Rossi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
deathpixie) wrote2001-06-26 06:58 pm
deathpixie) wrote2001-06-26 06:58 pm
"We have ten remand cases."
Not what I wanted to hear first thing this morning.
See, a remand is court slang for a person who has been arrested, and either due to the seriousness of the offence, or them having a history of failing to appear/ reoffending on bail, they are refused bail and kept in custody. They are the nasty surprise package of the court list, because usually the charges are filed at the very last minute, and the person needs the duty lawyer. So quite often I'll be scrambling to get the chrages onto the computer and the matter dealt with ASAP - because custody matters also have priority, the police cells not being the most cofortable place to wait out a cold wet winter's day, or one of our February scorchers.
So to be told there was ten of them... It's a good thing there's no history of heart problems in my family, because I nearly had a coronary.
It turns out that most of the work had actually been done already; these guys had been arrested in the early hours of Monday morning, and had already appeared at Wangaratta Court that day. But because there was difficulty ascertaining their identities, the matters were remanded to our court the next day, except for two, who were remanded to Melbourne Children's Court next week.
Basically the situation boils down to this. A group of ten Vietnamese boys, ranging in age from fifteen to twenty, decide to celebrate the end of the school term and mid-year exams with a trip from Melbourne to Sydney. Unfortunately they did it in a couple of stolen cars, and brought attention to themselves by stealing petrol from a couple of towns on the way back. When the police flagged them down near Wangaratta at 5am Monday morning, they took off. Estimates put their speeds at approximately 180 km an hour at one point (almost 112 miles per hour). One car disappeared, the other, driven by a seventeen year old with no licence, lead the police a merry, and extremely dangerous, chase through the streets of Wangaratta, still doing ridiculous speeds and swerving all over the road. That car ended up coming to grief on a roundabout, and the other was found abandoned, with the occupants rounded up shortly later.
It's funny, watching people try and play the system. Four of the ten were minors, and the Children's Court jurisdiction is less harsh than the adult. So the two that were dealt with today (both passengers), made frank admissions of knowing the cars were stolen and being involved in the theft of the petrol. The older boys, facing worse punishment, were hazy over the details of the stolen cars, and most of them claimed to have been asleep during the theft of the fuel and the car chase. Only the driver of the car that initially eluded police, not having a lot of options, put his hands up for the fuel thefts, and gave the name of the 'friend' who loaned him the stolen car. Mr Coburn was wise to them, but since they were all first offenders, couldn't do much to them, so he fined the older boys $500 each without conviction, and suspended them from getting driving licences for a year. The driver got $300 and 18 months of the road. The two kids got undertakings to be of good behaviour for a year. The other two kids (including the scariest driver) will be dealt with next week. One of them is here on a student visa, and is being held pending deprtation by the Department of Immigration for breaching the conditions of his visa.
Needless to say, the court room was full of media today. *grins wryly* It'll be interesting to see how they mangle today's cases in the paper tomorrow. The local rag is a shocker - plenty of emphasis on 'harsh sentencing for young thugs' and 'the war on drugs', and absolutely no idea of the balancing act between punishment and intervention that the court has to engage in during every case. It's very much "Us and Them", a mode of thinking, which I find very short-sighted: sometimes, listening to the stories behind the cases, I find myself thinking "there but for the grace of God go I." Like the woman today who had a serious car accident thirteen years ago, injuring her back. She's been in fairly constant pain since, and has developed an addiction to morphine that has driven her to forge prescriptions from her doctor. Not that she hasn't done wrong, but pain drives people to pretty desperate extremes... and car accidents happen every day. Makes you think, doesn't it?
***
I'm pretty weary tonight. Long day, a touch of PMT. Lots of good news on my Friends list, tho', which is always cheering. It makes me happy to see my friends happy, especially the ones who have been having a rough trot of it. *smiles* I know such great people.
Oh, and a TV recommendation for those Aussies who have access to SBS: Going Home weeknights at 7.30pm. Yasmin ressurected my interest in this show, and now I'm hooked. Basically it's set on a Sydney commuter train, with the regular crew who travel home together ever night, discussing the news of the day, their lives and what not. Very clever, and very subtle, and since it deals with the news of that day, it's written and shot in a limited time frame. Try it out.
