"Bleeding Heart Liberals" Cause Many Hearts to Bleed

In May of 2000, John Albert Gardner III pleaded guilty to molesting a 13-year-old female neighbor. Prosecutors said he lured the victim to his home with an offer to watch a movie.In addition to being molested, the girl was beaten before escaping and running to a neighbor.

First, this was not a case of a man being "unjustly accused" and later exonerated. Because of the circumstances, Gardner could have faced decades of prison time, but under terms of a plea agreement he faced a maximum of 11 years in prison. However, David Hendren, the prosecutor who handled the case, urged six years.

Hendren said that Gardner's lack of a significant prior criminal record justified less than the maximum sentence. Prosecutor's also said they wanted to "spare the victim the trauma of testifying." Why should she have had to testify? Gardner had given a clear, un-coerced confession to a brutal crime.

A court psychiatrist, Dr. Matthew Carroll, who evaluated Gardner, pushed for the maximum sentence, as many as 30 years, saying in court documents that Gardner "would be a continued danger to underage girls in the community." Even Hendren must have agreed to a certain extent, because prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo that Gardner "never expressed one scintilla of remorse for his attack upon the victim" despite overwhelming evidence against him.

Gardner wound up serving five years of a six-year prison term.

Dr. Alex Kalish, a colleague, said Carroll was angry that his recommendations were ignored a decade ago. "Dr. Carroll told the court that [Gardner] showed no insight and expressed no responsibility and that he is a danger. You can't make a stronger statement than that," said Kalish. "The guy is a violent, and a predator who shows no remorse."

Gardner was on parole for three years, until September 2008. In those sentencing documents, Dr. Carroll wrote, "There is no known treatment for an individual that sexually assaults girls and does not admit to it in any way."

It seems he knew what he was talking about.

Now, John Gardner is again behind bars. San Diego police Capt. Jim Collins says that Gardner is positively linked to an assault on a 22-year-old Colorado Springs, Colo., woman who managed to fend off her attacker on Dec. 27 in Rancho Bernardo Community Park on the northern edge of San Diego.

Last week, that same park is where the car of 17-year-old Chelsea King was found with her belongings inside. Chelsea King was a straight-A student at Poway High School, who played French horn for the San Diego Youth Symphony, competed on her school cross-country team, and volunteered in a peer counseling program. As we all now know, King's body was found in a shallow grave last Tuesday in the park, about ten feet from the shoreline of a tributary to Lake Hodges.

This is not meant as a condemnation of David Hendren-alone. I have read so many stories over the years of absolutely convicted violent criminals-brutal kidnappers and rapists, murderers, habitual perpetrators of domestic violence-who serve minimal sentences in prison, then get out and repeat their crimes. ACLU lawyers, social activists, liberal-minded psychiatrists, and now it seems at least one assistant D.A., all want to be bleeding heart saviors of men who commit terrible crimes but may really be good deep in their hearts, and deserve a chance at redemption.

How many times must intelligent people say to themselves: "Never mind the rights of the criminal; how about the rights of the victim?" The right to not be raped. The right to not be beaten half to death. The right to not be murdered.

When we allow known, confessed or absolutely convicted monsters such as John Gardner to roam the streets after such terrible crimes, we are not being compassionate or generous. We are being stupid and cruel. Because the circle of pain extends far beyond the immediate victim, we are just encouraging the John Gardners of the world to spread that pain.

That 13-year old girl was the tip of the iceberg. I'm certain her family was also traumatized by that rape and beating, as were some of the girl's close friends. Then the Colorado woman was victimized. Now Chelsea King, and her family, and her friends, and the entire community, have been victimized.

Dr. Carroll was clearly also a victim of that outrage and pain. In a way, I am obviously also a victim. I am so outraged by the unnecessary death of Chelsea King that I would in some way like to be able to take some terrible retribution against John Gardner. The entire human race should be outraged that we allow a monster such as him to bend and mutilate and even kill young, innocent children-and then we let them go to do it again.

Some people might think of David Hendren as a "bleeding heart liberal". The law has a term that I believe applies much more closely: accessory after the fact. Yes, I think David Hendren is guilty of criminal negligence. John Gardner got his plea bargain because it made Hendren's job easier. Well, then Mr. Hendren should have at least insisted on Gardner receiving the now maximum allowed, which was 11 years. As Dr. Carroll pleaded be done; as Mr. Hendren tacitly admitted in court documents that he himself knew should be done.

Then Chelsea King would still be alive, and her family not grieving. And this society would have been just a tiny bit safer, and a tiny bit better.