Plea Bargain Wrong
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Recently, Superior Court Judge Storch sentenced Charles Bothwell to state prison for the murder of Robert Foster. Interestingly, this occurred after Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury plea-bargained this down to manslaughter and requested no jail time. Only the victim’s wife and Judge Storch saw the error of Bradbury’s lenient plea bargain.
While Foster was a vile, hideous man, he was nonetheless killed in cold blood by Bothwell. Having formerly worked in Bradbury’s office, I’m sure his motivation for this plea bargain was to avoid a highly publicized trial that he might lose. This is a cowardly act by Bradbury. In the past, he has allowed some misdemeanor crimes to go unpunished, but now he has done so with a homicide.
Perhaps if Bradbury had spent more time prosecuting crimes such as those Foster committed, and less time scheming ways to get his face on 20/20, he would not have to now decide which residents of Ventura County can be murdered.
PETER E. BROWN
Ventura
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