Who Needs A PSR When There's Facebook
Social media has its ups. And its downs. And its downs can do a lot of damage. Via Doug Berman, a tragic story from the Buffalo News shows yet another great opportunity for young defendants to keep their head low when using social media.
Ashley M. Sullivan is in Niagara County Jail, and Facebook may be to blame as much as the car crash that killed a Niagara Falls man.
Sullivan, 17, of Linden Avenue, North Tonawanda, was sentenced Wednesday afternoon to six months in the County Jail and five years' probation for crashing her car while drunk and killing her boyfriend May 30 on Sweeney Street in North Tonawanda. She pleaded guilty Nov. 18 to criminally negligent homicide and misdemeanor driving while intoxicated.
Certainly a 17 year old drunk driver, whose conduct resulted in the death of her boyfriend, is tragic for all involved. One might suspect that it would have a lasting impact on Ashley Sullivan, one that would guide her conduct for, oh, at least as long as it took for her to be sentenced. Perhaps it did.
The Buffalo News has learned that Sullivan went to Florida a month after the crash and posted a photo on her Facebook Web page captioned, "Drunk in Florida."
Can you count the number of things that are wrong in the one sentence? The judge could.
"I'm troubled by your conduct since the crash," County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III told Sullivan, "and that's the reason for the jail sentence." Murphy also refused to grant Sullivan youthful offender status for the same reason. "I don't believe the defendant has earned it," the judge said.
Murphy, in reading the terms of probation, went out of his way to emphasize to Sullivan that she isn't allowed to drink for the next five years. "You're 17 years old. You're not old enough to drink," Murphy said.
Even though Sullivan was only 17, one might expect the death of her boyfriend as a result of her drunk driving to have a sobering affect. Granted, teens lack maturity, but this demonstrates an utter lack of comprehension of the significance of her conduct. And where were her parents? Was this really the best time for your kid to go on vacation to Florida? On her own, at 17 and obviously inclined to enjoy forbidden beverages?
Talk about words ringing hollow. Maybe Murray could have said something to his client, even if her family thought a week at a drunken bacchanalia in Florida was the perfect thing to soothe their 17 year old darling? Something like don't get drunk, but if you do, don't let the whole world know about it?
And all other things aside, that Ashley Sullivan was sufficiently pleased with herself to broadcast her conduct on Facebook is as strong a reminder as can be that teens can be total idiots, in addition to being teens. It's bad enough that Sullivan demonstrated no appreciation of the harm she had done, or the wrongfulness of her conduct, but that she chose to make this her image to the world is one of the saddest reflections of our time.
Facebook is fun. Facebook is a place for kids to show off to their friends and be really cool. Facebook is a great way to make sure that your judge knows that you couldn't care less that you just killed your boyfriend and still think that getting drunk in the midst of the prosecution, especially when you're only 17, is the image you want to project to the world. Who needs a presentence report when the court need only check your Facebook page?
"My client failed to consider the consequences, the tragic consequences," [defense lawyer Glenn] Murray said. "This offender understands the tragedy she is responsible for. She will never forgive herself." He said Sullivan had decided not to speak, although when Murphy asked her, Sullivan managed to say, "I'm very sorry," before breaking down in tears.
Talk about words ringing hollow. Maybe Murray could have said something to his client, even if her family thought a week at a drunken bacchanalia in Florida was the perfect thing to soothe their 17 year old darling? Something like don't get drunk, but if you do, don't let the whole world know about it?
And all other things aside, that Ashley Sullivan was sufficiently pleased with herself to broadcast her conduct on Facebook is as strong a reminder as can be that teens can be total idiots, in addition to being teens. It's bad enough that Sullivan demonstrated no appreciation of the harm she had done, or the wrongfulness of her conduct, but that she chose to make this her image to the world is one of the saddest reflections of our time.
Facebook is fun. Facebook is a place for kids to show off to their friends and be really cool. Facebook is a great way to make sure that your judge knows that you couldn't care less that you just killed your boyfriend and still think that getting drunk in the midst of the prosecution, especially when you're only 17, is the image you want to project to the world. Who needs a presentence report when the court need only check your Facebook page?
Granted, teens lack maturity, but this demonstrates an utter lack of comprehension of the significance of her conduct.
Alternative explanation, the kid is a young alcholoic and crawled into a bottle to numb the pain of the death.
I'm certainly no crim defense lawyer, but I would have thought that her lawyer would have brought this concept up along with whatever substance abuse programs that they have down there.
There isn't even a hint of that in the article.
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My guess is that the argument would carry a little more weight but for her having taken the next step of putting on Facebook with caption. Under the circumstances, I think the judge would have ripped the lawyer a new one had he tried to turn it into evidence of misguided remorse.
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Ahh, but the Facebook thing is merely evidence of the problem. It isn't remorse, but a cry for help.
Let's face it, it isn't normal, and I would think that a savvy defense lawyer would have tried to use such bad evidence to get his client into the proper treatment program (and a lower sentence).
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Yeah...savvy defense lawyers have to deal with the credible, not the wishful. Ashley got 6 months. She could have gotten 4 years if her lawyer pushed the envelope to the ludicrous. I agree that she should have been put into a proper treatment program, and that's something her lawyer (if not her parents) should have been on top of. But then, had she been put into treatment, it seems most likely that she wouldn't have been in Florida, wouldn't have been drunk and wouldn't have posted a photo of it, replete with caption, on Facebook. Now that would have helped solve the problem.
But trying to use the Facebook photo as "evidence" at sentence, not a good strategy. Sometimes it's best not to turn a really bad situation into the worst possible situation.
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As a defense lawyer and BN subscriber I saw the headline, shuddered, and turned the page. I hate to see people get into the trouble that they do but they do, and it was one of those times that I hate reading about it. Would I have done as well or better than Glenn Murray? No clue.
I read the post and the article today for the learning experience. I'm still shuddering. Anyway, who ever would have thought she and her parents would have been so, er, speaking charitably, reckless? Now the defense bar knows for the benefit of our clients. This can happen. This is foreseeable. One more thing to counsel them not to do.
Very lucky to face a judge with a virtually imperturbable temperament. Off to prison if she violates probation, though.
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Knowing this judge, how do you think Turk's argument would have played out, that the Facebook pic and caption were evidence of her sickness rather than her lack of remorse?
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To the extent I can predict he would express dismay at this coming from an experienced defense attorney, because experience is important to him, but he would not take it out on the client even if he believed it were her idea. No one's fool but stable in his judgments. He might add that he hopes she finds a cure for her "sickness," whether emotional, physical, spiritual, or all three, and that she has the benefit of five years' probation assistance to do it.
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That he wouldn't take it out on the defendant speaks well of the judge. Others might not be so judicious.
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Yes it does.
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I think you're all overly censorious. This poor woman's crime was "drunk-driving", not drinking alcohol as such. She didn't "drunk-drive" in Florida, did she ?
As for Facebook, is it now a crime, or an aggravating factor, for a teenager to fail to realise that *everyone*, not just your friends, can look at you baring your soul ?
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"She pleaded guilty Nov. 18 to criminally negligent homicide and misdemeanor driving while intoxicated."
Geez.
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