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Bridgeburner
Not spiritual at all.
Registered: 09/16/06
Posts: 20,010
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Do homicide charges deter drug dealers?
#8791618 - 08/18/08 03:43 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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link
Laura Johnson easily could have been another case added to the county coroner’s annual statistics of accidental deaths attributed to drug overdoses.
The 27-year-old McHenry woman died of an overdose at a Woodstock area gathering with three other people early March 3, said Sgt. John Koziol of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office. Not a regular user, Johnson had dabbled in heroin before but ingested a “large amount” of the drug March 3 after buying it in Chicago, Koziol said.
Unlike many overdose cases, the evidence led to the man police said sold the ultimately fatal drug: Carlton Maynor, a 28-year-old Chicago man on parole for another drug offense.
He was charged with drug-induced homicide, a rarely used Class X felony that can send both drug dealers and fellow drug-users to jail for as much as 60 years, depending on the amount of drugs involved. The crime’s relatively hefty prison sentence can both take dealers off the street and provide another reason for those who witnessed the death to avoid police.
Maynor is the first suspect charged with drug-induced homicide since State’s Attorney Louis Bianchi took office in December 2004, although his administration has investigated similar cases without filing charges.
“We hope this is a law-enforcement trend that we can hold people accountable for such a serious consequence of dealing drugs,” Bianchi said.
The charge requires prosecutors to prove that the defendant unlawfully delivered a controlled substance to a person who died as a result of taking any amount of the drug. Prosecutors are not required to prove the amount of drug exchanged, but defendants face longer prison terms if prosecutors prove large amounts or more serious drugs, such as heroin or LSD, were involved.
But criminal defense attorney Elliott Price questioned whether the potential jail time discouraged dealers and fellow users – both whom he thinks are victims of a widespread narcotics “plague” – from distributing possibly fatal drugs.
“I don’t think people have the slightest idea what the penalties are,” Price said. “You’re talking about a compulsive behavior. Is it going to stop a guy?”
Not just about the dealers
But not all drug-induced homicide cases deal with the alleged dealers.
One case in Lake County involved the person who injected a drug user who could not do it alone, and another involved a physician who was seemingly over-prescribing, Lake County Coroner Richard Keller said. Initial police investigations influence whether his office declares an overdose an accidental death or a homicide.
“Certainly the intent is to go after the dealers, most often when there is already some possible suspect in mind and/or there is information that allows it to be narrowed down as to where they got the drugs,” Keller said.
Joshua Boand, now 32, is serving a 14-year sentence for drug-induced homicide in the May 2002 death of a 19-year-old woman Barrington woman, Nicole LeVin.
Boand provided the methadone that LeVin and three others took the night she died.
Paul Hoerer, then of Algonquin, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and delivery of drugs for giving LeVin Vicodin and for giving her a shower and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation rather than calling for help. Hoerer was sentenced to five years in prison in March 2005.
Both cases were tried in Lake County.
In McHenry County, then 18-year-old Robert Berger originally was charged with drug-induced homicide for injecting his close friend, Kaley Lieburn, 17, with Lieburn’s third – and last – hit of heroin in May 2003. He was sentenced to four years in prison in June 2004 for involuntary manslaughter as part of a plea bargain.
Berger also was required to get more drug treatment after prison.
“It was a great tragedy for all concerned,” said Price, who was Berger’s attorney in the case. “The judicial system worked very hard to get what we felt was a just result.”
Evidence often scarce
Fifteen to 20 people have died annually in McHenry County of drug overdoses – whether accidentally or as part of a suicide – for at least the past five years, but it’s not easy to connect the dots to the drug’s source.
Witnesses, if there are any, are not always cooperative.
“It’s sad to say, but sometimes they don’t want to give up their dealer, because they’re addicts and that’s their supplier,” said Nichole Owens, criminal division chief of the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Or perhaps a group drove down to Chicago and bought drugs through a car window.
“Maybe it’s the first time they encountered a drug dealer, and they can’t identify them,” Owens added.
In Johnson’s case, Undersheriff Gene Lowery attributes Maynor’s arrest partially to cooperation between sheriff’s investigators, the state’s attorney’s office, and Chicago police.
“In this case, many things came together to allow us to identify a source, and we went the extra mile to make the arrest,” he said.
Maynor, who originally was appointed a public defender, recently hired a private attorney. Chicago-based John Miraglia is reviewing the case files, and Maynor remains in McHenry County jail.
His next court date is Aug. 29.
Drug overdoses
The following overdose statistics, including suicides, include only two homicides: one each in 2003 and 2004.
2008: 14*
2007: 18
2006: 16
2005: 19
2004: 19
2003: 19
* So far this year; doesn’t include Laura Johnson’s case
Source: McHenry County Coroner’s Office
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Coaster
Baʿal
Registered: 05/22/06
Posts: 33,501
Loc: Deep in the Valley
Last seen: 12 years, 5 months
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Re: Do homicide charges deter drug dealers? [Re: Bridgeburner]
#8791972 - 08/18/08 05:11 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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no1 has ever heard of personal responsibility apparently
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magicgreenbeans
Stranger
Registered: 08/07/08
Posts: 149
Last seen: 13 years, 4 months
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Re: Do homicide charges deter drug dealers? [Re: Coaster]
#8792182 - 08/18/08 06:17 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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if people believed in personal responsibility then there would be no use in having a government tell you what to do all the time, if they stopped imposing what some people feel on others the world would be better off.
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EntheogenicPeace
Scholar
Registered: 10/04/05
Posts: 3,926
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Re: Do homicide charges deter drug dealers? [Re: Bridgeburner]
#8792582 - 08/18/08 08:17 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Edited by EntheogenicPeace (03/10/21 05:46 PM)
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Irieforester
Head to toe inH2O
Registered: 03/10/08
Posts: 515
Loc: That state seperating fro...
Last seen: 11 years, 6 months
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Re: Do homicide charges deter drug dealers? [Re: EntheogenicPeace]
#8793298 - 08/18/08 10:39 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Quote: The charge requires prosecutors to prove that the defendant unlawfully delivered a controlled substance to a person who died as a result of taking any amount of the drug. Prosecutors are not required to prove the amount of drug exchanged, but defendants face longer prison terms if prosecutors prove large amounts or more serious drugs, such as heroin or LSD, were involved.
They forget to mention all the marijuana & magic mushroom overdoses, too.
Beat me to it. WOW.
-------------------- I am still and forever learning Apollyphelion said: You can learn A LOT from shitting in the right set and setting!
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