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This is gonna be a two parter.
Part 1.
How do you feel about this?
Enquirer files suit over DUI names
THE ENQUIRER
The Enquirer filed suit against the Ohio Department of Public Safety and its director, Henry Guzman, on Tuesday, seeking the names of all Ohioans convicted of drunken-driving offenses.
The writ of mandamus, filed in the Ohio Supreme Court, stems from a May 2 newspaper analysis in which The Enquirer found almost 36,000 drivers have five or more drunken-driving convictions in Ohio, including more than 3,500 in Hamilton, Butler, Clermont and Warren counties.
Another 86 have 10 or more convictions in Southwest Ohio.
But state officials have declined to provide access to the names in its database of records dating to 1973, citing state and federal privacy-protection laws.
Just wanted to get your opinion on it.
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And part 2.
How would you view this sentence if the teen had been a girl and the "sex offender" had been a man?
Dinkel gets 60 days for rape
Husband pleads for leniency so she could care for ill son
COVINGTON - Jeni Lee Dinkel victimized more than just the 15-year-old she raped.
She victimized her own teenage son, who will have to continue his fight with cancer without his mother at his side, according to the judge who sentenced her Tuesday.
Despite pleas for leniency from her husband, retired Bengal Tom Dinkel, Kenton Circuit Judge Gregory Bartlett ordered the 51-year-old mother of two to serve 60 days of a five-year sentence.
She will report to the Kenton County jail Oct. 5.
"She placed herself in a position of not being there for her son when he needs her the most," Bartlett said. "It's a problem of her own making."
Additional terms also were imposed on Dinkel.
She must undergo psychological counseling and substance abuse treatment, pay a $2,500 fine, serve 200 hours of community service for a nonprofit organization for underprivileged women and register as a sex offender for 20 years.
The Hollywood makeup artist, with movie credits such as "Wild Things" and "Bad Boys," also is not allowed to sell her story or profit from the case.
Dinkel pleaded guilty in May to one count of third-degree rape, but Bartlett refused to follow Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders' sentence recommendation that called for no jail time. Sanders didn't attend Tuesday's sentencing.
Bartlett said he had to uphold public confidence in the judicial system when weighing what sentence to hand down: "Equal justice of the law is more than a slogan. It has to be a reality, and as far as I'm concerned, it is reality."
The victim, now 16, did not attend the hearing but was represented by Joshua Crabtree, a lawyer with the Children's Law Center.
"He felt during the course of the proceedings ... there was some assertion that he had pursued Mrs. Dinkel," Crabtree said. "He wanted to make it clear that was not ever true. In addition to that, even when he knew the relationship was inappropriate, it was Mrs. Dinkel who continued to contact him via text messaging him and calling his cell phone while at school ... trying to set up opportunities for them to be together."
Dinkel would pick him up at school and have him lie down in the back seat so people would not see him as she drove to her Villa Hills home, Crabtree said. She would drop him off at a corner convenience store to try to conceal where he had been.
As Crabtree spoke, the victim's mother fought back tears while clutching her husband's hands.
Then the victim's mother spoke before a packed courtroom.
She said the crime might have seemed less serious because the facts of the case had been "watered down." Then she described the seduction of her son in detail.
The mother called the Dinkel home a "sexual smorgasbord for a very hungry, sick woman" who plied her son with alcohol before raping him. She said Dinkel manipulated her son by text-messaging him as many as 20 times an hour and telling him she might be pregnant with his child.
"These are not chance sexual encounters," the mother said. "These are the calculated manipulative actions of an adult emotionally abusing and physically raping a child."
Dinkel's husband pleaded for leniency for his wife at the sentencing. He described their 16-year-old son Alex's radiation and chemotherapy before reading a letter from the child, who he said could not attend because of his illness.
"I can't tell you how much I need my mom during this hard time I'm facing," Alex wrote. "I know my mom's behavior was wrong, and she is so sorry and sad for all of us and the victim. ...
"I need her more now than anything else in the world. I do not think I can beat this cancer without her. She is a great mom." Alex's radiation ends in September; chemo continues through December.
Rene Heinrich, who represented the victim's family, said after the hearing that everyone was glad the case was finally adjudicated.
"I think overall, while there are no winners in any of this, at least this phase is done and my client can start school knowing that this isn't hanging over his head over this"
Would there be a public outrage or outcry of injustice had the roles been reversed in this case?
Does the fact that she has a son with cancer affect how people in general are looking at this?
Just wondering.
