I Knew It

Many on the Montana right have bent far enough over backwards to kiss their own arses, in desperate attempt to defend Dennis Rehberg from appearing stupid given his 'ride up the rocks'.  No problem; who cares.

Oh wait.  I care.  And I've said exactly why I cared.  I knew, as any who read this did as well, that the real focus of this 'accident' should be Republicant State Senator Barkus.  I also wrote, quite plainly, that he would get a pass for his criminal activity because he's among what most of Montana thinks are the Impo'tent Folk.  It's coming to pass just exactly as most of us thought it would.

Pogie points out exactly how this case will be dealt with.  Broom the justice under the rug.  Judge Curtis has issued a gag-order about the case.  No reporting; no public view; no honesty.  This didn't even come from Barkus's lawyer; that dipstick knew nothing about it.  But I'll bet that Rehberg's lawyer knew about it.  Anybody in authority want to check a phone record or two?  This is about covering Barkus's ass, nothing more and nothing less.  Rehberg's Mini-Me laid the ground work with his strong defense knowing full well that they all would be obligated to defending Barkus such that Denny wouldn't look more like the tool he is.  And thanks to Curtis, that's exactly what they are going to get.

Here's what we get, kids.  No information relevant to the case.  No justice.  None.  We shouldn't expect any different.  We had a Governor who materially affected an investigation by doing laundry for a suspect in a felony.  There were no repercussions, not one.  There will be none here, either.  Regardless of whose lives you damage, this is Montana, and IOKIYAAR Senator.

Comments

[Craig Moore]

I think you are ahead of yourself here. As I read the news, the gag order is in place until the prosecutor decides whether to file charges. Now why would a judge do that? Some possibilities include preventing poisoning of the jury pool, protecting the potential defendant's presumption of innocence, giving law enforcement and the prosecutor "space" to finish their investigation, and a judge that doesn't want to manage a 3-ring circus. I'm not defending the judge, only laying out some of the possibilities.

[Gregg Smith]

What reason do you have to believe that Judge Curtis is unethical, Wulfgar? Because that is what you are suggesting.

[Wulfgar]

Gregg, I could be 'suggesting' a lot of things. But at no point did I write that Curtis is unethical. She is well within her legal purview to issue a gag order.

However, the questions outstanding are fairly overwhelming.

Why issue a gag order for a case that isn't a case yet? No charges have been filed.

How can a claim be made that such an order is to protect a jury pool if the order is to be lifted upon filing of charges?

Who requested this? The Flathead Sheriff's Dept which is one of the investigating bodies and known to have personal ties to Barkus? Dennis Rehberg's legal council? Did Curtis just pull this out of thin air? We know who it wasn't, and since it wasn't Barkus's attorney it would hardly compromise anyone's legal rights for the public to know who it was.

I wrote in my very first comment about this incident that if this were a bunch of good ole boys and someone had died, we'd be reading about it on the Darwin awards. I still maintain that if this were anyone other than who it is, we would have already known the BAC of the driver, and charges would have already been filed or dismissed. When Bauchus's Montana campaign director was in an alcohol related crash, charges were filed in less than 24 hours. But here we are more than 2 weeks after this accident and what we, the public, have is a gag order. This stinks to high heaven of cover up, Gregg. I'm not accusing Curtis of doing anything other than the job of a judge. But somebody's playing political games here with the justice system we all are supposed to be able to rely on and trust. Right. And know this, it sure as the hell isn't the people that many on the right accuse of playing political games who are doing this. No wonder people don't trust the government.