Judge Carter letter to citizens

Did anyone else recieve the copy of the letter Judge Michael Carter sent to Mayor Lambi? Kudos to Judge Carter for standing up to them for what is right. Money seems to be what drives our court system and our mayor. While money is important for the city, it is improper to pressure the judge to give larger fines and meet a financial goal they feel he should be bringing in when deciding guilt in criminal cases. Since he is fining less and trying to stop some of the bad practices our court has. For example, there are delinquent members of our city who pay no taxes and live off the government and have committed misdemenor crimes in the past. They are guilty and they should be punished properly. But, our court has decided the only punishment is to add fines. These people make no money and don't pay the fine. So a warrant gets put out for them. They get arrested and held in jail for up to two weeks until the next court day. The judge then gives more fines and they don't pay. Its a never ending cycle in which these people end up oweing several thousand dollars to the city for what was originally a $150 fine. They recieve no credit for the up to two weeks they spend in jail, in fact they get charged for every day adding to the fine, which they never pay.
The bottom line is we the tax payers end up paying for this never ending cycle. Thousands of dollars it cost the city. There are police officers that only arrest these same people over and over. They get a warrant list every month and they try to lock up all the people they can on the warrant list. when you consider the hours the officers spend trying to collect that original $150.00 and the court time they take, and the court clerks and dipatchers that must process all this paperwork it is an over whelming cycle of madness that cost thousand of dollars. This judge tries to break that cycle and Chief Noonan and Mayor Lambi only see what they think is less revenue. The truth is if Noonan was a better manager and this judge would do time served thousands would be saved.
I am all for our police, let me make that clear, but we have a chief manipulating stats to give the appearance that crime is worse than it really is. he then ask for more money each yer to hire more police. Right now the Police Department is severly overstaffed. If the officers focused on answering calls for service and enforcing ordinances in areas of concern to citizens only thre to four officers would be needed on the road at one time. There are double that number. That ends up costing us a few million a year in salaries, equipment and vehicles to pay for the extra manpower. Because Chief Noonan is never challenged he gets away with this. He is a nice guy to your face, but would throw you to the wolves in a second if it made him look better. Right and wrong has been lost in the city of Wentzville and its about time somebody step up, seek out the truth and fix the ill that plaugues our town. I applaud Carter for taking the first step in exposing a web of curruption that must be addressed.
Im sure for many of you there was no reason to think there were problems. The best politicians are experts at disguising their true motives. We have some good politicians. What we need is some righteous politicians in this time of a suffering economy to reign the city in. Keep in mind there are many great people who work for this city. It is no fault of theirs that they serve a corrupt few who have been in power so long they now believe themselves to be untouchable. Has anyone seen that your second in command of the police department is driving around in a $40,000 SUV decked out with about $10,000.00 worth of fancy lights and equipment. Is that really needed? can't he drive a car that cost about $8000.00 since he lives in the city? The waste is abundent and should have us all alarmed!

yes, we got it and a friggin robo call from Carter, but we are glad that someone is finally being candid about the goings on at city hall.

Hendricks

So the judge lets all the criminals' cases be dismissed and then the criminals decide that Wentzville is the place to commit crime because the judge will let them free. If that doesn't scare you to death you are thinking with a deck of 40 cards.

Hmmm, politicians scare me, but a judge most likely tries to administer justice. Is a judge a politician? Regardless, Carter must feel strongly about the justice/revenue thing.\

You know what they say, "you can't buck city hall." Well, looks like Carter's trying. City hall will say whatever it can conjure up to make mayor, alderman, administrator look better -- believe me

WhatTHA wrote:

Hmmm, politicians scare me, but a judge most likely tries to administer justice. Is a judge a politician? Regardless, Carter must feel strongly about the justice/revenue thing.\
You know what they say, "you can't buck city hall." Well, looks like Carter's trying. City hall will say whatever it can conjure up to make mayor, alderman, administrator look better -- believe me

I don't see this as political. I see this whole thing as lack fo safety for Wentzville. When the judge lets criminals slide, the criminals will come to Wentzville to commit their crimes because they know the judge will not do anything to them. Like I said, it scares me to death to know this is now happening in our city when we had a SAFE city prior to this judge being here.

Criminals will come to Wentzville? That seems a little presumptuous. There are separate issues here. Administering justice when defendants, prosecutors, and police are before the juge AND police doing their job to enforce the laws. The judge weighs the facts and makes a decision that is fair and/or impartial. I don't see criminals coming to Wentzville

Wow- did you really say criminals will come to Wentzville? What 'criminal' did he release?
is a failure to appear the dangerous criminals you mean? Or is a person who stalks and chases down people in their car to stop them and yell at them about their driving the criminals you mean? That would be a form of road rage...... and that would be Mayor Lambi who does that!
The Mayor and the City Administrator, City Attorney, adn Police Chief are part of the god-ol boy network.... and they need to be swept away from power in Wentzville.

so this is a political ploy and has nothing to do with safety. Your log in name says it all. I feel sorry for people like you. As far me and my family safety is more important than anything political in your pocket. I agree totally with Fun In the westplex.

As for the criminals this Judge lets walk. They are the hardened criminals who are accused of red-light-camera violations- but can't be verified in the image, and driving without insurance, for the most part.

As for the previous court in Wentzville, their methods for dealing with those people bordered on harrassment and illegal coercion.

Yes you people fearing for your safety should fear those criminals....... they all now know that when they want to blow past a red-light-camera, they can safely do so in Wentzville, then return back to their home-towns.

Do most of the people here know the real issues of this?

All municipal courts are a joke. Try and go to a few. Most the time the judge is best of friends with prosecutor, police, etc.

Who does Carter think he is trying to run a straight ship? Good luck!

I so agree with Carter

I agree with carter. he actually trats people like people. he doesnt worry about the money he actually treats people like they should be treated. just because someone makes one little mistake doesnt make them a bad person. stop judging people because you never know when you might be in that position so keep your mouth shut.

How about the spouse abusers that he let go while I sat there and witnessed that; how about that? He probably beats his wife, which makes it okay in his mind. He is not the friend of any law abiding citizen in this town, he wants to be liked by the criminals. Sit in court and observe his style, it will make you sick.

Really? He let spouse abusers go? Are the Wentzville Police failing to send this crime- a violent crime- to the County Prosecutor? I would believe that part, but the fact he let a spouse abusers go seems to be a stretch of things.
As for you implying he beats his wife, well, you may want to tone that down until you read up on slander and libel lawsuits.

Or maybe, could you be someone tied closely to the Wenztville Political scene- nearly everything you post on topix has support for the current Wentzville political agenda.

Maybe not, but patterns reveal a lot.

not in the political scene, i am into IT and it amazes me how few people are on this site. There are many names but most come from the same computer. I find it interesting that a person responds to a thread that they wrote. I don't believe what I read, so I check out the interesting stuff and form my own opinion on my observations. Maybe someday I will get into the political scene if I want to deal with the few people who try to make everyone look bad but themselves.