Virginia is for lovers

Virginia. Where parents get 27 months in prison sound for hosting a party for their son’s 16th birthday party and providing alcohol.

Their mom, Elisa Kelly, and her ex-husband, George Robinson, are paying the price for hosting Ryan’s 16th birthday party — more than two years in jail each. Ryan had asked his mother to buy his friends some beer and wine, as long as they all spent the night.

Doesn’t sound too dangerous, right? But you’re probably wondering, as I was, if some kid died driving home or was injured in some way. I mean a twenty-seven month sentence is nothing to scoff at. Something bad had to have happened, right?

Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney James L. Camblos III, who prosecuted the parents, said it was the worst case of underage drinking he has had to deal with in 15 years.

Really? The worst you’ve seen?

The couple initially were charged with 16 misdemeanor counts, but seven of the partygoers had no alcohol in their systems. Of the nine who did, all were below the legal limit for intoxication, according to Wren.

Nine kids below the legal limit, and that’s the worst case of underage drinking you’ve seen in fifteen years at the prosecutors office?

You just gotta wonder about that statement.

The couple pleaded guilty in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, and Camblos recommended a 90-day sentence at the time. But the judge, angry about the recent death of one of Ryan’s classmates at Albemarle High School in an alcohol-related crash, sentenced them to eight years.

The couple appealed to Circuit Court, which reduced the sentence to 27 months.

They had pleaded guilty, expecting the recommended 90-day sentence, and then got eight years thrown at them.

So I guess they should be happy with just two?

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

About big jonny

The man, the legend. The guy who started it all back in the Year of Our Lord Beer, 2000, with a couple of pages worth of idiotic ranting hardcoded on some random porn site that would host anything you uploaded, a book called HTML for Dummies (which was completely appropriate), a bad attitude (which hasn’t much changed), and a Dell desktop running Win95 with 64 mgs of ram and a six gig hard drive. Those were the days. Then he went to law school. Go figure. Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

2 Replies to “Virginia is for lovers”

  1. The 90 days suggested by the prosecutor would have been sufficient, especially since they pleaded guilty. However, the judge’s sentence of eight years was overkill, but he was trying to protect society by not having another kid get killed because of alcohol.

    However, the parents shouldn’t have bought the alcohol, especially $300 worth. That amount isn’t just to have a sip but to get stinking drunk. Besides they lied to the parents of the kids. Besides they will probably get out earlier anyway because of good behavior.

  2. Jonny…I think that’s a load of crap. The 90 days was enough…ad a fine on top if your pissy. Especially since “seven of the partygoers had no alcohol in their systems. Of the nine who did, all were below the legal limit for intoxication”…at least they weren’t at bush party drinking way more and doing who knows what else…and then driving home! Sounds like their intentions were good just lacking sound judgement.