Originally Posted by
vagabond
Duck, do not give up your day job. Definitely do not give it up to become a lawyer.
First of all, you are comparing apples and oranges. He committed a federal crime, while you are discussing the Texas DWI law (and hopefully not because of personal experience!!).
Second, the judge did order him to pay restitution so NWA is made whole again.
Third, the prosecutor was the one who recommended probation given the facts and circumstances presented to him. We don't know what they are precisely, but judges are not precluded from giving deference to recommendations from lawyers, unless they are outrageous. When I used to appear in hearings, judges would ask me all the time, "so Ms. vagabond, how should I rule?"
Fourth, do not discount the 500 hours of community service. It's not easy to get those kinds of hours. Think how long it took you to get 500 hours of flight time.
Fifth, the justice system worked like it should. The judge had a lot to do with it and that is one of the reasons I prefaced this post with a description of Judge Jones. And it wasn't solely because his brother is Quincy.
I just feel like there is an imbalance in the system. Not that the judge did anything wrong. Obviously he operated within the law. I think the law needs to be changed. What about all those pax that were scared to death? I've been on a plane where we actually stopped on an active runway in Heathrow because of people who were believed to be associated with Al-Qaeda. We were flying into Washington DC. You can't imagine the scare when we took back off 4hrs later. We knew things had been checked but it was still a scare. This person purposely caused an aircraft to return with pax on board who were probably scared out of their minds. Just because they bought a ticket. He can pick up trash on the side of the road for 500hrs and pay his little fine but what about his debt to the pax? I still think he was taken way too easy on. On a topic so hot as this he should be made an example of. The legal minimums need to be raised. All my opinion of course but this is right up there with making threats on the president from the lobby of the White House to me.
I'm no lawyer or judge, if I was I wouldn't vega on email speed dial, but the medication issue is weak. He was coherent enough to operate a vehicle, to fiddle with a GPS, he was coherent enough to make multiple attempts to stop the flight. I don't believe the "medication" issue for one second. It seems like every time there's an incident they try and pass the buck on medication.
If he was on medication why does it matter? He still performed the act. Are we saying that with medication he's incapable of being held accountable for his actions? Not me. The stuff doesn't alleviate a person of responsibility. I don't read that on the labels of anything I've ever taken. Medication or not it's confirmed this person blatantly did something EVERYONE knows they aren't to do. I don't care about regret. Most people only regret once caught. I'm pretty sure most criminals in jail regret their actions while the ones at large are living it up.
Vega as a lawyer you know there needs to be an argument made as best possible for both sides. I guess it's you and me!