(This column was published in the North Shore News on Apr. 7, 2004)
Judge's tongue-lashing lacks follow-through
By Leo Knight
WHEN North Vancouver provincial court Judge Judy Gedye sentenced Christopher Jason McConville, 23, to a four-month jail term for his eighth break and enter conviction, she no doubt felt she was being tough.
Indeed, she even gave him a bit of a tongue-lashing.
"There's a real cockiness in you," said the judge.
"You must think you're either invisible or omnipotent, but you didn't even know you were under police surveillance the whole time," she was quoted as saying in a North Shore News story by reporter Colin Wright published on Friday.
The judge finished with, "There's got to be some sort of consequence for that sort of attitude."
Well bravo, your Honour.
It sounded like she was actually going to do something with McConville, a perpetual criminal and pain in the butt for everyone living on the right side of the law.
But she didn't.
She gave him four months in jail.
He had only been released from an 81/2 month jail sentence for a few days when he was arrested again for yet another burglary.
Did the judge somehow think that giving him a sentence half as long as the previous one would get his attention?
This is exactly the sort of thing that gets the public outraged by a judicial system.
It is so seemingly out of touch with reality.
But, I suppose, given the judge's reputation as the softest touch in the North Vancouver provincial courthouse and her case history to back that up, we should probably be happy he got any jail time at all.
Two weeks before McConville was released to begin his latest crime spree, another 23-year-old criminal, Jesse Gerald Thody, was before the same good judge on a charge of armed robbery.
In August, he and a pair of cohorts decided they were going to stick up the Park Royal Hotel.
They were armed with a knife and a tire iron.
These brave boys threatened an unarmed female employee who showed more courage than they and refused.
She legged it into a back room and they tried to force their way into the cash drawer.
A couple of male employees of the hotel then jumped on Thody who had the knife and his partner in crime fled to a waiting getaway car.
After being held in custody for four months, Thody pleaded guilty in front of Judge Judy and got a year's probation for his efforts.
Oh, and time served.
And he had to say he was sorry.
So, at least McConville got some time.
We may get a respite from him for a few weeks.
For despite whatever illusions Judge Judy harbours, and they must be many, I think that McConville will return to his life of crime as soon as he is released in two or three months just as sure as God made little green apples.
He even told the police that when they arrested him.
He didn't care then and he doesn't care now, I believe.
But Judge Judy seems to think she's done her job protecting the public.
She even referred to a friend and former colleague of hers who lives in the neighbourhood where McConville committed his last crime.
In sentencing Judge Judy said, "They have an 11-year- old with learning disabilities. That child is completely freaked out about whether he's safe to live in his own home."
And well he may be.
And so are thousands of others who live elsewhere who have had their homes broken into once, twice or more by the McConvilles of the world.
And that is precisely why Judge Judy failed to do her duty when sitting in judgement of that habitual offender.
During the finger-wagging she gave McConville, which I'm sure he'll remember until at least the judge stopped talking, she said, "It's really hard to trust you."
Well, no kidding, your Honour.
It's heartening to learn you have mastered the incredibly obvious.
He's a thief, a junkie and a violent one at that.
When he's awake he lies, cheats, steals and gets high.
When he's not lying, cheating, stealing and getting high, he's either unconscious or in jail.
McConville was arrested barely eight days after his release from custody.
And, I might add, he was arrested by North Vancouver RCMP burglary section members in Burnaby.
The Mounties knew McConville would return to his criminal life even though he was under supervision.
So they set up on him, doing sporadic surveillance and waited.
It didn't take long.
So, what is patently obvious to the North Vancouver RCMP is a mystery to Judge Judy.
Amazing.
It's interesting to note the offence was waived (transferred) from Burnaby court, where it took place, to North Vancouver provincial courts where Judge Judy sits and a guilty plea was arranged.
Surely there was no judge shopping involved?
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