So, the Swiss aren’t going to hand over Adrian Gordon anytime soon — in fact, never. Is it too much to ask that they try him over there?
Apparently so. When Mark Roe, Snohomish County’s chief criminal deputy prosecutor, inquired about the case he received a warning that he could be arrested. Swiss law says it’s a felony for a foreign prosecutor to make unauthorized direct contact with people in Switzerland. The irony would be as comical as Jerry Seinfeld’s humorous quip about the Swiss Army knife if it didn’t suggest such a blatant disregard for justice.
We have felonies here in America, too. Robbing jewelry stores is one of them. Brandishing a loaded gun, beating the store owner and dousing witnesses with pepper spray isn’t taken so lightly, either.
That’s what prosecutors said Gordon and co-defendant Carlo A. Torrejon did on April 12, 2002 at Sachi Fine Jewelry in Snohomish. Torrejon pleaded guilty and is serving more than five years in prison. Gordon is pleading for his high school education transcripts to be sent to Switzerland.
It seems Gordon is trying to go on with his education, while his alleged victims are trying to go on with their lives. The rest of us are wondering what’s going on in Switzerland? We shouldn’t have to be experts in the Swiss legal system to expect some semblance of effort on their part to address this serious matter. After all, when the Swiss demanded that Snohomish County prosecutors provide as much information as soon as possible, prosecutors complied. That evidence included a videotape with a depiction of the robbery from a surveillance video camera and a taped interview with Torrejon. Even after the prosecutor’s office provided them with this evidence, one Swiss official took a further step into lunacy by suggesting that we never asked for a trial.
We’ve done our part. Now, it’s time for the Swiss to respond in a fair and swift manner.
It has been more than a year since the robbery and at least eight months since it was confirmed Gordon was in Switzerland. This matter never should have taken so long to resolve. After all, they’re the ones with the famous watches.
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