From the Modesto Bee:
A 33-year-old Modesto man on Monday was sentenced to eight years and nine months in federal prison for assaulting a security guard at a Social Security Administration office in downtown Fresno.
Matthew Faron Blair on October 14, 2014, went to the Fresno office to try to collect his Supplemental Security Income benefits, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento.
Federal prosecutors said Blair became agitated when he was told his social security benefits had stopped but could be renewed by completing additional paperwork.
A security guard was called to escort Blair out of the office. As he was ushered out, Blair assaulted the guard, according to the prosecutors.
The guard suffered injuries on his head and his mouth, which required medical treatment. Authorities have said Blair punched the guard in the mouth and on the top of his head. Blair ran away but was captured in Stockton 12 days later.I've got no problem with active jail time for this guy but eight years, nine months? That sounds grossly excessive to me. It wasn't an assault with a deadly weapon. Medical treatment was required but this article doesn't suggest that the injuries were serious. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have gotten anything like this sentence if the case had been handled in a California state court under California state law.
"Prosecutors said Chief U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill considered Blair’s lengthy criminal history while determining the defendant’s prison sentence."
ReplyDeletePeople get 7 years for manslaughter. This guy got 8 years for basically punching a guard.Not 1...not 2..not even 4 years but almost a decade...prior criminal record or not that's grossly inflated...Is he dead...geeez?
ReplyDeleteI agree with 7:19am and used to do federal criminal defense. He must have had a long and serious criminal history.
ReplyDeleteDesperate men live lives of quiet desperation and then snap one day when system gives them one smack down too many. Then instead of understanding or trying to comprehend why the person snapped, they are given an even more brutal smack down. Keep it up, our gated communities will only give us so much protection as we cut social services, including heating oil assistance, food stamps, health care, unemployment,disability payments etc. and throw people in jail when they cannot meet their basic needs. Compassion is now a four letter word. One used to be able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, now there is a robot to do that and everything else. No job for you. Welcome to the United States of Dystopia. Have a happy 4th! Remember the 14th is only 10 days later.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if 8 years is too many or not. If he in fact does have a lengthy criminal history involving violence, he may need to off the street for everyone's safety.
ReplyDeleteMental illness or not, smack downs one too many or not, we can't allow people of any kind to assault others and use violence to get their way.
And yes, before anyone chimes in, I'm including anyone, so police who abuse their power should not be immune.
In a country with jurors who show consideration to police when the police murder black suspects. Yes,i can believe that sentence.
ReplyDelete9:59 - So the "one smack down too many" you're referring to is the guy being asked to fill out additional paperwork? Does this affront by Social Security somehow in your mind justify assault on a security guard, who apparently was just doing his job? Instead of shedding a tear for a life-long felon and blaming it on a "dystopian" United States, how about realizing that we all have free will and should be held accountable accordingly? There are many people who get the short end of the stick in life, but don't resort to crime and violence. If this guy assaults a guard over some paperwork, who knows what he's done to others that crossed his path. If a federal judge felt that this guy's current and past crimes were deserving of 8 years 9 months in prison, well maybe I'll give the judge the benefit of the doubt. Some people are just bad people. Blame it on society if that helps you make sense of the world, but they deserve to be kept away from doing harm to innocent people.
ReplyDelete250 It is true that I do not know the man's story, but I have seen how many SSA security guards are full of the little bit of authority they have. Mix that with someone who is beaten down and mentally ill, well this is what happens. Do I think it is justified? No, violence is never justified. However,the security guard had relatively minor injuries as these things go.8 years is overkill and the point I was making is that there is no compassion for the unfortunate and when they express their frustration, jail is the answer these days. Not only is that not going to make things better, in the long term it is going to make things worse for everyone.
ReplyDeleteRemember that his benefits had stopped. No money to live on. What would each of us do if we had no paycheck, no money in the bank, no way to pay for a roof over our heads? Folks whose checks are stopped become desperate.
ReplyDeleteI was in a social security office once because I was reported dead and had nothing to live on. I was 2 days from homeless...no where to charge wheelchair after that. Guard there was leaving. He called out social security staff, grabbed my chair from behind and started saying he was arresting me for stealing all the pens in the place. He shook his cuffs a lot. He pretended to write up my "arrest ticket" while staff roared with laughter. Disabled customers were in same area as staff. None of us laughed. I audibly cried at the humiliation as did other disabled there. No staff stopped it. it went on for 20+ minutes. We were not people to any employee present.
ReplyDeleteIt should be required that any security guard serving at a disability hearing site receive training in dealing appropriately with people with mental illness.
ReplyDeleteDear Claimant. Fill out the paperwork on time and return it or get your check shut off. Not hard. Its your job. Do not threaten federal employees. Not hard. Want a check, conduct yourself in an appropriate manner. If that means you bring someone with you to keep you calm then do it. If it means you use the social services network to assist you in completing the paperwork, then do it. Get a rep payee to handle it for you if your condition does not allow you to properly conduct business in public or complete the simple forms.
