Bill Cosby

[kramerfan86]

Im really glad we have a statute of limitation, its unreasonable to expect anyone to defend themselves in a 40 year old claim.

 

[James Stuart]

Im really glad we have a statute of limitation, its unreasonable to expect anyone to defend themselves in a 40 year old claim.

I would argue that it is unreasonable for criminals to get away with crimes simply because they waited out the statute of limitations. The passage of time doesn't make a victim any less raped. My concern is with how the hell you actually gather enough evidence to find someone guilty after 40 years.

 

[caketastydelish]

Of course one random woman accusing him wouldn't even be a story, especially if that one story was something that allegedly happened 40 years ago. It's that there are so many stories, and the circumstances of each one is so similar. And that many of this women have already spoke out about this many years ago (meaning presumably each one hasn't heard about each other so this isn't a "hey, me too!" kind of a thing). The rest of the world just hasn't gave a damn until now.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

How the hell do you find someone guilty of a crime like that after 40 years? Surely there wouldn't be any physical evidence left?

With the help of the police, she recorded him reminiscing about it.

A quick Google search reveals that his appeal failed, thank goodness.

Warren Fertig taught math and science at River Glen School in Red Deer. I don't know which of my classmates was his victim, but I do recall some of the girls warning that we should be careful of him. He was an utterly creepy individual, and I don't feel the least bit sorry for either him or his family.

 

[James Stuart]

With the help of the police, she recorded him reminiscing about it.

A quick Google search reveals that his appeal failed, thank goodness.

Warren Fertig taught math and science at River Glen School in Red Deer. I don't know which of my classmates was his victim, but I do recall some of the girls warning that we should be careful of him. He was an utterly creepy individual, and I don't feel the least bit sorry for either him or his family.

Ah, he was of those criminals stupid enough to not only commit crimes, but to casually chat about them with the victim like they're old friends? Jesus Christ, they should throw in prison just for his lack of intelligence. I actually recall hearing about either this case, or one eerily similar, earlier this year.

 

[bhsup]

The Court of Appeal documents also show that Fertig stated the sentencing judge failed to consider the collateral consequences of sentencing including the shame and embarrassment of disclosing the offence to family, friends and business associates.

Is that stuff actually ever take into account? I sincerely hope not. If you don't want to be shamed and embarrassed, don't rape one of your students. I am confused why he got such a short sentence.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Is that stuff actually ever take into account? I sincerely hope not. If you don't want to be shamed and embarrassed, don't rape one of your students. I am confused why he got such a short sentence.

I have no idea.

His wailing about shaming his family is so hypocritical. At the time when he was raping one of my 12-year-old classmates, he had a 7 or 8-year old daughter attending that same school. I was a prefect during those three years, which meant lunchtime supervision of the younger kids. His daughter was one of them. Damn, she was a brat, but that's how some of the kids there were, if their parents were teachers. They'd use their parents' positions to try to intimidate the other kids by telling them "I'll tell my dad what you said and he'll give you detention."

 

[caketastydelish]

Not that I'd agree with this line of reasoning but the judge may have at least partially agreed with it (the man's defense) "I'm too old to be a threat and haven't done anything in a long time to prove so", which is why he was given a light sentence.

 

[James Stuart]

I have no idea.

His wailing about shaming his family is so hypocritical. At the time when he was raping one of my 12-year-old classmates, he had a 7 or 8-year old daughter attending that same school. I was a prefect during those three years, which meant lunchtime supervision of the younger kids. His daughter was one of them. Damn, she was a brat, but that's how some of the kids there were, if their parents were teachers. They'd use their parents' positions to try to intimidate the other kids by telling them "I'll tell my dad what you said and he'll give you detention."

I knew a boy like that when I was in primary school. He said that to me once, and I calmly punched him full force in the face. Seemed to do the trick. I was a much more violent and aggressive child than I am as an adult.

@bhsup: I'm with you, man. While I might take embarrassment into account if the crime was, say, being caught having sex with an inflatable crocodile in an alley at 3pm - another story from my teenage years, though thankfully I was only an unwilling witness to the event, not the offender or the poor crocodile - if you rape someone, I don't really give a damn if it embarrasses you. he sentence should have been much longer.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

He tried the 'embarrassment of his family' bit in an appeal, and it didn't work. Those of you who think it shouldn't be taken into account, I agree, and apparently so do the courts.

As to why his sentence is so short, it was actually longer than the prosecution asked for. That's probably why he thought an appeal for a lighter sentence might have some traction. At any rate, dude is an old man and now totally disgraced. Not really much to gain from turning a prison into an old folks home. Generally speaking old folks homes are worse anyway.

