November 16, 2009

Smerdyackerov with a guitar*

Daniel J. Acker's mother told authorities Acker was visiting Walt Disney World ...
Whoops. That would be a child sex offender no-no.
which Acker denied Monday during a bail hearing before telling the presiding judge that he stayed in Florida with a male friend in his 40s, and that he spent that time sunning, playing his guitar and relaxing.
Acker pleaded no contest to two counts of second degree sexual assault of a child. Three additional charges of child enticement were dismissed but "read-in," which means that while not an admission of guilt, the judge can take them into consideration for sentencing.

It's anticipated that Mr. Acker will die in prison.

Speaking of read-in charges, remember Louis Butler, the "pro-criminal" Supreme Court justice?
Once Wis. Stat. § 973.20(1g)(b)'s definition of "read-in crimes" is considered, not in isolation but together with this surrounding statutory language, a plain reading of § 973.20 in its full context clearly indicates that by agreeing to a read-in, a defendant agrees to have his or her criminal conduct considered at sentencing, not just to have some words, devoid of such context and meaning, read out loud by a court. It is further clear that a defendant's agreement that his or her criminal conduct is to be considered must logically entail an implicit admission by the defendant that such criminal conduct by the defendant exists.
State v. Straszkowski, 2008 WI 65, ¶111 (Butler, J., concurring) (emphases in original).

That doesn't sound terribly "pro-criminal" to me, which is more than likely why Justice Annette Ziegler joined Butler's opinion.

* Thus concludes Celebrate David Ziemer's Favorites Day. (Sorry, but I simply couldn't find time to throw together the Linzertorte.)

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