something like
>that and have it reviewed in a national police magazine if I didn't
>have at least some understanding of the subject.  Perhaps I should
>have consulted you first?  We could have marketed it as a game. :=]
>
>>I've visited their excellent site.  I'd vastly prefer to be driving with the
>>clientele of their site than the clientele of yours. 
>
>Naturally.
>
>> From what I've seen their
>>data is from external sources and any interpretations are no more biased than
>>those on your site.
>
>Naturally.
>
>>You'll not find me arguing that seatbelts are a bad thing or that it doesn't
>>make sense that death rates would go down from wearing them.  But they'll have
>>no impact whatsoever on accident rates,
>
>Naturally.  I don't recall anyone saying they did.  All they do is
>improve the odds of survival in a crash.
>
>>and I think that's what we need to
>>focus on in the speed debate.  Nobody here is arguing that going faster will
>>not result in more damage in the event of an accident, or that seatbelts will
>>not prevent some injuries.  We're arguing whether or not speed in and of itself
>>is primarily *responsible* for a significant number of accidents (as opposed to
>>fatalities).
>
>Speeding does cause crashes.  That the speeding crowd doesn't
>acknowledge that is not surprising however thankfully the courts of
>this land aren't blinded by that kind of bias and routinely render
>fair verdicts in these cases.
>
>>>>No, I want to drive at a fast, safe, and reasonable speed (which is entirely
>>>>possible) without being unreasonably penalized for doing so.
>
>>>Same thing.
>
>>Not at all.
>
>Sure it is.  Maybe you soothed your conscience with the semantics but
>it is still very much the same thing. 
>
>Someone says hi:
>
>http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/6123/victim.jpg
>
>

Someone says, "Where do policemen come from?"

Verdict is split in
 beating trial of 2
 ex-Marines



 By Valerie Alvord 
 STAFF WRITER 

 July 8, 1998 


 One former Marine was found guilty and
 another was acquitted in federal court
 yesterday of charges related to the
 beating of a farm worker in Oceanside
 four years ago.

 Mark Adam Burton, 24, had admitted on
 the witness stand that, while on a raid of
 a migrant camp with four fellow Marines,
 he punched Francisco Morales Ramirez,
 64. But Burton said he was following
 orders.

 Jurors found him guilty of three of five
 counts related to assault, civil rights
 violations and lying to investigators.

 Charles Frederick Byrne, 29, who was not
 on the raid, was found not guilty of
 helping in a later cover-up.

 He had been accused of providing an
 alibi for the men who went on the raid.

 "I'm just glad for it all to be over," Byrne
 said after the verdict.

 In court, he smiled as the verdict was
 read and shook hands with his attorney,
 Jeremy Warren.

 Since the raid, Byrne left the Marine
 Corps and became a Carlsbad police
 officer, but lost his job when he was
 indicted in the cover-up.

 His attorney would not say whether
 Byrne would try to get his job back.
 Byrne still could face trial on a second
 count relating to the incident.

 The U.S. prosecutor, Amalia Meza, said
 she looks forward to "resolving the count
 that remains. There could be a second
 trial. Justice prevailed with regard to
 Mr. Burton."

 Jurors contacted after the trial refused
 to say specifically how they arrived at
 their split decision.

 "It was difficult," said one. "I don't think
 any of us left here today with a good
 feeling."

 The juror, who did not want to be named,
 said the evidence "didn't support finding
 Byrne guilty," but added: "Wherever he
 goes in life, he'll be treated as someone
 who was once indicted on these charges."

 Michael Roake, Burton's attorney, said
 one juror who spoke with him indicated
 that jurors found his client guilty
 because they believed a person in the
 military should not follow an illegal
 order.

 Claudia Smith, attorney for a migrant
 advocate group that reported the beating
 four years ago, said yesterday she was
 disappointed that both men weren't
 found guilty.

 "I'm not sure the right messages have
 been sent," she said.

 "From the shoddy investigation four
 years ago, all the way to the flawed
 recruitment processes for local law
 enforcement . . . migrants are nobody's
 constituency."

 Smith said she was concerned that four
 of the men accused in the incident had
 been able to obtain civilian law
 enforcement positions, and that the truth
 didn't come out until a fifth admitted,
 while he was applying for a position with
 the Vermont Highway Patrol last year,
 what the men had done.

 "It took a small East Coast law
 enforcement department with a better
 recruitment process than any of ours to
 unravel it," she said.

 The verdict culminated the two-week
 trial of Burton and Byrne, who were
 among seven accused in the beating and
 the cover-up. The five others pleaded
 guilty.

 All of the men except Byrne were
 members of an elite SWAT-type team
 within the Marine Corps. Five of them
 raided the migrant camp outside the
 gates of Camp Pendleton on Aug. 1, 1994.
 They beat Morales and roughed up two of
 his relatives.

 A sixth man on the team was on his
 honeymoon that night, but admitted last
 year that he lied for the others during
 the initial investigation.

 All five who pleaded guilty testified
 against Burton and Byrne, saying Burton
 participated in the raid and Byrne
 helped in the cover-up.

 But Byrne told the jury that members of
 the team duped him into providing an
 alibi by showing him log books that
 indicated they were all training together
 the night of the raid.

 He said he remembered being with the
 men earlier in the evening of Aug. 1. By
 the time he was questioned, he told the
 jury, he didn't recall details of the night
 clearly, so he went by what was written in
 the log.

 Burton -- who had been a trainee with
 the Los Angeles Police Department until
 the case unfolded -- told the jury that
 he believed at first that the raid was
 legal. He said members of his military
 police team often rounded up illegal
 immigrants and turned them over to the
 U.S. Border Patrol.

 He said he only realized in hindsight that
 what the group had done was wrong, but
 said that in the Marine Corps, blame
 falls to the person in charge.

 The man in charge was team leader John
 Patrick Wolf.

 Wolf, who left the Marines and became
 an Escondido police officer, will be
 sentenced Monday, along with the others
 who pleaded guilty.

 The men face sentences ranging from six
 months to more than five years in prison.



 Copyright 1998 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. 
>


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