How Dare Rackauckas Lecture Carmona?

* Regarding “Judge Orders Carmona Set Free,” Aug. 22:

Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas helps put an innocent young man in prison and, after a judge frees the wrongly convicted based on the true facts of the case, has the impudence to sermonize and chastise young Carmona by saying, “You are getting a second chance. . . . Do not--I repeat, not--commit any crimes!”

For your information, Mr. Rackauckas, Arthur Carmona would not need your generous second chance if it wasn’t for the questionable and shoddy work of many, including the Irvine Police Department and your office. The only thing you did right was give proper credit to Los Angeles Times columnist Dana Parsons, who sought to rectify an unjust decision.

CESAR MADRID

Orange

* The wheels of justice grind slowly, but in the case of Carmona, they have at long last ground true. It was a joyful scene in the courtroom as his case was dismissed. Unfortunately, he has endured two years in prison, a time that can never be replaced in his young life.

I believe that Dana Parsons’ investigative columns awakened many people, including ordinary citizens like me, to take a hard look at this case and to question it. Today, when so many cast a cynical and critical eye on reporting and bureaucracy, the system can be seen to have redeemed itself to some degree.

May Arthur Carmona rebuild his shattered life and not become hardened against a system that let him down initially.

DIXIE MITCHELL

Irvine

* It never ceases to amaze me how police and prosecutors act after an innocent person goes free. Especially when untoward manipulation of facts or even coercion may be involved in attempts to get convictions.

If not for Times reporter Dana Parsons, another ethnic child would have been unjustly sent to prison and eliminated from society. But rather than celebrating the cause of justice, they (the justice system) admonish an innocent youth for getting away with it this time and berate the media for upsetting their apparent tried and true method of operating.

To The Times, well-deserved kudos for seeking the light of justice.

STEVEN VALDEIVIA

Los Angeles

* Many millions of people believe in karma, that the good you do in life will be rewarded, and also that the evil you do will be visited on you in this lifetime. I hope this is true in the case of Carmona: for the judge, the district attorney, the assistant district attorney, the Irvine police and the jurors who went way beyond what is decent and fair to railroad this innocent boy, and then blame the system, and for city councilmen and newspaper reporters for what they have done.

DENNIS CROWLEY

Huntington Beach

* Judge Everett W. Dickey deserves praise for throwing out the 1998 armed robbery case against Carmona. However, his criticism of Irvine City Councilman Larry Agran is uncalled for and misdirected.

Agran should be applauded for his efforts to right a grievous wrong even if it may be a technical violation of the state bar rules. The judge should have directed his criticism and heaped his scorn on the Irvine police, who placed the robber’s cap on Carmona before the witnesses identified him.

This case demonstrates again that eyewitness testimony too often is the most damaging evidence and the most difficult for the defense to overcome though it is completely unreliable.

Sadly, once again the police were determined to get a conviction, and justice be damned.

MELVIN BRAGMAN

Laguna Woods

* For sheer arrogance, Rackauckas’ tut-tutting of Carmona takes the prize. Carmona was innocent, not lucky.

As for Irvine Police Lt. Sam Allevato, his defense of the rigged police lineup is equally contemptible. Spoken like an alumnus of LAPD’s Rampart Division.

DICK LEWIS

Newport Beach

* So Judge Dickey thinks Councilman Agran’s letter imploring him to overturn the conviction of Carmona is totally inappropriate and he will report Agran to the state bar, even though he was expressing his opinion as a councilman and citizen rather than as an attorney.

Well, I happen to agree with Agran. I also think it was totally inappropriate that Dickey didn’t release Carmona the last time he had a chance. I hope he doesn’t find some place to report me too for saying this.

As for the state bar, a friend of mine reported his former attorney to the state bar for gross negligence and fraud. The bar fined the attorney and threatened him with disbarment. He then refused to pay the fine and is still listed as an attorney in good standing with the state bar because they never followed through.

I was reminded of this last month when The Times ran an article (“Lawsuits to Fit Any Occasion,” July 29) about an attorney who was being threatened with action for filing numerous frivolous lawsuits. A quote from a member of the state bar was given in the article stating that the bar has more important things to do than go after these kinds of attorneys, ignoring the fact that he was costing the victims of these frivolous suits, as well as insurance companies and those of us who pay higher insurance rates, many thousands of dollars and much valuable time.

The state bar has an extremely inefficient system for overseeing and regulating its own. But now that Dickey is angry that an attorney would dare to express an opinion to him in the interest of justice, I bet the bar will get right on it.

TOM LAZARICH

Mission Viejo

* The Orange County district attorney is not convinced of Carmona’s innocence because “He was tried before a fair judge and an honest jury” and was convicted. What the D.A.’s office fails to see is that even a fair judge and an honest jury will convict many an innocent person if the police and prosecution create and/or present “evidence” that is neither honest nor fair.

The travesty of Carmona’s wrongful conviction and subsequent incarceration is further magnified when Rackauckas tells Carmona (someone with a virtually nonexistent criminal history) upon his release, “Do not--I repeat, not--commit any crimes!” Mr. Rackauckas, the crime was that an innocent child was tried, convicted and incarcerated in our country based on nothing in the way of competent evidence, and our district attorney is more interested in public relations than in seeing that justice is done.

Whether we ourselves are the direct victims of racial profiling, or police or prosecutorial misconduct, the lesson is the same: When our system of justice fails an Arthur Carmona, it fails us all.

TIMOTHY BLACK

Laguna Beach

* Agran’s letter to Judge Dickey exhibited a courage, ethic and morality sorely missing from both politics and business today.

This was a letter he didn’t want to write. It would not endear him to the great Irvine constituency. Sticking up for a Latino youth who had been convicted by a jury is not something that “handlers” would advise. It was a letter he had to write because of that aforementioned ethic and morality that he had the courage to employ.

Many times we know what is right but lack the courage to do it. I am only hopeful that the rest of us will find it contagious.

ALLEN BALDWIN

Santa Ana

* I really believe it’s about time justice be done. Another innocent man finally released from jail. Carmona should never have been convicted of a crime he did not commit. If the Police Department had properly done its job and informed the witnesses that the hat they placed on Carmona’s head had in no way been connected to him, he never would have been positively identified.

And I completely resent Rackauckas not only lecturing an innocent boy but also saying that the witnesses were pressured by The Times into recanting their testimony. I can’t say for all of the witnesses, but I know for a fact that Casey Becerra was never pressured by anyone into changing her testimony.

I happened to work with Casey and saw her name in the paper. She did not even know of the actual facts until I showed her the article and she read them for herself. It was the fact that she was duped by the police into believing the hat placed on Carmona’s head had actually belonged to him that changed her mind. The facts, not pressure!

The police officers involved and the D.A.’s office should be ashamed of themselves. It was the police and the D.A.’s office that are pushing an “agenda,” not Dana Parsons. And Mr. Reed, I’m sorry, but yes, you too are at fault in this fiasco. If you had done your job of defending Carmona properly, the facts of this boy’s innocence should have come out to begin with!

BARBARA HULICK

Westminster