blindndead
NES Member
Ghost hunting
Firing a large-caliber handgun three times in a residential neighborhood, blaming it on an imaginary home invader and sending police on an exhaustive manhunt for a ghost would earn anyone an immediate trip to the local jail and a date before a judge.
Well, almost anyone.
Jennifer Smith, 33, of 82 Midland Road, Somerset, is suspected of exactly those crimes. But instead of being arrested after receiving treatment for an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to her arm, Smith, the wife of a local police officer, was instead merely given a summons by Somerset police to appear in Fall River District Court before a magistrate on Feb. 10, leaving many to wonder whether she was granted preferential treatment because of her connections to law enforcement.
Smith called police on Dec. 4 to report a home invasion. She said after hearing a noise, she retrieved a gun in the home, but the intruder was able to wrest it away from her. After threatening to kill her, the intruder shot her and ran from the home, Smith said, according to police. Assuming the “Hispanic man” Smith described as her supposed attacker was still in the area, police fanned out in a massive manhunt that included nearly 50 local and state officers, a K-9 unit and a helicopter, and consumed about 500 hours of personnel time from a dozen police agencies.
Finding nothing, police interviewed Smith several times, uncovering inconsistencies in her story. It turns out Smith accidentally fired a .357 revolver after hearing a suspicious noise, police said. She then intentionally fired twice more, once through a window where she said the phantom attacker entered, according to Somerset Police Chief Joseph Ferreira. She went so far in her apparent cover-up as to actually describe the attacker to a sketch artist, who distributed the resulting image the following morning.
After all the trouble Smith allegedly put local police through and the potential danger she may have put the town in by needlessly occupying the authorities — not to mention the expense the town and state incurred — she was granted the privilege of staying out of jail and isn’t even scheduled to go before a magistrate for a probable cause hearing until Feb. 10. That will be the first time she answers to charges of filing a false report and lying to police, a felony. Strangely, firing a weapon inside a residence isn’t even expected to be among the charges. Perhaps she could be forgiven the first, inadvertent shot, but the two intentional shots would certainly warrant a charge.
And why would she be merely summonsed to a probable cause hearing? A brief scan of the police report makes it obvious officers had more than enough probable cause to charge Smith with several crimes. While she is certainly innocent until proven guilty, the evidence pointing toward her actions certainly seems strong enough to warrant an arrest.
The amount of time that will have passed between the alleged crimes and the first hearing could make it very difficult for prosecutors to even argue for bail, seeing as the defendant will already have been free for more than two months. How could they then justify arguing she needs to be held pending bail?
Capt. John Solomito defends the department’s actions, saying it is not unusual to issue a summons, even for a felony charge. “There are other reasons I don’t want to discuss,” Solomito said. “There are issues that go into her personal life.”
The same could likely be said about anyone accused of such serious crimes. There are often mitigating circumstances and more to the story than it first appears. That’s why the criminal justice system works the way it does. Those issues should be presented when the accused is charged with the crimes. It is up to the judge to determine whether the defendant should be remanded or released pending trial. It is up to the police to immediately apprehend a potential criminal.
http://www.heraldnews.com/opinions/x985681018/OUR-VIEW-Ghost-hunting
Firing a large-caliber handgun three times in a residential neighborhood, blaming it on an imaginary home invader and sending police on an exhaustive manhunt for a ghost would earn anyone an immediate trip to the local jail and a date before a judge.
Well, almost anyone.
Jennifer Smith, 33, of 82 Midland Road, Somerset, is suspected of exactly those crimes. But instead of being arrested after receiving treatment for an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to her arm, Smith, the wife of a local police officer, was instead merely given a summons by Somerset police to appear in Fall River District Court before a magistrate on Feb. 10, leaving many to wonder whether she was granted preferential treatment because of her connections to law enforcement.
Smith called police on Dec. 4 to report a home invasion. She said after hearing a noise, she retrieved a gun in the home, but the intruder was able to wrest it away from her. After threatening to kill her, the intruder shot her and ran from the home, Smith said, according to police. Assuming the “Hispanic man” Smith described as her supposed attacker was still in the area, police fanned out in a massive manhunt that included nearly 50 local and state officers, a K-9 unit and a helicopter, and consumed about 500 hours of personnel time from a dozen police agencies.
Finding nothing, police interviewed Smith several times, uncovering inconsistencies in her story. It turns out Smith accidentally fired a .357 revolver after hearing a suspicious noise, police said. She then intentionally fired twice more, once through a window where she said the phantom attacker entered, according to Somerset Police Chief Joseph Ferreira. She went so far in her apparent cover-up as to actually describe the attacker to a sketch artist, who distributed the resulting image the following morning.
After all the trouble Smith allegedly put local police through and the potential danger she may have put the town in by needlessly occupying the authorities — not to mention the expense the town and state incurred — she was granted the privilege of staying out of jail and isn’t even scheduled to go before a magistrate for a probable cause hearing until Feb. 10. That will be the first time she answers to charges of filing a false report and lying to police, a felony. Strangely, firing a weapon inside a residence isn’t even expected to be among the charges. Perhaps she could be forgiven the first, inadvertent shot, but the two intentional shots would certainly warrant a charge.
And why would she be merely summonsed to a probable cause hearing? A brief scan of the police report makes it obvious officers had more than enough probable cause to charge Smith with several crimes. While she is certainly innocent until proven guilty, the evidence pointing toward her actions certainly seems strong enough to warrant an arrest.
The amount of time that will have passed between the alleged crimes and the first hearing could make it very difficult for prosecutors to even argue for bail, seeing as the defendant will already have been free for more than two months. How could they then justify arguing she needs to be held pending bail?
Capt. John Solomito defends the department’s actions, saying it is not unusual to issue a summons, even for a felony charge. “There are other reasons I don’t want to discuss,” Solomito said. “There are issues that go into her personal life.”
The same could likely be said about anyone accused of such serious crimes. There are often mitigating circumstances and more to the story than it first appears. That’s why the criminal justice system works the way it does. Those issues should be presented when the accused is charged with the crimes. It is up to the judge to determine whether the defendant should be remanded or released pending trial. It is up to the police to immediately apprehend a potential criminal.
http://www.heraldnews.com/opinions/x985681018/OUR-VIEW-Ghost-hunting
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