ReplyDelete8 years is appropriate. Past record and current action dictate punishment. Word gets out that you act up at SSA and you go to jail and people will quit acting up.
Disability is not an excuse to act poorly.
953 I hope that you don't work for the Agency, because if you do, you are living in the State of Denial. When benefits are ceased, it is often done in error and in a manner such that most claimants due process rights are abridged at best. Add mental illness and the results can be unpredictable. You sound like you want to enforce a military code of conduct on claimants. This isn't the military son. Try a little compassion, you might be amazed. Very sad state of affairs.
ReplyDelete"Add mental illness and the results can be unpredictable."
DeleteThen prison is probably the safest place, no? If compassion means releasing unpredictable folks back into the fray to attack more people the next time inconvenience strikes, then you won't find many compassionate people outside this blog.
10:57 AM. Compassion from government employees? I suppose you would also like courtesy, respect, fair treatment, interest in finding out the problem and someone willing and able to fix it? I suppose next you'll want a "the customer is always right" attitude and a nice "hello" when you walk in? Sorry, that's called the "private sector."
ReplyDelete"Fill out the paperwork on time and return it or get your check shut off. Not hard. Its your job."
ReplyDeletePeople who get disability benefits have an impairment that keeps them from doing a job. That's why they get benefits. Filling out paperwork is hard for some people. If you had to fill out a form written in Thai with your toes, and bring it to an office in Lithuania three hours from now to get your paycheck, would that be easy for you? Would you feel like it was fair when you weren't paid?
"If it means you use the social services network to assist you in completing the paperwork, then do it."
Which nonprofit organization in Modesto will travel with any SSI beneficiary to Fresno and wait hours to be seen at SSA? Which ones even handle overpayment or termination of benefit issues? Do they take every single person who asks for help?
"Get a rep payee to handle it for you if your condition does not allow you to properly conduct business in public or complete the simple forms."
You know you can't just conjure up a payee, right? You need to have someone willing and able to do it and SSA has to develop the need for one. And you don't know that the form is simple. Plenty of smart people wind up needing to deal with complicated situations with SSA. Some of them do it on their own. Some hire lawyers. Some use the caseworker services at their members of Congress or go to the media and SSA gets embarrassed enough to have a competent person fix the situation. Some never get it worked out, but have enough other money they choose not to continue the fight over a couple hundred dollars.
"Word gets out that you act up at SSA and you go to jail and people will quit acting up."
Plenty of people go to jail for all sorts of things and it doesn't seem to be much of a deterrent to other people committing the same crimes. Plus if part your disability is that you can't think rationally, weigh costs and benefits, understand consequences, or control yourself, then it's really not going to help.
Many commentators have also missed one factor affecting sentencing. 9:28 and I have done federal criminal cases. Unless the sentencing procedures have changed in recent years since I quit criminal law to concentrate in SSA Dib cases, after entering a guilty plea in federal court, you have very little in the way to immediately determine the level of sentencing which will be used against your client. The case is sent to a federal probation officer who looks up the previous records and 'translates' the offenses into a federal equivalent.
ReplyDeleteFederal Sentencing Guidelines are NOT simply examining a print-out of prior offenses from other courts. The FSG are contained within a thick volume. Many fairly minor offenses, such as some domestic crimes which might be misdemeanors in state court, are translated by the federal probation officer to be "equivalent" to some level of federal felony and given a higher number of sentencing points, the effects of which were never contemplated by the state courts. I had clients of whom the records showed no felonies suddenly having 3-4 state misdemeanors counted as felonies for sentencing purposes. The sentence strikes me as excessive--unless the feds expect the prisoner to serve only a fraction of his sentence, but I doubt is likely.
In California state system, if this was considered to be a 3rd violent felony then would get 25 years to life. If it was a misdemeanor charge it would be up to 6 months which would realistically been at most 3 months due to overcrowding. Doesn't make sense, but then we are a state where a man raped an unconscious women and received 6 months sentence with 3 months off for good behavior...
ReplyDelete12:08 pm. So the solution is to put mentally ill people in prison? Half my clients would end up there!! An expensive proposition, much more expensive than providing them with the basic necessities to live and treating them with dignity and compassion.
Dear 10:57 9:53 here,
ReplyDeleteThis is not Willy Wonkas factory, this is reality. How compassionate should I be, should I be compassionate until injured or killed by someone?
11:41 if it doesn't occur in your area and you care about the disabled, then get up and make it happen.
This isn't rocket surgery folks. Just a bunch of people that expect someone else to do the dirty work and wont do it themselves. If you are not actively supporting the social services in your area with tribute and time then you are the problem.