Karr's Bail $200,000, Computer Is "Lost" & Plea Bargain Rejected

Prosecution makes an offer:

Karr's bail set at $200,000 in Sonoma County porn case (JonBenet Ramsey Pseudokiller)

San Jose Mercury News Tue, Sep. 19, 2006


A Sonoma County Superior Court judge refused to release John Mark Karr on his own recognizance this morning and set his bail at $200,000.

Judge Cerena Wong said Karr, 41, is at risk of fleeing before his trial on Oct. 2 on five misdemeanor charges of possessing images of child pornography on his computer in 2001. Karr failed to appear for his trial on the charges in Sonoma County in 2001.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/15557581.htm

The judge also said Karr has no local ties to the community despite Karr's attorney's assertion that Karr's brother is traveling to Sonoma County to help him find housing.

Sonoma County Chief Deputy District Attorney Joan Risse then disclosed an offer by the prosecution that means no jail time for Karr, the former substitute teacher in Sonoma and Napa counties and San Francisco.

Under the offer, Karr would plead guilty to two of the five charges, the remaining three counts would be dismissed and Karr would get credit for the six months he already served in the Sonoma County jail during the 2001 court proceedings.

Karr also would get three years probation and have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Karr's attorney Robert Amparan said he will discuss the offer with Karr.

 

Good Question!

Just what is the status of a male sex offender after he has become fully transgendered (no male equipment left)?

That's one for our legal beagles.

Deja Nu?? Anyone?

 

Gee - we could just ask Karr when he posts Bail.

 

Most states and federal law do not recognize transgender genders. For the record, and the law, Karr will remain John Mark Karr with an official birth gender of male and will need to maintain his sex offender registration always in his birth personna. Official records will make note of his transgender identity however for ease of identification should he have another close encounter with LE.

The entire point of this plea bargain offered by the prosecution is to get that offender registration on Karr. It's the best chance of protecting the public under misdemeanor charges. It's a good deal, Karr should take it. Furthermore, if he pleads guilty to any of these charges, he will not be able to profit off any book/movie/talking head show deals he thinks about doing. (Like anybody but Jameson would even buy his book!)

 

Havent seen this article posted anywhere - it was in the Sydney Morning Herald today...... Anyone else heard about Karrs computer mysteriously disappearing? I guess just another strange twist..............!!!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/jo...er-goes-missing/2006/09/21/1158431827665.html

 

Child Porn Case Against Karr Hits Snag

Child porn case against Karr hits a snag

Prosecutors can’t find computer that allegedly contained illegal images

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14937513/


SANTA ROSA, Calif. - Efforts to prosecute one-time JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect John Mark Karr on child pornography charges should not be jeopardized even though his computer that allegedly contained the images was lost, Sonoma County authorities said Wednesday.

Authorities seized the computer from Karr’s home in 2001 and copied the entire hard drive onto paper, including the five illicit images, said Sheriff’s Department Lt. Dave Edmonds. He said authorities looked for the computer for the past two weeks, but have had no luck.

“We did an exhaustive search. We have probably hundreds of thousands of evidence items and we’re certain at this point, through a couple of weeks of effort, that it’s not misplaced inside of our property unit,†he said.

*snip*

On Tuesday, prosecutors offered Karr a plea deal that would waive three of the five child pornography possession charges against Karr if he pleaded guilty to the two remaining ones. Karr would get credit for time served, would be placed on probation for three years and would be required to register as a sex offender.

“I wonder if that was the impetus of the offer today,†Karr’s attorney, Robert Amparan, said. “It seems like a pretty embarrassing mistake for the Sheriff’s Department to admit.â€



Assistant District Attorney Larry Scoufos denied any connection between the missing computer and the plea deal offer.

*snip*

He was returned to the U.S. from Thailand only to have the Ramsey case collapse when DNA failed to connect him to the crime.

 

I think even having a connection via telephone or through newspaper print to Boulder has made Sonoma County incompetent!

Karr must have brought the alien air particles from Boulder and infected California authorities as well!

 

"John Karr - The Musical Comedy"
Except, I doubt if anyone in Hollywood could write a screen play this stupid if they tried!

