Kuzma, grave thief, sentenced
Yesterday we discussed major scumbag POS Joseph Kuzma who stole grave makers from veterans’ cemeteries in Genesee County, NY. He was sentenced yesterday, but according to David Andreatta, a columnist at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle justice wasn’t done. He was allowed to plea the charges down;
Prosecutors allowed him to plead guilty to attempted third-degree grand larceny, as though he had only attempted to steal those flag holders and hadn’t actually pulled it off.
“I’ve been trying to figure that one out myself,” said Tom Williamson, the commander of the Sackett Merrill White American Legion Post No. 575 in Bergen, which he said supplied the flag holders at about $36 apiece. “This isn’t an ‘attempted’ thing. They caught him with them.”
One of the hundreds of missing holders was at the grave of Williamson’s father, a World War II Navy veteran who is buried at Mount Rest Cemetery in Bergen.
The Daily News Online details the discussion that took place in Judge Robert C. Noonan’s courtroom during the sentencing;
Noonan said Thursday’s court appearance “could have been much more serious.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t get caught in the act by one of these veterans,” Noonan told Kuzma. “It’s unimaginable what they would have done to you.”
Noonan sentenced Kuzma to four months of weekends in jail, beginning Friday; and five years probation.
He also ordered him to pay $17,455.50 restitution, the cost to replace the markers, a five percent surcharge and a $325 court fee.
Restitution will be $300 a month beginning in September for Kuzma, who has no job and is in drug treatment.
In the D&C article, the author explains;
Plea deals are the grease that keep the wheels of the criminal justice system in motion, and they usually involve a defendant pleading guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for the prosecution expediting a conviction. That’s why they’re called “deals.”
Kuzma was caught red-handed, dead-to-rights – he had nothing to deal with. He has no job because he’s a stinkin’ junkie, so good luck trying to get restitution from a stone. His LinkedIn profile says that he has an MBA from St. Bonaventure University, another trust-fund Little Lord Fauntleroy. If he lived in Metro DC, he’d be wearing spandex in DuPont Circle and his mailbox door would be missing, along with at least one of his employees.
Category: Shitbags
No job and drug treatment.
This is my shocked face.
If I was a well bred southern lady this is whereI would say… “Bless my heart,, I do believe I have a case of the vapors”.
But since Im just an ol’ rebel boy I’ll say, fuck that ass-mongering cock-jockey.
“You’re lucky you didn’t get caught in the act by one of these veterans,” Noonan told Kuzma. “It’s unimaginable what they would have done to you.”
Hey, Your Holy Honor: Fuck you. What one of is would have done was have him arrested so that “justice” might be sought by the prosecutor (which it wasn’t–and which you approved.)
Being a California Paralegal who has worked for criminal Attorneys was assigned cases of assholes stealing, etc. If the Attorney I work for ever gave me a case as above, I’ll quit my job before I find laws to protect the scum. We have to put down our feet and say hell no to these kind of theft’s and the Judge should of given him time, fat fine and 1,000 hours of community service to care for our veterans’ in VA hospitals. What this scum got was a slap on the hand. Had the Judge been in the Military he would of gotten worse. He was probably in law school instead of going into the military. There is a Judge in San Diego County Court who had a case of a Marine just back from the middle east who was going through a crappy day and got pulled over for speeding. The young fella told the Judge I am guilty and have no excuse for being stupid. Judge asked him how long and where he was deployed. In Iraq SIR, 18 months and I’ve been home two months. Your first time in Iraq? Third time, SIR. Ive been in for 13 years. Judge said to the Marine and the others in the court, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE CASE DISMISSED A idiot surfer who was sitting behind me said that’s crap loud enough for the Judge and Bailiff to hear and before the Judge called the next case. When his case came up it was for the same reason as the Marine & the Judge let him know he heard what he said. Why do you feel it was crap that I dismissed his case. He’s just a Marine. I see you don’t understand so for speeding $500 fine, $500 for contempt of court, speaking out loud in my court & so you understand 300 hours of community service at the Veterans hospital. I was the first to stand up and clap as the others did the same. As I left the courtroom, the idiot was outside waiting for his… Read more »
Drugs and no job. Now it all makes more sense. The nice picture used here threw my first impression off.
“If he lived in Metro DC, he’d be wearing spandex in DuPont Circle and his mailbox door would be missing, along with at least one of his employees.”
If I bestowed awards for blogging, that sentence would have just earned one.
I don’t know why anyone is surprised by this it happens every day in hundreds of courtrooms across the nation.
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most egregious example this is barely a two. A guy stole some shit from a cemetery got caught and is pleading it down…no violence was perpetrated and that’s a major factor in this kind of deal.
When you see a guy who knocks a senior citizen down at the ATM and runs off with their withdrawal pleading down and receiving a lighter sentence that’s truly infuriating.
Stealing some brass from some dead veterans is reprehensible but I’m not even a little surprised that this is all that’s happening to the perpetrator.
If you really want to be outraged, spend a week or two in open public court in your community. You will quickly realize our justice system has very little to do with justice and very much to do with moving product downstream, the product being perpetrators and the downstream being some kind of result. Plea deals make results without trials possible, it moves business along at a tidy pace and that’s all our justice system really cares about keeping the system moving.
