Comments on Nightclub Sting's Trials and Errors

tempest in a beer bottle.

he told me that next time he's going to send in elliot ness.

Stone them in Pioneer Sq.

Tom Carr has really turned out to be a vindictive, evil piece of shit, hasn't he?

Run Napoleon, Run!

Holy shit, that's an offer that's way out of line. What sentencing guidelines is he talking about? I agree that there should be consistency in offers made on similar cases for similarly situated defendants, but that doesn't mean they should be constitently draconian. What's really amazing is, if the case goes to trial, Carr will probably ask for more time if he convicts.

Gehrke's right about how unusual it is for a first offender to get that much jail time. That's a really great use of our limited resources.

Wait! We have a budget crisis with too much money being spent for our criminal justice system, and he wants to lock up first time offenders?

Who the heck can afford that?

Tell the downtown multi-millionaires if they want to, they can foot the bill for it - but not we Seattle citizens.

And, for the record, we already said to stop whining about the reality that we think MJ use is not important for the cops to be wasting their time on, when we have murderers running around our city not caught by the cops, and attempted carjackers that almost kill UW students.

Going to trial is a smart strategy. Frankly, so would an unconditional guilty plea as charged. Convicted either way, no judge is going to give these people jail time unless the defendant has agreed to it in a plea deal. They may not even get fined - judges hate it when their dockets are clogged with this kind of crap.

I just don't get this.

Every bar I've been to in Seattle (this is a multi-year research project, folks) is intensely paranoid about carding anybody who looks remotely under 30. [sadly, not me.]

A very good reputable restaurant (not a youth hangout at all!) was stung by the WA LCB, they sent in a ringer and the restaurant got whacked with a stiff fine for this single 'violation'.

In Germany there is none of this. There is a 'Youth Protection Law', which nobody enforces or gives a shit. Guess where there are far more alcohol-related deaths. By orders of magnitude. (Hint: it's where they speak sorta-English).

I'm surprised, KA, I would have thought you'd get carded. They card me sometimes.

In France your parents decide when you can drink. Even better.

Thanks for posting this Dom, I have been waiting for this all day. Carr and the city are in total CYA mode on this power grab. I'm sure in a year or two the city will be asking for the rights to seize property from the convicted to pay for the cost of prosecution, a favorite of the war on drugs crowd. Think of it, the city could take the bars over, oh what fun we will have!

THIS IS LUDICROUS.

Carr should be recalled for abuse of power.

I hope someone makes a complaint to the Bar on this. Carr is out of control. I can't believe he represents Seattle. We should all be embarrassed. He's starting to make Mark Sidran look like a progressive.

Where's the Mayor's Music Office on this? Shouldn't they be stepping in to support music and nightlife?

Carr has no idea what it's like to work. That fucker makes a mistake and it costs tax payers money a poor waitress makes a mistake on checking an ID that's expired does time in jail.
The guy is a disgusting.

Great post. Horrible headline. I almost missed it.

No one knows half of how horrible these investigations really were.

Yet....

Thanks, Tim. Added the words "nightclub sting's" to the headline to make it less horrible.

*wiping tears*
@12, that's funny

I clearly recall us Seattle voters resoundingly rejecting Mark Sidran's mayoral request, because we did not want a bullying authoritarian ruling us. (The Stranger even ran a great post-defeat editorial, mocking Sidran, which I loved.) Now, with this blatantly political sweep of arrests, which Sidran's successor wants to push to the absolute limits, I have to wonder: what part of 'NO!' do these people not understand? Carr lobbied hard against the MJ initiative, and he LOST. Now, he's authored a very misleading report against it. What ever happened to ethics in law or public administration? Having office does NOT mean he gets to do whatever he wants, the will of the voters be damned. Can we impeach him? I'm serious.

The Seattle municourt judges are going to hate this shit clogging their dockets after they see how much time its going to take and how much trouble Carr is going to have getting convictions on even half. Of course, Seattle municourt judges have delusions of grandeur wholly different from county district court jugdes, but even here they are likely to see the jail time being sought is crazy because the facts here all point to a lack of intent on the part of the defendants. They simply didn't set out to commit crimes, something totally different from a drunk driver who knows he's had more than two drinks.

Carr has just officially crossed the line from being just a poor city attorney to a bad person.