Rosemary Extract

[XLFD]

On February 4th, the Mason County Press had an interesting article dealing with a local court officer, Rosemary Saucedo-Narvaez, who seems to have gotten privileged treatment when her and her husband, Alfonso Narvaez, had willfully committed some serious crimes:  Court employee pleads guilty to lying to police.  Our legal team at the Ludington Torch conducted an analysis on the fact set provided by the MCP and presented it in Partially Fake Rosemary and Crime where we pondered over why it had very bad optics at first glance.

Those optics would only get worse under further analysis of 79th District Court records and how Rosemary's court seemed to give some good breaks to her two boys also, Xavier and Marcos, allowing them to establish quite a record of crimes large and small that had the same legal taint when they came to dispositions of those infractions, misdemeanors, and felonies in the 79th.  Especially when it was handled by the magistrates, who effectively lead the clerks of that court and have limited power-- except perhaps, when the family and close friends of court staff get in trouble.

And if neither of the three articles before this, and MCP Editor Rob Alway's assertion that "information on Saucedo-Narvaez’s arraignment was not furnished to MCP, as is standard practice by the court" and that Alfonso's arraignment records were filed under a totally false name and was also not provided to the MCP.  Three days later, the MCP released recent court arraignments, without either name, making one believe that the court still refused to release those records to MCP as is standard operating procedure.  

On this weekend's City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews), they ran down a similar list of recent arraignments to with one noticeable addition.  An arraignment roughly one month past the offense date by Alfonso Narvaez.  Now, if you still believe that the clerical staff of the 79th District Court are fair and dispense 'equal justice to all' please look at the newspaper snippet and compare Alfonso's disposition to the rest:

Here's the stats on what the other eight offenders dealt with crime(s), bond amount and max sentence:

Failure to register as a sex offender, 3rd offense, Bond:  $7500, 10 yr/$10K.

Assault & Battery (2), Bond: $3500, 186 days/$1K

Fourth Degree Child Abuse, Bond:  $3500, 1 yr/$0

Child endangerment/Concealed weapon:  Bond:  $5000, 1 yr/$1K + 5 yr/$2.5K

OWI, 2nd Offense:  Bond: $5000, 1 yr/$1000

Assaulting/resisting officer:  Bond:  $5000, 2 yr/$2K

Driving with suspended license:  Bond:  $1500, 93 days/$500

OWI, 2nd Offense:  Bond $2500, 1 yr/$1000

Meanwhile, Alfonso Narvaez was charged with failure to stop (max penalty:  1 yr/$1K), driving with no license second offense (93 days/$500), he also should have been charged with lying to a police officer since he conspired with his court clerk wife (another crime) to avoid responsibility (2 yr/$5K).  Our talented prosecuting attorney would likely tack on a lot more offenses, including notifying ICE, if his heart was really into it as he is when the perp is not a part of his extended legal familia.  

Except for the guy who regularly fails to register his sex offender status, in the eye of the law, Alfonso has committed the worst act(s) in toto, yet his bond was set at zero (Bond for the other eight:  mean media and mode are all over $4000); personal recognizance for an illegal alien who seems at first glance to be the most likely flight risk among those arraigned.  Similarly, other than the RSO, it has taken the longest time by far to get Alfonso in the arraignment process as he was caught in his crimes on January 9th (not 7th, when he perpetrated them). 

Maybe his undocumented status prevents him from getting a speedy trial like American citizens have a right to, although he doesn't need that because of the courtesy extended by never jailing him due to being trusted on his own recognizance by a court magistrate who does not have the authority to rule on such matters. 

Favoritism?  Injustice for those not treated the same?  You decide.

[Freedom Seeker]

Thanks for the summary, XLFD. After comparing the sentences in the LDN, how can one say more (than what was in Rosemary's Babies) except that maybe his sentence is in limbo and ICE may appear at his hearing on February 11. That would be just.

[Willy]

The 78th district court needs to be investigated. How many other illegals are being treated like feather pillows? Why no bond, unlike Mr.Latimer whose bond was $1500 for driving with a revoked license. Why is the illegal not being arrested and charged with breaking immigration laws?  This is disgusting. Where's the LDN when this type of corruption raises it's ugly  head. I forgot, the LDN is part of the corruption. If this is not settled according to the law then we no longer have a country, only a boarding house for every transient, and criminal who wants to take advantage of the American people. We are in deep sh_t. Thanks X for checking into this situation.

[Pheonix Emory]

This case appears to reek of  favoritism and privilege (perhaps even bribery who knows).  Clearly the other people who allegedly broke the law did not receive equal "justice."

There was a time I would have thought this was just small town corruption and does not apply to the larger whole of society.  Tragically I read accounts daily of how people receive favoritism and those in law enforcement look the other way for their family/friends and coworkers.  There isn't a check and balance system large enough to investigate these cases and not enough honest officials to stop those who operate this way.  I was told that prosecutors do not have to charge people with crimes (Office of Jessica Cooper, Oakland County MI).  They are not obligated to charge people with all of the crimes they commit either.  Interesting given they use the number of convictions  to say they are tough on crime (the crimes of their choosing) and run for re-election.  When you are controlling the numbers it is easy to come up with attractive statistics.

I have long thought that cases need to be heard by random selection in a state with identifying factors redacted so those in positions of authority can not extend favoritism.  Law enforcement members who can be reasonably shown to have not enforced the law equally need to be prosecutable by the random system and and held accountable for their favoritism.  Until that time, those with money and power will continue to manipulate the system.

Quoting a brilliant movie line, "this is some fucked up shit."  Thank you Samuel L. Jackson for loaning me your lines.