They are not supposed to be punitive. They are supposed to keep her from fleeing justice and keep the rest of us safe.
Punishment comes after conviction in criminal court.
Troconis makes my blood boil because she didn't and isn't, by appearances, helping find Jennifer. And as a human I am allowed to feel anger and express it in legal ways.
But criminal court can't express its anger in any way- it can uphold the law.
In addition, criminal court CAN punish. But not before conviction.
We are allowed to be angry. But we are banging our own heads against a wall to demand pre-conviction punishment. And we are perhaps not being careful about what we wish for. "Probable cause" can be as weak as the rapist's AW.
(Not doubting his involvement- but the point is, probable cause can get you arrested. You could be acquitted, especially if you are innocent. And, especially if you are innocent, you wouldn't want the State to be allowed to punish before the trial.)
MOO
I have confidence in the States ability to present a solid and compelling case against MT for all charges.
The anger coming through on my and I think many other posts here relates to ongoing attempts at manipulation of the system by someone that has the means to hire an atty and post substantial bond.
The request for the interpreter is a perfect example of such manipulation IMO. Anyone that has seen a multilingual trial knows that it is slow and makes it easy for the Jury to be distracted or possibly not even follow along. Defense atty's know this IMO and in cases where the language barrier is real it is a wonderful option.
However, MT has demonstrated the ability to function in an english speaking environment for many many years so I do not believe for one second that the request for translation and ability to speak in spanish in Court by MT and her atty was done for any other reason other than to make the Courtroom experience for jurors harder and certainly more challenging to follow. There is no easy answer on the language question though absent testing but I do think that what her atty did is such an abuse that I'd almost support language testing for MT in BOTH english and spanish. The other obvious issue with translation is that error occur and nuance is oftentimes lost.
The idea that amidst preparing a defense for Conspiracy to Murder charges the priority of MT is getting coffee, blowouts and taking trips to the mall with her daughter is something I frankly find offensive given the nature of the charges being levelled against her. The accommodation for 'business' travel for a new fabric business is also something that is baffling - MT atty presented no incorporation documents to show that there is such a business. MT and her family have extensive ties outside the US and the fact that some of her parents properties are held as collateral for her bond I don't believe would stop her from fleeing the possibility of 20-life in a CT prison. Has the State adequately checked the MT bond collateral after the fiasco of the Fd Faux bond that remains unresolved?
Further, we have seen in the Fd case that the bracelet monitoring process is at best highly imperfect as by all accounts the bracelet monitors watched the unmoving bracelet at 4Jx while Fd gassed himself to death (and when he should have been in transit to Stamford).
Sadly it seems that Atty Colangelo might have been more focused on his next job rather than managing the details of his Stamford Office. I really hate to say this as the AW preparation seen so far has been impressive but the bracelet monitoring, not shutting down 3rd party contact between Fd and MT, passport collection and on and on, it simply seems like too many things have sadly fallen through the cracks.
MOO