I'm on the fence about this.
Let's just say that I've had a very colorful life and leave it at that, or maybe not
Here's my example of the negative take on it.
There are supposed to be the higher intelligent on the ball people, just for the record.
Years ago, I used to drink with a magistrate (local township elected judge) and a few others and would announce to the party I was with that I had better hit the road so I wouldn't get a DUI on my way home.
His response? "Stay longer, have a few more, if you get caught, tell them you were drinking with me"
Capital idea judge, drink more then try to kill others because I did, why didn't I think of that?
I wonder if the arresting officer would buy that during a homicide by vehicle arrest?
Dunno.
Prolly not.
He furthered his career by gaining a bench at the county level where his case load was primarily drug and alcohol related.
He was strict and held all accountable to the letter of the law.
Everyone except himself.
He was robbing the evidence locker for cocaine that he was addicted to. Like several thousands of dollars worth which he replaced with baking soda.
How would anyone find out?
Apparently, someone did.
He got accused after a sting operation pinned it on him, then moved to Alaska after tendering his resignation. The dolt didn't stop to think that they would extradite him.
Or maybe didn't care.
They brought him back to face trial over it.
Good judge my butt, a common criminal in a robe on a bench is more like it
He basically walked with a 30 day jail term where he got some lame work release assignment the second day and was disbarred from the court system.
Oh, and a year on probation, can't forget how harsh that was
We had a DA who took another girl I knew from business transactions with her grandfather out of jail and fed her drugs out of the evidence locker so she could perform acts of the oldest profession on his contacts.
She got the dope she was hooked on that put her in jail to begin with and time away from her incarceration just for playing his game.
Tiffany is now doing major time in a prison for her role in it.
Can't understand why, she was only holding up her end of his deal.
Later on, there was a murder that was never "solved" attached to a defendant who was out on bail for another offense. The guy that witnesses placed at the scene was charged for it and found not guilty on both charges under the DA's jurisdiction.
Funny how that all worked out seeing as how the guy that got killed was someone the DA tried to pin something on he didn't actually do that got to walk after his trial was over.
Imagine that, huh?
The DA was never questions further about any of this, because you know, you can trust a man in his position
Another local person who I was friends with became the county sheriff. I was interested in gaining my concealed carry permit because of the line of work I was involved in.
The sheriff's office is responsible for that task.
Back then, it was a process that involved a training course and an FBI background check before they handed you your permit. They only held the classroom once a month, so the scheduling for me was a pain in the butt.
He told me to give him a call the day I wanted my permit and he would hand me one bypassing all of the legal requirements in place.
I never took him up on it and he then got canned about a few months later for working outside of the system.
He only got probation, BTW.
Another magistrate took me aside during a visit as a witness to another case and asked me to please refrain from doing something I was involved in because he felt it was outside of the law.
I agreed to it, even though it really wasn't illegal to begin with. His concern was in it because he was selling stolen cars that another "reputable" organization was "rebuilding" and re-badging for him for sales his used car lot.
It was a pretty slick operation, a well known body shop that did a hefty amount of late model business was gaining total loss cars from major insurance companies they did business with then gathering stolen cars to replace them.
Paint them, detail them, then off to the lot for sale.
Do the labor then split the profits with the judge who bought all of the cars, easy as pie as they say, what could go wrong?
All I was doing was rebuilding the tilt steering columns from the stolen cars. I made $75 a pop labor to rebuild them, about 4-5 a month, and could generally do one in one hour.
Pretty cool side gig that helped pay for my performance car habits.
I already had the shop to do it in for my personal use and it was a natural to take on outside work as a result of having the facility.
They didn't know that, they only asked me about it after they saw me rebuild one in a car in the shop. Nothing was broken on that one, the 4 bowl bolts were loose from a heavy person using it as a handle to get in and out.
The flat rate manual paid three hours to just disassemble and reassemble one. The local independent labor rate was $25 an hour at the time(mid 1980s), so I could triple my cash flow in that hour.
They couldn't rebuild them and still turn a profit for that amount, so they farmed them out to me.
They were pleased to get them for that, because I had an ample supply of used parts needed at my disposal.
There was never more than an additional $25 added for the parts I was getting from another deal I had going, so each one out the door could potentially be turned into $100.
Spend half a day or so in labor and triple my hourly wage for that time.
Worked for me.
Once again, the scam gets over because I was paying attention to the money.
When all else fails, rely on capitalism, right?
How was I to know what they were for?
I was only interested in the money.
Apparently, it was the same for the judge.
I was tipped off to all of this as the topic came up thru the grapevine.
Sometimes it pays off to be connected in that business, and boy did I ever have them back then.
He never got caught, but the dealership folded up soon afterwards.
I guess he was getting nervous, but what do I know?
The shop folded soon afterwards too after the two owners were exposed and convicted for massive amounts of insurance fraud and stolen cars.
Thirty years of doing business down the toilet just because they trusted a judge.
Coincidence?
Mebbe.
Trust 'em?
Not in this lifetime
