Official oppression earns ex-cop a year behind bars

[Shana A]

Official oppression earns ex-cop a year behind bars
Case involved sexual assault of a transsexual prostitute.
By Craig Kapitan
Published: 11:50 p.m., Tuesday, January 18, 2011

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Official-oppression-earns-ex-cop-a-year-behind-963942.php

A former San Antonio police officer accused of raping a transsexual prostitute while on duty was ordered Tuesday to spend a year in jail.

Attorneys for Craig Nash, 39, had asked state District Judge Lori Valenzuela for deferred adjudication probation during the brief sentencing hearing, pointing out that he otherwise had been commended for his service during his six years with the department.

Prosecutors sought the maximum one-year sentence for the official oppression charge, which is a Class A misdemeanor.

[Dawn D.]

Prosecutors opted to pursue the misdemeanor charge against Nash instead of the felony as they began looking ahead to trial and contemplating "additional issues we'd have to deal with," said Adriana Biggs, chief of the district attorney's white-collar crimes division. She declined to elaborate.

Ohh, puulllleeeezzeee do elaborate! Let me just take a wild guess about "additional issues". Uhh, the victim is trans? And, this is Texas where men are supposed to be men, right?

How about this? How about according justice to the victim? How about putting away a felon and a apparently serial rapist? How about protecting ALL of your citizens from such a beast who will no doubt be out and unleashed upon society once more (likely within a few month's) to maybe next time not leave a witness behind to make it EASY for you to put him away for life which should have happened in this case?! Remember Duanna Johnson?

This crap they call a justice system just pisses me off!


Dawn 

[E]

1 year in prison... for raping two people in the official capacity of a police officer? In Texas, the "shoot 'em and be done with it" state? It occurs to me that, although I do not support the death penalty, the fact that it is on the books in his state is an excellent opportunity.

[JS]

1 year in prison... for raping two people in the official capacity of a police officer? In Texas, the "shoot 'em and be done with it" state? It occurs to me that, although I do not support the death penalty, the fact that it is on the books in his state is an excellent opportunity.

You can't get the death penalty for rape.

[E]

You can't get the death penalty for rape.

How about serial rape?

Frankly, I don't care what they do to him - Guantanamo, take him out back and shoot him, or give him a lifetime stay at a luxury hotel he simply isn't allowed to leave - so long as such an obvious threat is removed from the streets. 1 year is a joke, especially when his crime apparently merits lifetime according to the law.

[JS]

"As it relates to crimes against individuals, though, the death penalty should not be expanded to instances where the victim's life was not taken."
--Kennedy v. Louisiana

It looks like standard prosecutor laziness/transphobia that's the problem here. They went for the official oppression charge, which doesn't require lack of consent, instead of trying to get a jury to convict for full sexual assault.

[Britney_413]

The extremely soft sentence is likely due to a combination of factors: one being that the victim was transgender and two being that the crime was done by a police officer. I'd actually almost weigh more on the second one. If I spit on someone and they called the police I likely would not be charged with anything or at worst it would be a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. If I did that to a police officer I'd probably be spending years in prison. There is a double standard here between police (who are supposed to be public servants) and citizens. Obviously things are much worse when it is between a police officer and a underpriviledged member of society (i.e. a TG person, woman, impoverished individual, etc.).

I can't even fathom a year for a rape. Rapists should be shot. If someone tried to sexually assault me I would not hesitate to shoot them even if they do have a badge. If they did have a badge naturally the other officers would testify against me saying I had to be raped "for officer safety." Wonderful land of the free we live in isn't it? 

[Vicky]

One year in jail is more than long enough for him to at least share an experience with his victim, and maybe a couple of times more.  Fired cops don't receive special treatment, and sometimes get it a little worse.