Capital
staffer Gabrielle Nestande hit, abandoned, and killed an innocent pedestrian
while being intoxicated two years ago. How
in the world was she only slammed with 180 days in jail with time served and 10
years of probation when an ordinary citizen would be hit with manslaughter and
potentially life in prison for the same crime?
Two years later, State Representative Naomi Gonzalez was arrested with a
BAC level over twice the legal limit.
Most recently, Rosemary Lehmberg was pulled over and found with an open
bottle of Vodka on her passenger seat as well as driving intoxicated.
Rosemary
Lehmberg, Travis County district attorney diligently and frequently prosecutes
people for the same crime she committed herself. How dare she even attempt to stay in her
position after making such a poor decision and failing the public’s trust of
being a “law abiding citizen.” Some people accept her apology and forgive her
after she agreed to cooperate with whatever punishment comes her way. What else can she say? Of course she’s going
to make a public apology only because she got caught, come on people! How many
times has she gotten behind the wheel and endangered the safety and lives of
innocent people before she got caught? Fortunately, we will never know what may have
had happened if she didn’t get pulled over that night. The point is that we already know the repercussions
of drunk driving, but someone like Lehmberg is the one who has the greatest
influence on the fate of the same offenders as herself. Her fellow colleagues and supporters feel
that this mistake shouldn’t over power her entire career. It sure as heck should! She is now on the other
side of the law herself and needs to step down.
We all make mistakes, but when someone is in such a high position, they
must make conscious choices at all times because they are in the spotlight at
all times. She cannot possibly continue
to sentence others for something she did herself. That would be like an IRS auditor being
caught for tax invasion and still continuing to audit and punish others.
It is
good that a lawsuit was filed to have her removed this week. If she doesn’t take the responsibility and
punishment into her own hands by resigning, she will put the county through a
shameful process in court including the evidence being made public. Then again, what happened to our justice
system with Nestande’s case? She has no
relevance in the justice system, and she wasn’t given a decent punishment for
murdering someone and leaving the scene.
We as a
state with such high standards really need to stop dropping the ball when it
comes to the punishment and crimes of officials. It is more degrading to sweep the crimes
under the carpet and come up with thousands of justifications as to why they
should be forgiven than to be honest and place the responsibility of their bad
decisions on the criminals. Yes,
criminals, not honorable law abiding citizens they promised to be.
Since her initial arrest and booking on April 12th, 2013, Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg has pleaded guilty to the DWI charge. Lehmberg has served the full sentence, which was actually shortened in half due to the “good behavior” law, and is expected to be released from jail this week. But how does this alarming incident reflect on the Texas justice system and our faith in elected officials?
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with your post that Lehmberg has failed the public and jeopardized our trust for elected officials. As a powerful D.A., she has prosecuted many offenders of the same crime she committed, which comes off as completely hypocritical. We expect that the officials we elect will act appropriately and we hold them to the same standards as the rest of the public. That being said, we constantly see exceptions to this standard. She knew that her action of getting behind the wheel while intoxicated was illegal, yet she chose to do it regardless. Many people with power often bypass restrictions and the penalties they receive are much smaller than they would normally be. This preferential treatment needs to end in order to restore public trust.
Although she has refused to resign, Lehmberg has taken all the necessary steps to rebound from this mistake. She has made a public apology, she has served her jail sentence, which was about average for the crime that was committed, and she has paid all of the necessary fines. Additionally, she made a statement saying that she will not be seeking re-election, most likely a wise decision. I think that her cooperation in this process is beneficial, but ultimately it will be some time until she regains the support and trust she originally had.