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Regarding #1-
I never spent much time on the privacy statutes so I cannot speak from any authority. Just at first glance, I'm not sure what the big deal is in the sense that adult criminal convictions are public records, and they are done in open court. There are evidentiary rules regarding what past crimes can be used against you in court proceedings, but that has nothing to do with what is or is not public knowledge.
Now as for my own opinion, I say absolutely, let's go for it. I am against the sex offender registry, I've discussed it before and I won't rehash it here. But since it's here to stay and everyone just thinks it's the be-all end-all, I say let's not stop there. If I had my say, everyone in my neighborhood would be mailed a complete criminal background check on everyone else in the neighborhood. If my neighbor has a DUI, I need to know that because he may plow into me as I walk on the sidewalk across his driveway. If he cheats on his taxes, I need to know that because he may try to commit fraud on me. If he has drug convictions, he may try to break into my house to support his habit.
In short, everyone's business is everyone else's business.
Regarding #2-
if there is one theme that I hope has emerged when it comes to my discussions of the law, it's how I cringe at inconsistency. Well, the Dinkel case.....I mean, yeah, let's reverse it. Let's say the ex-Bengal raped a 15 year old girl. You think he'd get 60 days in jail? Why I bet he'd get over 75 days (actually, he'd get way over 75 days).
Oh but it's different, LewMan. The 15 year old boy wasn't victimized, it was the greatest thing ever to him. It's only the girls who don't like it.
OK does that apply to little boys that get molested as well? At what age does it go from horrible, traumatic experience to cool? And what if the teenage girl actually enjoyed it? (if we're going to play that game).
I don't know what the Kentucky sentencing statutes say, but I'm reading this with shock. Obviously there's a lot behind the scenes that we don't know about. There has to be, this is crap.
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Lew - Exactly! [img]mad.gif[/img] [img]mad.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/grrr.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/grrr.gif[/img] [img]mad.gif[/img]
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And it just keeps getting stranger [img]eek.gif[/img]
New Details Uncovered In Jeni Dinkel Sex Scandal
Last Update: Aug 8, 2007 10:58 PM
Police documents, released today, paint a shocking picture of how Jeni Dinkel pursued a 15-year-old boy she raped. And for the first time, a clear look from the teenager's perspective. Jeni Lee Dinkel is going to jail for rape.
Tonight, the details are out on what she did and how she tried to cover it up. Police records released today include interviews with several teenagers that reveal a pattern of seduction, deception and ultimately rejection. Plus, there is new information on when the scandal became public knowledge and questions of why no one stopped it sooner.
Local 12's Joe Webb has new information in this developing story.
What ended in court yesterday really began last fall at Covington Catholic High School. A police report obtained from Park Hills Police shows on October 11th, the principal got an anonymous tip that Jeni Lee Dinkel had been seen in bed with a 15-year-old student.
Chief Rick Smith, Park Hills Police: "Mr. Clines, first of all, told us that there was more than one person who called on this series of events."
The police report says there were two calls, one anonymous, one from a parent. About the same time, graffiti started showing up in school bathrooms, including one that said, "I wish, I wish, I had a nickel for every time I ----ed Ms. Dinkel."
Police were notified on November 17th. Park Hills turned the case over to Villa Hills because the alleged crimes happened there. The final police report indicates that Jeni Dinkel had sex with the teenage boy on seven separate occasions in her Villa Hills home. One time she had oral sex with him in her own son's bedroom and another teenager walked in and caught them. The police report indicates she had sex on three occasions when her son was in the house. It details claims of underage drinking, marijuana use and sleepovers when Jeni Dinkel would tell the boy to come to her room after other teenagers fell asleep.
Teenagers told police Dinkel was obsessive, repeatedly sending text messages....like one saying "I want your ---- so bad", which was followed by a text saying "Hey, you've got to keep this quiet...you need to delete these."
What became clear today is that the allegations surfaced months before any charges. Covington Catholic was tipped off in October. The boy's mother was not informed until March.
Rene Heinrich, Victim's Attorney: "It's my understanding they continued to have sexual encounters leading up to November, almost through Thanksgiving. So, this mother certainly could have put a stop to that at that time if somebody let her know what was going on."
Now the whole world knows.
Police say they had been investigating Jeni Dinkel for a couple of years. She will spend 60 days in jail for rape, starting October 5th.
Truthfully, had it been a man who did this to a teenage girl, there would be marches and protesters and all kinds rantings and ravings about it.
I guess there really are two sets of rules sometimes, but she is to be labled a sex offender for the next 20 years and that can be more damaging than anything.
