Million dollar bail... a case comparison - Part 3

Late in the night of February 18, 2010, the nine year old daughter of Crystal Mangum called 9-1-1, and with screaming in the background told the emergency operator, “This is an emergency. Please hurry. My mom is going to die.”

Police were dispatched, and upon arriving found that Crystal Mangum, the accuser in the Duke Lacrosse case, was involved in a heated argument with her boyfriend that had allegedly turned physical. According to police, Ms. Mangum threw punches and objects at her boyfriend and scratched him. So, naturally, they arrested her for attempted first degree murder. To really thicken the case against her, they tossed in a few more charges such as five counts of arson, and identity theft.

She was put in the Durham County jail and placed under a $ 1 million bail.

Contrast this with the case of Democratic State Senator R.C. Soles, who never spent a day in jail despite using a firearm to assault another individual in August 2009. Evidently, one of two men who knew the senator kicked the door of Sole’s home. This act resulted in Mr. Soles grabbing his rifle, walking outside his house and firing at the men. (The media did not disclose much about the incident, except to say that one of the men sustained a non-life threatening wound.)

The Attorney General’s Office, which took over the case from a district attorney with conflicted interests, offered a plea bargain in which Senator Soles pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault, was fined $1,000, and avoided incarceration and probation.

Meanwhile, Crystal Mangum has been languishing in jail under a ridiculously humongous bail for allegedly scratching her boyfriend, while Senator Soles, who used his rifle outside his home to wound a person, spends no time behind bars. I have heard of bullets killing people, but never fingernails.

The lenient bias in the ruling is so slanted that it prompted Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger to state in reference to the Sole’s judicial outcome, “It seems to me the same rules don’t apply to average folk that apply to powerful Democrats.” Now, I am certain that Senator Berger would take his statement a step further and agree that the same rules do not apply to average folk that apply to powerful Republicans, as well. In short, within the confines of this situation, Senator Berger, it would seem, agrees that the criminal justice system in North Carolina is one of selective justice based on Class and Color.

However, the outrageousness of the charges against Ms. Mangum and the draconian treatment she has received by the courts, police, and the state belies the hostile attitude smoldering beneath the surface against supporters of Mike Nifong or detractors of the Duke Lacrosse defendants. Sadly, for the average folk, the carpetbagger jihad mentality has been well indoctrinated amidst those in positions of power within the state of North Carolina.