Jacksonville Drug Case point to double standard for Croslins

[krkrjx]

IMO, this guy should have the key thrown away, but there is more to it apparently by what has been written about both cases than what you actually get caught doing.

This dentist has reportedly turned over info on at least one other person, and like it or not, fair or not, that's the way the system works. It seems to me like he and his lawyer are bargaining with LE, turning in others in return for having charges dropped.

Also, it seems to me this guy has enough money to make bail and get legal representation that is helpful and/or he is listening to.

So, IMO, if Misty was cooperating and providing LE with evidence like this guy is, or if this guy was claiming he can't tell anything, there would be some comparison, but as it stands, to me this would be more of a comparison to what Ron has done, which IMO shows it wasn't a matter of LE having their heads stuck up Ron's hiney, it is just the way the game is played.

All MOO.

I do understand that. All the wheeling and plea dealing, that is. He got a bunch of charges dropped for providing information; I have no problem with that because he should get something for his cooperation.

My point is that even with just the remaining charges, he looks to be more of a menace than Misty. This guy is a professional...and he used his professional title to provide pills to addicts. His initial bond was over 2 million dollars; the plea deals brought it down to $95,000.

Get people off the streets based on their affect on society, not based on their ability to pay huge bonds and hire a pricey attorney.

OK, I'm done.

 

[impatientredhead]

Wow.

From what I was able to find, he had 9 trafficking charges. Only 4 remain, with the others having been dropped (if I am reading it correctly). Out of 14 original charges he will go to trial on 4 pill trafficking charges and 5 cocaine possession/purchase charges. He faces 40 years if convicted on all counts.

Misty faces what? In excess of 100 years if she gets the bare minimum on each charge, I believe.

OK, so the charges are not identical, I get that. But what this guy is accused of appears to be far worse--as far as a danger to society--than Misty's drug offenses.

IDK folks...I guess it's time for me to just throw up my hands and hope Lisa was right when she said, "God will be with my daughter."

ETA: It might even be worse, meaning he might have even more offenses that figure into that 40 years...my session timed out before I was able to check out each of his docket listings.

They system is filled with double standards the biggest of which is the way money influences how the law is applied. The case the state has to have against a doctor and his lawyers is different then the case the state has to have against an illiterate teenager with a public defender.

I have said from the beginning of this case that Lisa being extradited for a fraud charge and Tommy being picked up on the initial theft charges were both examples of them being bullied in a way that anyone with money would not have been.

When it gets down to the nitty gritty of it, of course I agree that Misty and the whole crew are being treated differently than other petty drug dealers.

They are being treated like child murderers in a case the police can't solve. That is the difference. That is the problem if you see one, not in the application of the trafficking sentencing guidelines. At the purely black and white level of trafficking in their state they are guilty and they were sentenced within the guidelines.

They are not the first ones to be taken down on charge B because case A could be solved. They won't be the last.

But at the end of the day that comes down to them not having money which is the real problem with our legal system IMO.

I don't know that I would feel better if the state ignored the fact that they were dealing drugs and still couldn't solve Haleigh's case. I think they belong in jail.

I can get worked up about poor people being bullied by the legal system, but I am not sure Misty Croslin would be my poster child.

 

[Lanie]

I do understand that. All the wheeling and plea dealing, that is. He got a bunch of charges dropped for providing information; I have no problem with that because he should get something for his cooperation.

My point is that even with just the remaining charges, he looks to be more of a menace than Misty. This guy is a professional...and he used his professional title to provide pills to addicts. His initial bond was over 2 million dollars; the plea deals brought it down to $95,000.

Get people off the streets based on their affect on society, not based on their ability to pay huge bonds and hire a pricey attorney.

OK, I'm done.

BBM

I absolutely agree with you, but unfortunately that's not the way it is, and there is no easy fix.

In this country, people are entitled to legal defense, whether they can afford it or not. As an attorney, if any good, the best money to be made is in private practice. The better someone is, the more they can charge, and the more they can charge, the less people can afford to hire them, and the less clients that attorney needs to have. Occasionally a big name attorney will take a case pro bono for the publicity, but for the most part, you get what you pay for.

 

[dodie20]

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/...-life-authorities-say-he-swapped-pill-scripts

The case came to a climax Feb. 8. A police informant introduced Verrette to another detective who was posing as a crack dealer. That detective arranged to exchange a baggie of crack for prescriptions for Roxicodone and Xanax.

Police made an audio recording of the deal in a strip mall parking lot. They cuffed Verrette right there, seizing his 2007 Honda Ridgeline and everything in it.

Gonzales' interview notes say Verrette later admitted exchanging OxyContin prescriptions with a drug dealer for crack, and that he fingered the 21-year-old in a photo lineup. Records show the dealer served about five months in jail this year after pleading guilty to a drug trafficking charge.

In the meantime, records show Verrette remains free on about $95,000 bail, down from $2.5 million.

In reading about this case in Jacksonville, I begin to question if there is some truth to the fact that Misty and Tommy's Maximum sentences have, in fact, been effected by their involvement in the Haleigh investigation.

In this article you have a drug trafficker serving 5 months on a guilty charge, where is the minimum mandatory here? and the Dentist who has been writing high dosage scripts for high narcotic pain pills in exchange for crack cocaine has his bond reduced from $2.5 million to $95,000.

I notice other viewers have commented on the Jacksonville article and notice the major difference between this case and the Croslins.

