For those of you not from Alaska, this is about a recent plea agreement a judge approved that resulted in no jail time for a man who pleaded guilty to a felony assault on a woman. (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anchorage-alaska-justin-schneider-sentence-judge-michael-corey-recall-campaign/)
The felon drove the woman to a isolated location, choked her until she passed out and then masturbated on top of her. Oh yeah, and here in Alaska this is an important point, the woman was Alaska Native. According to the plea deal, he got no jail time because he got credit for a year of house arrest which he spent living in his own home with his wife and children – and no, I have no idea why any woman would stay with this piece of shit. The ass’t DA called this his one “pass” and warned him if he did it again, the penalty would be much stiffer. I’m guessing if a white woman is the victim next time, he probably will get decades in jail because, you know, white woman.
Anyhow, this has all resulted in a recall movement to toss the judge, who is up for retention next month, off the bench. While this may be an admirable, if knee jerk, reaction, I have to ask why the ass’t DA is getting such a pass. After all, there were two people who crafted that plea deal – the defense attorney and the ass’t DA. I understand what the defense attorney was doing. He was getting the best deal possible for his client because that’s his job. And boy did he do a good job. But what the hell was the prosecutor thinking? Why is his name not all over social media (it’s Anchorage Assistant District Attorney Andrew Grannik) with demands for his resignation or termination. He’s just a white guy giving another white guy something that he himself called a “pass”. I guess in this day of someone like Brett Kavanaugh being considered qualified to sit on the Supreme Court, Grannik just figured this was something that boys simply had to get out of their systems before going on to be upstanding citizens… you know, unless they are African-American or Pacific Islander or Alaska Native.
It is now being said that his choice of words was unfortunate and it’s not what he meant. I beg to differ. It’s exactly what he meant. And if the perp had been of any other ethnicity than white, he would probably be in jail right now.
So how about putting some of that outrage where it belongs – where this sweet deal started. I don’t know how much latitude the judge had to say no to this deal or impose a stricter sentence but I do know that it would never have been an issue had the ass’t DA not crafted the most insulting and demeaning plea deal to women to be heard in an Anchorage courthouse in forever.
Anchorage Assistant District Attorney Andrew Grannik – why isn’t anyone outraged at him?