Crime & Federalism

When District Attorney Mark Hurlbert allowed a Morgan Stanley banker to escape felony hit-and-run charges because “Felony convictions have some pretty serious job implications for someone in [Martin Joel] Erzinger's profession," many were incensed.  Yet how could I, someone who cautions against prosecutorial abuse and overcriminalization, get swept up in the mob?  It's a legitimate question that resulted from my failure to communicate: I did not put on the screen what was inside my head.

Mark Hurlbert is, to put is mildly, totally fucking bat-shit crazy.  Want some examples?

• He charged two women with felony impersonation after one woman gave her friend a racing badge.  That's not a joke or a spin job.  One woman gave her racing badge to her friend - who wasn't able to register for a mountain bike race.  Both women were charged with felonies.
• He took a man to trial on assault charges for throwing a snowball!  Again, this is neither a joke nor a spin job.  
• He took a man to trial twice on what seem to be trumped-up child pornography charges.  I wish I were making this up.  After being rebuked by two juries, Hurlbert filed a change-of-venue motion.  His logic: “It really comes down to believing that the community's pretty divided on this. There were two juries, a portion of each of the juries thought he was not guilty and a portion of the jury thought he was guilty and wouldn't budge either way. (It) showed that people are pretty divided. So maybe moving it to another county, people wouldn't be so divided.”

This is a truly diabolical man who has no sense of justice or fairness.  If Hurlbert had a history of exercising his prosecutorial discretion in a sane way, one might conclude that he gave the banker a pass out of a sense of justice.  Given Hurlbert's history of prosecutorial misconduct and abuse, one can only conclude that Hurlbert is accepting bribes.  

Whether these bribes come in the form of cash in an envelop, or campaign contributions, is a question for the Attorney General.  Unfortunately for Colorado residents, their newly-elected Attorney General, John Suthers, is more concerned with protecting an unethical prosecutor than listening to his constituents.