See, a remand is court slang for a person who has been arrested, and either due to the seriousness of the offence, or them having a history of failing to appear/ reoffending on bail, they are refused bail and kept in custody. They are the nasty surprise package of the court list, because usually the charges are filed at the very last minute, and the person needs the duty lawyer. So quite often I'll be scrambling to get the chrages onto the computer and the matter dealt with ASAP - because custody matters also have priority, the police cells not being the most cofortable place to wait out a cold wet winter's day, or one of our February scorchers.
So to be told there was ten of them... It's a good thing there's no history of heart problems in my family, because I nearly had a coronary.
It turns out that most of the work had actually been done already; these guys had been arrested in the early hours of Monday morning, and had already appeared at Wangaratta Court that day. But because there was difficulty ascertaining their identities, the matters were remanded to our court the next day, except for two, who were remanded to Melbourne Children's Court next week.
Basically the situation boils down to this. A group of ten Vietnamese boys, ranging in age from fifteen to twenty, decide to celebrate the end of the school term and mid-year exams with a trip from Melbourne to Sydney. Unfortunately they did it in a couple of stolen cars, and brought attention to themselves by stealing petrol from a couple of towns on the way back. When the police flagged them down near Wangaratta at 5am Monday morning, they took off. Estimates put their speeds at approximately 180 km an hour at one point (almost 112 miles per hour). One car disappeared, the other, driven by a seventeen year old with no licence, lead the police a merry, and extremely dangerous, chase through the streets of Wangaratta, still doing ridiculous speeds and swerving all over the road. That car ended up coming to grief on a roundabout, and the other was found abandoned, with the occupants rounded up shortly later.
It's funny, watching people try and play the system. Four of the ten were minors, and the Children's Court jurisdiction is less harsh than the adult. So the two that were dealt with today (both passengers), made frank admissions of knowing the cars were stolen and being involved in the theft of the petrol. The older boys, facing worse punishment, were hazy over the details of the stolen cars, and most of them claimed to have been asleep during the theft of the fuel and the car chase. Only the driver of the car that initially eluded police, not having a lot of options, put his hands up for the fuel thefts, and gave the name of the 'friend' who loaned him the stolen car. Mr Coburn was wise to them, but since they were all first offenders, couldn't do much to them, so he fined the older boys $500 each without conviction, and suspended them from getting driving licences for a year. The driver got $300 and 18 months of the road. The two kids got undertakings to be of good behaviour for a year. The other two kids (including the scariest driver) will be dealt with next week. One of them is here on a student visa, and is being held pending deprtation by the Department of Immigration for breaching the conditions of his visa.
Needless to say, the court room was full of media today. *grins wryly* It'll be interesting to see how they mangle today's cases in the paper tomorrow. The local rag is a shocker - plenty of emphasis on 'harsh sentencing for young thugs' and 'the war on drugs', and absolutely no idea of the balancing act between punishment and intervention that the court has to engage in during every case. It's very much "Us and Them", a mode of thinking, which I find very short-sighted: sometimes, listening to the stories behind the cases, I find myself thinking "there but for the grace of God go I." Like the woman today who had a serious car accident thirteen years ago, injuring her back. She's been in fairly constant pain since, and has developed an addiction to morphine that has driven her to forge prescriptions from her doctor. Not that she hasn't done wrong, but pain drives people to pretty desperate extremes... and car accidents happen every day. Makes you think, doesn't it?
***
I'm pretty weary tonight. Long day, a touch of PMT. Lots of good news on my Friends list, tho', which is always cheering. It makes me happy to see my friends happy, especially the ones who have been having a rough trot of it. *smiles* I know such great people.
Oh, and a TV recommendation for those Aussies who have access to SBS: Going Home weeknights at 7.30pm. Yasmin ressurected my interest in this show, and now I'm hooked. Basically it's set on a Sydney commuter train, with the regular crew who travel home together ever night, discussing the news of the day, their lives and what not. Very clever, and very subtle, and since it deals with the news of that day, it's written and shot in a limited time frame. Try it out.
Way ahead of you, mate.