Orphaned child: Love those FL judges!

[hinachan]

Here's a good one for you folks who think the Florida judges are so great:

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/03NewsHEAD01032905.htm

With those words, 5-year-old Tia Hernlen described finding the bleeding bodies of her mother and father to a Sheriff's Office dispatcher early Monday morning.

Thirty-one year old Julie Hernlen was dead in the bedroom of the family's Ellison Avenue home. Her 29-year-old husband, Aeneas, was critically wounded. Both had been shot multiple times.

Volusia County sheriff's investigators believe the couple were the victims of David Edward Johnson, 33, whom they had accused of stalking them because he believed they had turned him in for drug activity.



The couple had filed complaints against Johnson, accusing him of stalking them because he believed they had turned him in to law enforcement for drug activity, public records show.



Julie Hernlen told deputies Johnson had driven by the house several times and harassed them because he thought she and her husband had informed on him to law enforcement about drug activity at the Swan Avenue residence, Davidson said.

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Where do the judges come in??
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Well, it's been on TV this evening, but there's not much about the story on Google News. The local article quoted above omits a very important piece of information I heard from the mouth of a local yokel policeman: That this family had sought protection, and a Florida judge turned them down. So far, according to my search on Google News, only Fox News has picked up on this...but I'm sure other news agencies will follow:

"The couple apparently feared the suspect and tried to get a court-ordered injunction to keep him away from their family. However, a judge denied the request on account that there was not enough evidence to support the stalking charge.

The judge, in denying the case, said 'no violence was alleged and it was hard to prove stalking with the allegations' presented, according to court papers.

'Looking back on it, I would have liked to have done it differently,' Circuit Judge Richard Graham (search) said. 'But you review each case on a case-by-case basis.'"

Thanks to judges of this caliber, Terri Schiavo is wasting away, and a five-year-old girl is now an orphan.

[DesEtoiles]

1. I'm reporting you to the mods.

[liberalhistorian]

13. And just why is that?

Because he dared to express himself as far as the Schiavo mess is concerned? Believe it or not, there are people on here, myself included, who don't agree with the removal of her feeding tube and we have the right to feel that way and to express ourselves. It doesn't make us RW wingnuts or freepers.

[NightOwwl]

22. The same reason I did.

Because this poster has been disrupting, flamebaiting, and attacking DUers personally all day long.

[noamnety]

2. olbermann covered it

the guy he interviewed said it likely wouldn't have made a difference if they'd gotten the restraining order.

[grannylib]

12. Exactly. A piece of paper isn't gonna stop a madman with a weapon.

It's terrible, but with or without it, I think this would have happened.
God bless that poor little girl; the sheriff or whomever they were intereviewing said she had lots of family and would be taken care of. I'll sure be praying for her.

And I'm praying also for Terri's wishes to be respected, and for her to pass away peacefully and quickly, and to not be made any more of a spectacle by the fruitcakes on the right who can't wait to make a martyr of her.

[DesEtoiles]

3. Hey - JEB BUSH runs the state. Looks like he has created a lawless state.

[DesEtoiles]

4. Jeb Bush is presiding over a state full of murderers and child stalkers

[mondo joe]

5. How do you think we should judge the caliber of a judge?

By how much you agree with the findings?

[DesEtoiles]

6. Boy-Putting Republicans in charge of the state is turning out great!!!!!!!

[DesEtoiles]

9. Jeb's moral example is really really working down there in Florida!!!!!!

[liberalhistorian]

17. It sure has ruined us here in Ohio, that's

for sure. And yet idiotic voters keep pulling the levers for repukes, even though many complain about them and what they're doing to the state.

[KharmaTrain]

19. That's Cause Democrats Haven't Given Them A Reason Not To

Many areas under GOOP control have virtually no regular Democratic organization...then you expect them to wake up every four years? Without some substantial party building and real, real soon, this party faces even darker days.

[fleabert]

7. faux news is not considered a valid source here...

(or anywhere that people with brains gather, really)





sad what happened to that little girl and her family, but has nothing to do with Mrs. Shiavo and her husbands battle to carry out her wishes.

[LincolnMcGrath]

8. Terri Schiavo died 15 years ago

[SW FL Dem]

10. And your point is??

[liberalhistorian]

11. As a paralegal, I can tell you

that things like this are, unfortunately, all too common in our judicial system. Judges aren't always on the ball and can be quite dangerous, in fact. You can have all the facts on your side, indeed have overwhelming, beyond compelling, evidence and that still might not be good enough for some judges. Domestic relations judges, especially, can do a lot of damage. The vast majority are competent, caring judges who really do try to do the right thing based on what's presented to them and who really do understand the gravity of their positions and the affect they have on families. There are also, however, some real lulus and there are far more of them than you would like to think. It's one of the reasons I got out of dealing with family law, frankly.

And let's remember that hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20. Maybe legally there really wasn't enough evidence for this judge to issue a restraining order. Judges can't just pull them out of thin air, as unfortunate as that may be for desperate people. And, like another poster said, the restraining order likely wouldn't have done shit and wouldn't have stopped the guy from doing what he did. That's the problem with restraining orders, to too many people, especially those like this murderer, they're just pieces of paper that don't mean anything. The only thing that might have stopped him was if the couple saw him driving by their house or attempting to harass them and notified the cops; if they had a restraining order, the guy could have been arrested. But cops themselves don't always come running for every violation of a restraining order, it's not an automatic guarantee.

[teryang]

15. Judges are elected

All that takes is a law degree, money and an advertizing campaign.

[liberalhistorian]

16. You forgot one of the most important

things in judicial races, NAME. Most people vote for judges based on a name, which is why there are so many terrible, incompetent judges. I live near Cleveland, and Cuyahoga County is the absolute worst for that. If the name is Irish, or a well-known family name, boom, they're elected. And that's why Cuyahoga's court system royally SUCKS for the most part, full of incompetent, idiotic or just plain nutso judges that don't know what the hell they're doing. And they KEEP getting re-elected just on their name. And that's common in a lot of other areas as well.

People don't pay much attention to judicial races, frankly. Hell, you can hardly get them to pay enough attention to voting as it is. Too bad they don't realize just what an affect judges can really have on their lives, particularly domestic relations judges.

[onenote]

18. in the case of judge greer

He was well known from the Schiavo case, he had an opponent who ran against him making an issue of the Schiavo case, and he still won.

[Kerrytravelers]

14. I'm sure there is a point there somewhere... but it isn't clear.

What has the stalking case have to do with the Schaivo case? They are completly unrelatedin terms of what laws and legal statuers would apply. Whether one would want to be kept artifically alive is a totaaly different senario than a restraining order. It also appears from your research that we're talking about different judges here. Is it even in the same jurisdiction? That isn't made clear.

Make stronger connections or give it up. This makes no sense.

[Straight Shooter]

20. Try and stop a stalker. Just try. Get yourself a fat restraining order.

The graveyards of America hold thousands of murdered women who got restraining orders.

Judge or no judge, if someone wants to kill you because they have a burning vendetta against you, odds are good they're going to give it a try.

[BBradley]

21. So how would this do anything?

Do they just hold up the court order and magically stop the person assaulting them? What's your point? A court order isn't going to stop anyone who wants to murder somebody from murdering them. Use common sense.

I'm getting more and more angry reading these posts by the Save Terri DUers. I think I might :argh:

[Pithlet]

23. You and me, both.

What does the case of the girl's parents and Terri Schiavo have to do with each other, anyway?