Saturday, May 16, 2009

Sentinel Needs to Give Us the Rest of the Story

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/seminole/orl-bk-child-rapist-mother-collapses-051509,0,2598516.story

I've made it a rule not to comment on cases for which we didn't have a monitor in the courtroom. So my comments here are more directed at the article in the Sentinel.

In attempting to look up the complete disposition of this case online, the Seminole Clerk's website doesn't even have Merthie's name listed. I suspect it's because he was a juvenile at the time. However, his record should be available for review by the public, given the nature of the offenses involved. The safety of our children (especially those in Sanford) is at stake.

I'd like to know what the terms of Kareem Merthie's release were. The Sentinel only reported that he was being released. Was chemical castration ordered? GPS monitoring? Without looking at the court file, we don't know. There aren't enough details in this news article to know what precautions are being taken to protect the public. The Sentinel needs to follow up and give us more info - the volume of public comments on their website (300 so far) indicates that more complete reporting is needed.

10:20am update:
WFTV has more info for us:
http://www.wftv.com/news/19471875/detail.html
Apparently Merthie will NOT be monitored because he was a juvenile at the time of the offenses.

1 comment:

  1. Another case that shows the need for the records of violent juvenile offenders to be made public.

    ReplyDelete