I read with great interest the April 21 article, “Ruling favors burglary suspect.”
Are we to believe that our state Supreme Court has ruled that a 17-year-old, who did not live at home, had his conviction for residential burglary overturned because the Supreme Court believed him when he told them that he “accidentally” broke down his mom’s double deadbolted bedroom door and then items inside of her bedroom (to include beer, money and pain pills) “mysteriously” disappeared afterwards?
Has our state’s Supreme Court gone so far as to determine that the burden of proof for residential burglary must now be so ridiculous that law enforcement must prove between “accidentally” doing something and “intentionally” doing something? Our Supreme Court has become a threat to our criminal justice system and this is simply one more blow to the victims of crime in Washington.
I don’t know all of the particulars of the case, but this simply shows what we are up against. Law enforcement is already forced to show that someone “knew” that they were in possession of a stolen vehicle when they are stopped driving around in a stolen vehicle to such an extreme by our Supreme Court that our system has become a revolving door for criminals when it comes to stealing vehicles. The criminal is arrested and released via the courts because they simply tell the arresting officer, “I didn’t know it was stolen” and the “intent” portion of the crime is gone and thus the charges get dropped. Please remember these cases when we vote again for Supreme Court justices!
Mike Phillips
Arlington
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