Revisions/extensions (10:58 pm 9/14/2007) – For those of you who can’t get the WMV embed to play, here’s the YouTube version. I do not as a rule embed YouTube videos as I can’t get the sound to work with either Internet Explorer or Firefox.
R&E part 2 (11:40 am 9/17/2007) – Patrick has a better video.
If you haven’t heard by now, Sheboygan County Circuit Judge Timothy M. Van Akkeren overturned a guilty verdict on a child enticement charge rendered by a jury against a slimeball serial sex offender by the name of Mitchell D. Pask. The Journal Sentinel has a quick, yet exhaustive, history on Pask, including his past and present history with Van Akkeren (which includes the charge he is still in jail for at the moment, indecent touching of a woman at a Sheboygan store), and Patrick over at Badger Blogger has a good starter’s list of other cases that Van Akkeren took the perp’s side, but let’s focus on this one.
In Van Akkeren’s instructions to the jury, he defined “secluded area”, a necessary condition for child enticement, as “a place screened or hidden from view or remote from others.” With that in mind, I took a little trip to Workers’ Water Street Park…
I seem to have found three spots that would meet the above definition of “secluded area”, one right at the picnic shelter itself, and two within easy walking distance. Then again, considering the Lawgiver-In-Black loves to let perps walk, I don’t suppose he thought of that.
I hope the fine folks in Sheboygan County act on this about the end of April, 2008, when Van Akkeren becomes eligible for recall.
Thanks for posting that. The law needs to be clarified, obviously.
No, the law does not need to be clarified for an idiot like Van Assclown. The jury inspected the crime scene and they were sure smart enough to figure out it met the standards.
It’s not the Legislature’s fault Van Assclown is a moron.
Darn you Steve! You spoiled my weekend drive LOL I was planning to do the same thing tomorrow morning. You provided a needed service though.
By the way, your embed is not viewable on Firefox.
The sheltered place is hardly secluded, unless you think hiding behind a support beam is secluded. The jury thought it was, but the judge apparently had good enough reason to disagree. That is his job. The DA was sloppy, and if they thought that was secluded then there’s a disconnect somewhere from the DA to the judge to the legislature. If I were to speculate the judge’s position, the jury tried the man’s evilness, not his possible breaking of a law. Hence he saw the man’s actions as not in violation of the cited law.
Legislatures shouldn’t write subjective wording into law, lest we get pedophiles walking free on technicalities. And I have firefox and it works fine.
Being out of sight of both the road and the playground is secluded, bub. Re-read the definition Van Akkeren gave the jury and note the “or”. While the northwest beam isn’t remote, it is hidden from view from both the street and the playground, the two major sources of prying eyes.
Who died and made Lawgiver-In-Black-Wannabe Van Akkeren an appellate judge? Overturning jury verdicts is the province of the appellate courts, not trial courts.
If the jury was intelligent enough to see it, that’s enough for me. I’d support a rope and a tree for Pask, but even that is too good for him.
Free, your Village called, they want their Idiot back.
Patrick, there isn’t anything stopping you for heading up. I have the voice for blogging, and I don’t have any real video editing software.
I agree with steve. The more video evidence we get out there that shows that Judge Van Assclown is an idiot who simply favors child molesters and illegal aliens, the better.
[…] 14th, 2007 · No Comments From Steve at No Runny Eggs comes this video of the park in Sheboygan that a jury decided was secluded enough to convict a […]
Yeah, relative seclusion from certain distances doesn’t equate to definite seclusion. All I’m saying is that the Judge saw it very differently from the jury and his job is to try the law not the evilness, intent, or probable harm. Do I think the guy should walk the streets, no. But this is the price we pay for poorly worded legislation.
Actually, I’m on my way in a few minutes.
Another sexual predator could walk…
Not secluded? Judge for yourself, Steve has the video….
Great work Steve.
Does anyone know why the judge did not consider the bathroom to be secluded?
I just came from the park, the bathrooms were probably not used or considered because there is a “splash pad” on the back side of it, so that is likely where most of the people were.
After seeing this park for myself… There is no way that someone would say that there is no where secluded in that area… this judge is freakin nuts!
WHY AREN’T SHEBOYGAN VOTERS ORGANIZING A RECALL?????
http://ragdujour.blogspot.com/2007/09/sheboygan-voters-time-for-recall.html
They can’t organize a recall, at least not until the end of April, 2008. Van Akkeren was re-elected in the spring 2007 election, and Wisconsin law does not allow for a recall within one year of the beginning of a term.
Adjective secluded Definition.
1. sheltered or screened from general activity, view, etc.: a secluded cottage.
2. withdrawn from or involving little human or social activity: a secluded life.
Seems to me sheltered is on of the definitions of secluded. Seems like Van Ekkeren needs to resign after some of his resent rulings resulted in other either getting hurt or killed
Van Akkeren will probably let Pask go on this groping sex assault charge too. Maybe Pask has ADHD (which does not really exist except in the pocketbooks of psychiatrists on there drug money) and he could not control himself.
However, I think the law needs to be changed. Does it matter where the sexual assault takes place. There should be laws in place already that take care of this. The current law allows basically this assault to take place as long as it is out in the open in front of other people. So in otherwords now 2 or more sex offenders can get together at the beach at Lake Michigan and lure a kid to the beach where it is wide open and 1 sex offender can do his stuff and the others can watch since others are there.
The law is flawed.