Response to Medrano plea and sentence
This just landed in my e-mail inbox:
I read your story on Oscar Medrano and was amazed at the remarks. As the article stated he pleaded "no contest", however it goes on to say and I quote "Medrano began sexually abusing the female relative in 1999, when she was 9 years old". You have no proof of this he pleaded no contest and you have made him out to be guilty. Its amazing how the justice system works in America if you have money you can prove your innocent however if you do not the media makes you out to be a criminal. You and your paper are a disgrace to this community and to the art of reporting the news. You make up stuff yet you claim to report the news. The City of Gardena has had a lot of terrible people running the show and a lot of baggage. Although these individuals are no longer in charge, you never reported any of their crimes or affairs. You closed your eyes and turned the other way. Why because they support your paper and the relationship they had with people like Larry Altman at your paper. In other words you and that entire paper can be bought. You might has well call yourself "Star Magazine" as your news is full of holes and it is nothing but gossip trash made up by people who want to get even with others.
God have mercy on all of you for not reporting the facts and for all of the false statements you have made in this case. Someday you and this paper will pay the price for all the made up false statements it has printed and I am sure will continue to print (This is not a treat it is just the facts what goes around comes around). Go ahead and keep reporting trash at least you can use the word "allegedly" but no you have made accusations without any facts, and without anyone admitting guilty. This paper wrote many false stores when Mr. Medrano was running for council and has had to de a couple of retractions based on reporting things that were not true. Probably because Mr. Medrano did not buy you like the rest of the people in Gardena who have paid your paper to keep their mouth shut. I look forward to the day when you and your paper are eating your words. Perhaps this tim e the retraction will cause all of you your jobs and the paper will be seen for what it really is a bunch of trash and hear say that you call the NEWS.
Wow. Where to even begin? First of all, I want to commend the author of this e-mail for their courage to include their name ... What? Oh, wait. It IS easier to spout unwarranted criticism behind a veil of anonymity.
So, here's a little Criminal Law 101 for you, dear anonymous reader. A "no contest" plea is the same as a "guilty" plea in court. After a no contest plea is made, the defendant is convicted. Medrano acknowledged in court that his plea was based on facts contained in police reports and other evidence generated during the investigation. Therefore, in the eyes of the law, Mr. Medrano is not innocent, but guilty of the crimes. He ADMITTED he committed the crimes in court. If it's good enough for the law, it's good enough for a news article - and "allegedly" is no longer required.
I'm curious, too, what misdeeds in Gardena the Daily Breeze has covered-up? The bankruptcy? The trash hauling scandal? Um, no, we exposed those. If we're being "bought" by city officials, please tell me where all this extra money is before our next round of layoffs. Maybe we can save someone's job.
Thank you so much for reading, though.
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About the Blogger
Larry Altman has covered crime in the South Bay since 1990. He's seen it all - the missing model who turned up dead in the desert, the wives found dead in trunks, the high-school coaches who get a little too close to their players. He drives his young colleagues nuts with his "I remember when" stories. He welcomes your tips and observations about the present, and you can mix in a little Lakers basketball talk if you like.
E-mail Larry at larry.altman@dailybreeze.com.
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About the Blogger
Denise Nix knew as young as grade school, when she spent every summer working on the camp newspaper, that she wanted to be a journalist. Denise has spent most of the last 12 years of her career in the courtroom. She joined the Daily Breeze in 2001, where she tracks and reports on hundreds of cases at every level of the justice system. And she's never, ever, seen a judge use a gavel.
E-mail Denise at denise.nix@dailybreeze.com.
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Enter the embittered wife or family member, methinks. (considering a similar raving comment was posted in the article messageboard from "Sun City").
Yes, it sounds like yet another case of an innocent man going to jail - in fact we know they're ALL innocent. Really.
/sarcasm off
//this family member needs psychiatric care
///i would too if i lived with a child rapist
////D'Breeze rocks!
The astute dear anonymous reader might also wish to read People of California v. West, regarding "nolo contendere".
The legal effect of a plea of "nolo
contendere" is the same as that of a plea of guilty, but the plea may
not be used against a defendant as an admission in any civil suit
based upon or growing out of the act upon which the criminal prosecution is based. A plea of nolo contendere has the same force and effect as a plea of guilty.
But it may help his Osmar-Jewelery-wearing-butt from paying civil penalties.
This missive supports my theory that proper comma usage can have a calming effect.
When we write run-on no comma sentences in our email it's because we're really mad right then and we want to get that email off right now and so we just pound it out on the keyboard without regard for structure or spellinb and as the words appear on the screen they shout yes shout and it satisfies that primal urge to run away or hit something with a rock and then we hit send.
...
Commas will calm you.
Use commas.
A no contest plea is not the same as a guilty plea - that is why it has a different label. It means the facts were not contested. The reporting is not accurate if it suggests the facts were probven in a trial, because they were not. No one testified in a trial. No jury or judge resolved contested facts in the way suggested by the article.
If the result cannot be used in civil court, it is not proper for a newspaper to pronounce molstation is a proven fact.
Is anonymous writer implying that the "Daily Breeze" is more at fault for reporting the story than Mr. Medrano himself?
Medrano was smart enough to realize that the juicy details were destined for the public record. The Gardena bankruptcy scandal that the Breeze dutifully reported pales in comparison to something like this, and I'm actually disappointed that I'll never get to hear witness testimony. Would've made my summer enjoyable as I await the upcoming football season.
Oh well, ¡viva la prensa!
cfw:
Again I refer you to People v. West (3 Cal.3d 595).
"[18] A defendant who knowingly and voluntarily pleads guilty or nolo contendere can hardly claim that he is unaware that he might be convicted of the offense to which he pleads; his plea demonstrates that he not only knows of the violation but is also prepared to admit each of its elements."
"Proven fact" as you state has no legal basis. Quit making stuff up.