01 August 2008

I'd have no difficulties being locked up

Nobody does of course, which makes it unusual that Lesley Caudwell does, which is why after being drunk and killing another woman while driving, she is only getting 12 months home detention and losing her driving licence for four years, according to the NZ Herald.

Yes she plead guilty and yes she is looking after her cancer stricken mother, though another woman is now dead - and Lesley Caudwell appears to be an alcoholic from the story. She was driving at 100 km/h when she went through an urban intersection killing 36-year-old Tara Groenestein.

So that's nice, Lesley Caudwell fears prison, has panic attacks and bipolar disorder. She should at least have a life ban from driving, but no she has a chance, and Tara Groenestein doesn't. She can be rehabilitated, and go do it again, and Tara wont. Lesley gets a year at home, and four years getting driven around by others or catching the bus - life's hard when you recklessly take someone else's life isn't it?

5 comments:

SG Stud said...

You couldnt have said a truer word... the horse world is in a uproar over this. Read it here: http://nzhorses.co.nz/noticeboard/HorseTalk.cfm

and here: http://forums.horsetalk.co.nz/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14654

Anonymous said...

Corrections are very reluctant to take people with mental and/or medical disorders. They simply don't have the resources.

So if you want to lock her up pay more taxes...eh.

I think you need to spend some time working with Social Services. The first step in dealing with reality is seeing it clearly. It may or may not be fair, but that's how it is.

Anonymous said...

As I have posted on my blog, agoraphobia is simply fear of unsafe places. So the judge gave an absurdly light sentence to someone on the grounds that they were very scared of prison.

It is not as if her panic attacks or bipolar disorder are untreatable, nor would they make her incarceration very difficult (there are plenty of bipolar people in prison). It is also unlikely that they contributed to her getting drunk and killing Tara Groenestein, so leniency here is inexplicable.

I can't think of a viable medical reason for her not to go to prison. Certainly another caregiver can be found for her mother. Yes, that is horrible for the both of them, but she did kill another human being through her recklessness.
I see in the HOS that her cousin wrote in and commented that he knows of an 18 year-old who got home detention for 9 months for a minor assault. Apparently the difference between punching someone in the face and killing somene while diving drunk is 3 months of home detention.

Go figure.

Oswald Bastable said...

If you can't do the time, don't do the crime...

Anonymous said...

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