Sunday, November 02, 2008

Dec. 3 trial set for former Collins mayor

The trial for former Collins Mayor Allen Kauffman is scheduled for Dec. 3 in Newton County Circuit Court. Kauffman is charged with three counts of enticement of a child after being snared in one of Diamond police officer Jim Murray's internet sex stings.

Kauffman, who is also a minister, is being represented by southwest Missouri's most prominent criminal attorney, Dee Wampler of Springfield.

Kauffman pleaded guilty to a Cole County charge of sexual misconduct with a minor earlier this year, was given a suspended sentence and ordered not to use the internet.

1 comment:

Suzanne said...

ROMANS 14:13
“Let us not therefore judge one another any more; but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.”
I, for one, appreciate a little "truth" with my "justice" and there is no truth in an arrest brought about by lies and deception from law enforcement. I am not sure when all of these imaginary scenarios became a way of life for law enforcement. Some say it was when the Supreme Court said that law enforcement did not have to identify themselves as such. I am not sure. What I am sure of is the fact that our citizens are doing "real time" for "unreal crimes". The Bill of Rights ensures that we have a right to face our accuser and in created crimes there is no accuser. There is no victim!
I started researching police causing or bringing about crimes when an entrapment touched me and my family. It has been a nightmare! I have been, however, surprised at the amount of people that find such actions acceptable.
Entrapment is defined as "the luring by a law-enforcement agent of a person into committing a crime". (Per Dictionary.com) They say that it is only entrapment if the person involved would not have normally committed this crime. Who makes that distinction? The arresting officer? The court? Who? That is my biggest problem with all of this - we will never know the answer to that question or to what extreme law enforcement went to draw the person in.
Millions of dollars are received by the states to pay for these games so this gives them incentive to carry out such practices.
I remember an America when taxpayers paid police to "protect and serve". Now they lie and deceive to make arrests. My grandson asked me - "so cops can lie?" - I sadly had to respond "yes, they can." As I realized the impact of just what he had asked me I became overcome with sadness and I realized that he will not look at the police with the same vision I had of them as a child. My father was a policeman with integrity and I was so proud of him.