Letter to the Editor by Donald Weyer:
I note that Kate Long has had the criminal harassment charge against her, brought by the Batavia Board of Education, put on pause, potentially resulting in wiping the slate clean, in contemplation of dismissal, all via a plea agreement or deal (deal is my characterization), and I emphasize the deal aspect, as if that is necessarily an honorable thing to make or do, as in the devil went down to Georgia, telling Johnny "and he was willin' to make a deal," boy.
I refer to The Batavian report of Jan. 25. Please also refer to my previous comments on this case in The Batavian, Opinion section, posted Dec. 28.
Ms. Long's defense attorney, Tom Trbovich, decided to circle the wagons to get an easier resolution, a good disposition, for his client, and in the process, not antagonize the office (I assume the Genesee County District Attorney Office). This, in Trbovich's thinking, was accomplished by NOT mounting a constitutional, First Amendment challenge to the harassment charge.
Some further comments by me:
- What, this attorney is practicing in the Old West, as evidenced by his resurrection of a Gunsmoke/Annie Oakley-like language reference to wagon-circling (I picture Trbovich taking refuge behind 6-8 Conestoga wagons in the American West, while being assailed by arrows shot from the bows of the District Attorney)? Is the defense totally abject at the mercy of the prosecution? That's not what I learned in school civics class!
- Alternatively, what's all this about antagonizing? Doesn't a defense attorney have a naturally and necessarily oppositional (antagonistic), call it adversarial, relationship to the prosecuting District Attorney Office (from the dictionary acceptable definition of antagonize)? Wasn't that what we were taught in civics class in school?
- I wasn't aware that the purpose of our legal system was to ensure a good disposition and easier resolution for all parties. I thought the aim of the legal system was to ensure justice for all parties. And that good/easier and justice were not equivalent, the same in every case. This is from the civics class, too.
This entire criminal case has so many missteps, mistakes, misassumptions, and mispronouncements in its travels, making its way, wending by turns through our justice system, that I conclude that a mistrial should be declared by its judge, Durin Rogers. And have it start over by focusing on the only and real and important issue of the case: Ms. Long's First Amendment right to petition a government agency, the Batavia Board of Education, for redress of her grievance concerning the education of her child. She had a legitimate purpose, which was to secure a quality education for her child; an annoyance that the education system was not providing her child with that quality education; and finally, it was alarming to her that the system could not find a qualified teacher to instruct her child! Maybe she overdid it, but that may just signal her sincerity, her seriousness, in pursuing that purpose to the extent that she did!