 

It's a comedy of errors, BluesStrat. Could John Karr have predicted a more convoluted outcome in any of this? Like John and Patsy Ramsey when they concocted that ransom note and staged the crime scene - they never could have hoped for more incompetent police on and off the scene of the crime and the comedy of errors that allowed them to manipulate the system the way they did. It's just incredible that Mary Lacy took the JBR case away from the BPD because she felt they were incompetent to pursue intruder leads, and then she turns around and makes some of the dumbest mistakes I've ever heard of in her quest to hang the murder on an intruder.

There were detectives who did work hard and did solve the case. Too bad the clowns in Boulder had to cower before the almighty Hadden et al. Someone needs to grow some balls in the DA's office. It won't be Lacy, obviously, and it won't be DeMuth, either, because his balls already belong to Hadden.

 

Comedy of Errors?

More like Tragedy of Errors!

 

Not a one could add anything to this post WY! You've said it all for every last one of us. :toast: Three cheers for WY!

 

It's mad, mad, mad world!

Sonoma officials are just as messed up as the ones in Boulder.

A RMN column said the images had been deleted from Karr's computer by him, and were retrieved by investigators. IOW, they were in an inaccessible part of the hard drive, which may indicate that they were the type of "barely-legal" stuff that came into most computers in the late 90's, before users and their ISP's wised up to security and started installing programs like Norton.

Maybe this is why Karr was only charged with misdemeanors.

Yesterday in our county a guy got 20 years for having 9,000 images of child porn on his computer. These were federal charges.

By comparison, Karr is small potatoes (even though he is a creep).

I think all the LEA in Boulder and Sonoma are so embarrassed and humiliated by the whole affair that they just want it...and John Mark Karr...to go away.

BTW--to Deja Nu, thanks for answering my legal question. I knew I could count on you to clear up that issue.

 

If this is a comedy, howcome I'm not laughing?

 

You hit the important part right on the head, Lurker. My prediction is that Karr will have all charges dropped against him after the Judge throws out the evidence. Karr, for all intents and purposes destroyed those images when he deleted them. He may, like many of us, have received them in spam email like you described. I'm sure that is what his lawyer will claim.

The legal question here is; if someone randomly sends you something illegal, do you have the right to just destroy it and go about your business.

 

The John Mark Karr tragedy

The strange arrest and vilification of John Mark Karr has become the paradigm for prosecutorial FUBAR.

 

There is no question that John Mark Karr has an unhealthy interest in children. I doubt we'll have heard the last of him after his Sonoma stuff is over.

 

John Mark Karr Rejects Plea Deal in Child Porn Case

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,215110,00.html

John Mark Karr Rejects Plea Deal in Child Porn Case

Thursday, September 21, 2006

SANTA ROSA, Calif. — One-time JonBenet murder suspect John Mark Karr rejected a deal from prosecutors that would have freed him on probation in exchange for a guilty plea on child pornography charges, his lawyer said Thursday.

"My client has maintained his innocence throughout these proceedings, and he is not going to plead guilty to a crime that he did not commit," Karr's attorney, Robert Amparan, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "We have no intention of accepting that offer."

The deal, presented Tuesday, would have waived three of the five misdemeanor child pornography possession charges against Karr if he pleaded guilty to the two remaining ones. He would get credit for time served, would be placed on probation for three years and would be required to register as a sex offender.

Karr, 41, remained in Sonoma County jail Thursday on $200,000 bail. His trial date was set for Oct. 2.

The plea deal offer came the same day that Sonoma County authorities admitted they lost Karr's computer, seized in 2001, that they said held the five illicit images.

Authorities insisted that the missing computer would not jeopardize their case against Karr because the entire hard drive was copied and the child porn images were printed out.

"They say they have a mirror image. I haven't been provided with a mirror image," Amparan said.

Assistant District Attorney Larry Scoufos has denied that the missing computer was the impetus for offering Karr the plea deal. He did not return calls for comment Thursday.

Karr, who worked as a schoolteacher in Petaluma and Napa in 2001, first made headlines when he was arrested last month after making phone calls and writing e-mails suggesting he killed JonBenet Ramsey, a six-year-old beauty queen, in her Boulder, Colo., home in 1996.

He was returned to the U.S. from Thailand, but the Ramsey case quickly collapsed after DNA failed to connect him to the crime.

 

How surprising. Of course this is why he was offered a plea bargain. Why in the world would such an attention seeking freak accept a plea bargain? Now THAT would surprise me.