The tragedy of Kassie Schenck

Fifteen days.

McDonald County Circuit Court Judge John LePage could have sentenced former Neosho Police officer Justin Pickup to one year in jail for providing alcohol to 16-year-old Kassie Schenck, who was killed shortly after that act in an auto accident. That was the sentence recommended by the Missouri attorney general's office, which prosecuted the case, but 15 days was all Judge LePage thought a teenager's life was worth.

As the Joplin Globe noted in its editorial today, Judge LePage has no comment about the sentence, citing ethics. That's convenient, and it is a copout.

However, the final decision should not come as a surprise to anyone. Judge LePage had already turned down the Joplin Globe's request to have a camera in the courtroom. Apparently, LePage believes that Pickup has suffered enough and did not need to have the additional embarrassment of having his face plastered across the area newspaper.

However, as easy as it is to blame Judge LePage for this woefully inadequate sentence, let us remember that one year was the maximum because Pickup was charged with a misdemeanor, not a felony. That decision was made by the attorney general's office.

In a June 2007 interview with Neosho Daily News Managing Editor John Ford, Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland criticized that decision:

The sheriff said initially, the attorney general's office was going to file a felony criminal charge against Pickup but, for some reason, decided to go with a misdemeanor count.

It's a decision which left the veteran law officer perplexed.

"The guy's a cop," Copeland said. "We're not above the law: In fact, we ought to be held to a higher level of accountability. He betrayed everybody's trust: This girl, her family, his department, the community.

"

However, sources close to the attorney general's office told The Turner Report that the mishandling of the case at the local level, namely Copeland's department, is what kept the case classified as a misdemeanor.

And let us not forget, Pickup was an officer with the Neosho Police Department, which had been warned about his improper relationship with an underage girl, Kassie's mother told Joplin Globe reporter Linda Greer:

Karen Cahalan, Schenck's mother, contended that her ex-husband, David Schenck, Kassie’s father, told a supervisor in the Neosho Police Department to "keep your police officer away from my daughter" at least six months before the crash.

David Schenck said Monday that his attorney advised him not to talk about the case. He did say that he spoke on the phone in February 2006 with a supervisor at the Neosho Police Department regarding his concerns about Pickup hanging around his daughter.

From the beginning, the system failed Kassie Schenck, an underage girl who was provided alcohol by an adult...a police officer at that. After her death in a car crash, the investigation was apparently screwed up, and then on Wednesday, the case ended predictably.

Fifteen days.

And, oh, yes, he cannot be a police officer in Missouri. At least that's something.

But it's not enough.