An officer's sentence: House arrest not enough

[Silent_Bob]

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20120401/OPINION01/704019967

What would be the appropriate punishment for someone who admitted to stealing tens of thousands of dollars from a blind, disabled relative? Ten years in prison? Twenty? Being made to spend a year in a wheelchair, blindfolded?

Surely no sensible person would suggest that justice would be served by ordering the guilty party to stay in his house for a year and not come out ... unless he has to go to work, or the store, or church, or anywhere else he wants — as long as he first gets permission. Yet that might be the punishment handed down to former Manchester Police Capt. Michael Tessier, who pleaded guilty last week to taking money from a trust set up to care for a severely disabled cousin.

Tessier pleaded guilty to two Class A felonies. He would spend years in prison on each count if convicted at trial. As part of the plea deal, he got 5 to 7 years, suspended if he is on good behavior for the next decade, and a year in the Hillsborough County House of Correction, to start right away. The judge refused to order that he serve that year under house arrest. He might anyway.

The Hillsborough County House of Correction operates a house-arrest program for nonviolent offenders who did not commit a sex crime or a crime involving weapons or domestic violence. Convicts who get house arrest have to wear an ankle bracelet and can venture into the world with the permission of authorities. Some punishment that is.

The new Fiat commercial featuring Charlie Sheen partying at home with gorgeous women while under house arrest comes to mind.

If Tessier gets to serve his year under house arrest, it would undermine faith in our criminal justice system. It would appear as though a former police officer got special treatment because of his connections. It also would be an injustice to the victim.

Keeping a high-profile former officer in prison for a year certainly poses challenges. But letting him walk without enjoying the hospitality of the Hillsborough County House of Correction for a significant length of time would be wrong.

[Russell Kanning]

well ... he will have to be  on "good behavior"