 

[James Stuart]

He tried the 'embarrassment of his family' bit in an appeal, and it didn't work. Those of you who think it shouldn't be taken into account, I agree, and apparently so do the courts.

As to why his sentence is so short, it was actually longer than the prosecution asked for. That's probably why he thought an appeal for a lighter sentence might have some traction. At any rate, dude is an old man and now totally disgraced. Not really much to gain from turning a prison into an old folks home. Generally speaking old folks homes are worse anyway.

Yeah, there's a lot of shower rape going on in retirement homes these days.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

He tried the 'embarrassment of his family' bit in an appeal, and it didn't work. Those of you who think it shouldn't be taken into account, I agree, and apparently so do the courts.

As to why his sentence is so short, it was actually longer than the prosecution asked for. That's probably why he thought an appeal for a lighter sentence might have some traction. At any rate, dude is an old man and now totally disgraced. Not really much to gain from turning a prison into an old folks home. Generally speaking old folks homes are worse anyway.

If he wanted to spare his family, he wouldn't have committed this crime.

This "shame" he's whining about has a lot to do with keeping his business going. He's wealthy by the standards of this area, and wouldn't want that to all evaporate away. I don't know how badly his business has suffered as a result of this, but I sincerely hope it's ground into the dust.

He never did anything inappropriate that I witnessed, but he did creep me out one day. It was track & field day, and since I'm no athlete, I'd volunteered to work in the concession that was set up in one of the classrooms facing the field. I'd decided to take a break and found an interesting article in one of the science textbooks, so I sat down on the floor and started reading. Next thing I know, this teacher comes sidling up, pastes a smarmy grin on his face, and asks, "What'cha readin'? What'cha learnin'?"

Since he normally had zero interest in anything I did outside of his math and science classes, this - his tone of voice and creepy body language - were just weird (he couldn't have seen that it was a science book I had). I mumbled the name of the chapter I was reading and tried to ignore him. He wandered away, and a few minutes later I went back to working the concession.

Imagine him ~40 years younger, with black hair:

 

[James Stuart]

If he wanted to spare his family, he wouldn't have committed this crime.

This "shame" he's whining about has a lot to do with keeping his business going. He's wealthy by the standards of this area, and wouldn't want that to all evaporate away.

Well, there's the explanation for his lenient sentence.

 

[kramerfan86]

I would argue that it is unreasonable for criminals to get away with crimes simply because they waited out the statute of limitations. The passage of time doesn't make a victim any less raped. My concern is with how the hell you actually gather enough evidence to find someone guilty after 40 years.

Its unfortunate, but I think everyone would agree it is impossible for either the defense or prosecution to actually have any evidence after 40 years. If there is no evidence why allow for such cases to exist? There is certainly no physical evidence and even circumstantial evidence would be non-existant. Defendant obviously wont have any ability to present and alibi and neither side could really find witnesses.

 

[classical_hero]

If he wanted to spare his family, he wouldn't have committed this crime.

This "shame" he's whining about has a lot to do with keeping his business going. He's wealthy by the standards of this area, and wouldn't want that to all evaporate away. I don't know how badly his business has suffered as a result of this, but I sincerely hope it's ground into the dust.

His "shame" is that he got caught. Just as you said if he didn't want to shame his family then don't do it in the first place. But it is really just a big cop out to try and get sympathy, not that he showed any sympathy to his victim.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Its unfortunate, but I think everyone would agree it is impossible for either the defense or prosecution to actually have any evidence after 40 years. If there is no evidence why allow for such cases to exist? There is certainly no physical evidence and even circumstantial evidence would be non-existant. Defendant obviously wont have any ability to present and alibi and neither side could really find witnesses.

In this case, he confessed (unwittingly) on record to what he'd done. The victim was a minor, and minors cannot legally consent to sex here.

There are other cases that go back years and the guilty party gets charged, tried, and convicted. Another one I recall was also a teacher - but at one of the Catholic schools in town.

 

[James Stuart]

Its unfortunate, but I think everyone would agree it is impossible for either the defense or prosecution to actually have any evidence after 40 years. If there is no evidence why allow for such cases to exist? There is certainly no physical evidence and even circumstantial evidence would be non-existant. Defendant obviously wont have any ability to present and alibi and neither side could really find witnesses.

I think the case Valka has brought up in this thread indicates that your first sentence is not actually true. I think such crimes should be possible to try even after such huge lengths of time, but obviously they will be much harder to both prosecute and defend.

With that said, however, convictions should require physical evidence or a confession anyway; after that length of time, all evidence will usually be circumstantial, and in that case it shouldn't even be permitted to go to trail, and if by some miracle it is, it will not result in a conviction.