Replies to '03/16 Cheerleader Scandal'

How do you know that her lawyer screwed her except by what you heard her say on the show?  Yes she was 17.  Yes she was undoubtedly scared - she was facing a charge of 1st degree murder.  Did her attorney have her sign an initial plea deal for involuntary manslaughter?  Probably.  But  the prosecutor's representative caught it and would not agree to involuntary manslaughter.   She admitted that she had to acknowledge that she knew the deal was corrected to voluntary manslaughter before she went in.   Did somebody tell her she might get 120 days for involuntary?  Maybe.  Did she assume she'd get that same sentence for voluntary?  Apparently.   Would she be spending life in prison if she'd gone to trial?  The prosecutor apparently thought so.   Maybe her attorney assumed she was smart enough to realize that when the plea bargain changed from involuntary to voluntary that there would also be a change in the expected sentence (she was an A student after all, and her parents appear to be reasonably intelligent.)   Did they assume wrong?  Uh, yes.   Are most felony cases in this country settled by a plea bargain?  Statistics say yes.  Do most people, after being in prison, look back and wish they'd at least tried their luck at trial?  Probably.   Did Brandi go to court and try to get her sentence overturned?  I think so.  Was she successful?  I think not.   Did the appeals court and her appeal attorney think her defense attorney had screwed her over?  Apparently not.   Do they have access to more facts of the case than we do?  One would have to assume so.   Is it a darned shame that our court system has to make plea bargains to avoid being swamped with so many cases there wouldn't be time to hear them all.  I think so.    Did Brandi get screwed?  No more than anybody else in the same circumstances.   

It's nice hearing from someone who has firsthand knowledge of the salient events and facts and is so able to objectively present them.  

Oh, you're from Virginia?  

You must have been visiting in Missouri the days you're referring to, otherwise where would you had gotten such drop-dead information. 

My daughter is now facing jail time because she refused to plead guilty to a crime she did not commit.  Anyone who believes that only those who do the crime do the time, is very naive.  Proscutors are in the business of getting a conviction. They are not paid to investigate, and you are on your own and a very easy target, if you don't have an excellent lawyer or experience with the "justice" system. 

And by the way, she was never in trouble before, is newly married (2 years) and the mother of a 2 month old beautiful baby girl. 

I truly feel for the families.