Please note I am no Croslin fan, but I do want the Justice System to show equality and fairness to all. I'm not crazy about the idea of one trafficker doing 5 months while another does 25 years, in the same state.

Thanks for sharing this. In my mind anyway, it puts to rest the belief from some, that Ron got the best deal he could possibly get, & he was required by law, to serve at least 15 years. He could've easily gotten 3 years, or even walked after sentencing, but he didn't. It's MOO, that LE thinks he deserves punishment for his part, (whatever it may be), in the Haleigh case, just like they're punishing Tommy & Misty for their roles. When this drug case becomes yesterday's news, I expect Donna Brock's & Hope Syke's sentences to be modified. It's MOO, that Ron's will not be.

 

[s1rebecca]

What about the people that were selling their prescription Meds to Misty, how many charges did they get? Without the people selling their medication she would have had no drugs to sell sounds like a double standard to me.

 

[s1rebecca]

The lady on the real houswives of nj aka beverly Meryl she changed her name to Danielle staub was arrested years back for kidnapping and selling a kilo of cocaine and all she got was probation her arrest record and court docs are on thesmokinggun.co
I am not a real Misty fan but I am really think the sentence was kind of steep. They wanted to entrap her that is why they made multiple deals. Why didn't they arrest her after the first one if they knew the minimum was 25 years.

 

[LolaMoon08]

Usually when a defendent gets what seems like a light sentence after being charged with serious drug charges... that means they have turned informant. Meaning that they now work for LE and they will work for LE for YEARS. They are sent back out onto the streets, with money that LE gives them, to buy drugs from dealers that LE are after. There was a huge case some years ago about a young female informant who was murdered while doing a job for LE.

Prescription drug addiction is one of the worst addictions I have ever seen. Some of these drugs are simply pill forms of cocaine, heroin, etc...

I have seen many people on all kinds of drugs and nothing comes close to what this prescription drug epidemic has become. Yes, it is worse than CRACK! They just don't want you to believe it.

People dealing in prescription drugs deserve the harshest sentence possible. I have no pity. I also think that Doctors need to be charged with illegal distribution of these drugs when they blantantly over-prescribe.

 

[Mrs G Norris]

^ agree with that.....and does it bother anyone else the amount of drug advertising that goes on during JVM and NG? Seems to me that drugs are heavily promoted on the one hand and chastised on the other....very contradictory messages being sent out.

 

[oceanblueeyes]

Usually when a defendant gets what seems like a light sentence after being charged with serious drug charges... that means they have turned informant. Meaning that they now work for LE and they will work for LE for YEARS. They are sent back out onto the streets, with money that LE gives them, to buy drugs from dealers that LE are after. There was a huge case some years ago about a young female informant who was murdered while doing a job for LE.

Prescription drug addiction is one of the worst addictions I have ever seen. Some of these drugs are simply pill forms of cocaine, heroin, etc...

I have seen many people on all kinds of drugs and nothing comes close to what this prescription drug epidemic has become. Yes, it is worse than CRACK! They just don't want you to believe it.

People dealing in prescription drugs deserve the harshest sentence possible. I have no pity. I also think that Doctors need to be charged with illegal distribution of these drugs when they blatantly over-prescribe.

ITA!

We have an epidemic in our country of monumental proportions

http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/drugfact/prescr_drg_abuse.html

Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention
Abuse of prescription drugs to get high has become increasingly prevalent among teens and young adults. Past year abuse of prescription pain killers now ranks second—only behind marijuana—as the Nation's most prevalent illegal drug problem.

The drug trafficker sells where there is a demand for the drugs.

 

[s1rebecca]

ITA!

We have an epidemic in our country of monumental proportions

http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/drugfact/prescr_drg_abuse.html

Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention
Abuse of prescription drugs to get high has become increasingly prevalent among teens and young adults. Past year abuse of prescription pain killers now ranks second—only behind marijuana—as the Nation's most prevalent illegal drug problem.

The drug trafficker sells where there is a demand for the drugs.

I don't disagree that there is definitely a problem with abuse. My concern is the people that were prescribed these medications and turned around and sold them to Misty and the others were not prosecuted as well. Why not? Isn't that why Donna Brock was prosecuted? I am on no ones side here but the people that supplied them with the drugs to sell should have been prosecuted as well just like the others. Is one crime different than the others? They profited from the sale of their prescriptions as well.

 

[LolaMoon08]

I don't disagree that there is definitely a problem with abuse. My concern is the people that were prescribed these medications and turned around and sold them to Misty and the others were not prosecuted as well. Why not? Isn't that why Donna Brock was prosecuted? I am on no ones side here but the people that supplied them with the drugs to sell should have been prosecuted as well just like the others. Is one crime different than the others? They profited from the sale of their prescriptions as well.

The question should be... Did Misty tell investigators who she got the pills from? By her sentence it seems to me that Misty didn't "help herself." The only good thing that will come out of that for her is that she won't be known as a "snitch" when she gets to prison.

Another thing, if anyone did tell investigators who provided "them" with the drugs... LE just can't go on their word... they would have to start their own investigation against these other people. Whose to say that isn't happening?

Like with informants... LE is never going to let you know that a defendant has turned informant and they sure as heck aren't going to tell you who they are investigating. It takes time to build a case... and most likely... Misty and her crew weren't the only ones pushing these pills for the "suppliers." I'm sure LE is watching.

Just because you don't see something happening, doesn't mean it isn't. Misty was treated like the drug dealer that she is... she was treated just like any other drug dealer who doesn't "help themselves" which really means "help law enforcement."