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Originally Posted by Glenn E. Seyer
I was to wait outside - and guess what - the docs and the law on the premises asked her if it was an accidnet or what.
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It is wonderful that our society has no institutional tolerance for child abuse. However, somewhere along the line, perspective and proportionality appear to have taken a hit.
I do almost no criminal work. The last criminal matter in which I was involved was in defense of a county jail guard who had spanked a stepchild for hiding food in her closet (a behavior which on prior occasions had caused a vermin problem). The child's biological father saw an opportunity to cause a problem in his ex-wife's new marriage and took the child to an emergency room.
The response of social workers and city prosecutors was to charge child abuse and press the matter to trial. (Any incarceration would have been amongst the population this guard supervises). I do not know whether the prosecutor actually believed that any abuse had occurred, but this seemed a chilling misuse of prosecutorial power.