The thing that irritates me is that I recently took some steel and aluminum to the scrapyard. I had to fill out paperwork, show ID, have a photo taken, then wait two weeks for them to send me a check… all because I was selling non-ferrous metals. They did everything but measure my left testicle and I am sure that all of my particulars now reside (again) in some distinct government database.
There has been an entire layer of regulation and bureaucracy established and maintained to mitigate this crime and presumably to capture and punish the offenders.
Why do I get the feeling that because I have a job, money in the bank, and a non-drug habit that I would not get a plea deal.
Like I said in the previous thread about this critter, the scrapyard I’ve sold metal to in the past (Old refrigerator and aluminum siding from Casa Infidel®™) required photo ID, the transaction was not only recorded on video and audio, everything was passed via a drive through Teller’s drawer. Maybe, JUST MAYBE something like that helped seal the case against that little SH!T, but I wonder if the scrapyard he sold the stolen goods to tried to do what’s right, or did they just process it like the scum of the Earth that Kuzma is?
Sealed the non prosecuted case. Yep.
You know? That gave me an idea.
Find out which scrapyard he sold those to and then go after the scrapyard with a few hundred pissed off Veterans.
We may be old but that just means we have learned the routes of treachery even better.
I get that same feeling, that because I’ve been one of the good guys and paid my taxes since I started working a paying farm job at age 14 and served my country that there are no deals for me.
Something else to consider, at least it seems to me, is that it might look like Kuzma got off light but there are a couple of gotchas in the fine print. For one, the original charge was pleaded down to “attempted” theft, but still remained a felony. It would be interesting to know if a plea deal actually had the option to go to a misdemeanor.
Kuzma is also somewhat screwed on the probation tail and restitution payback, which run concurrently for five years. Depending on circumstances, if he violates probation, including not paying back the restitution, he’s looking at the four-year max on the felony beef. The $300 per month restitution might not seem like much until you consider, despite his MBA, that Kuzma’s job prospects are likely to be real grim based on the recent conviction. Not to mention the whole drug thing.
Meanwhile, Genesee County or New York doesn’t have to pay for feeding and housing Kuzma’s sorry butt except for the initial weekends.
No, they won’t. But he’s now unemployed, and will likely be unemployable for a while. That means he’ll likely start drawing SNAP and housing assistance funds from some local program that’s a passthru from Uncle Sugar.
So while the people of Genesee County and NY won’t foot much of the bill for this tool – and might actually recover part of what they spend – the rest of us who pay taxes will likely end up paying for at least a part of his groceries and subsidizing his housing.
Assuming Kuzma could even get welfare, that would also have to assume the welfare would be enough to cover the $300 per month restitution. The big question being what happens if he is unable to pay it. Is that a violation of probation? If it is, and he stays unemployed, then he might be headed to the slammer for four years.
I’m not defending Kuzma, he’s the societal equivalent of toe fungus; all I’m trying to point out is that the sentence is not as lenient as it appears at first glance.
PG: There are no debtor’s prisons any longer. So, yes, technically a probationer is in violation if he fails to pay as agreed, if he lacks the resources to pay. But, at worst, his probation will be extended to give him additional time. Also, when it comes to restitution (as opposed to fines, court costs, and other fees), many states permit a civil judgment to be entered, which will survive the term of probation, if he doesn’t pay.
If he’s a doper, he’ll violate. They always do.
The snotnosed metrosexual-looking little booger-eating bedwetting unemployed JUNKIE got his case plead out in front of some “Let ’em loose Bruce” of a so-called judge, and now he goes free (for now). Just what will the so-called Justice System in his locale do not if BUT WHEN he’s caught fucking up once again? Another slap on the wrist, or maybe, JUST MAYBE the ticklemonster-looking creampuff’s case will end up on the desk of a prosecutor and judge that actually give a sonofabitchin’ mudda-fuxx about treating criminals like they should be? Maybe he’ll get caught in the act by some Vets and get what’s coming to him? That or he’ll end up back in jail and be the “Property” of bubba, Thor, and the rest of his cell block. I wonder if he’s related to the right people, and that’s what got him that slap on the wrist?
I guess we should be glad he got anything at all, perhaps?
This imbecile supposedly has an MBA and he can’t find a job? There are jobs going begging, and he can’t find one? Geez, OTR truckers make more than the value of those grave markers and flag stems. I’d say his real problem is that he has no brains.
I’d say no brains, no conscience, and no soul!
Doper junkie EX-Ph2 that’s why his MBA isn’t worth shit…he can’t stop using. I suspect that’s why he can’t find a job and why he figured stealing a hundred pounds of brass would bring some more dope money for his drug buys.
He probably stole the brass for drug money because his portly spandex-clad boyfriend didn’t show up for their date in the DuPont circle gay bars because said date was either passed out from too much T-Bird or he was plotting how to get a new door for his mailbox!
Not boyfriend, boss. Karen Ricci’s disappearance has left an unfilled job for him at FirsTech.
Give him some time.
He will start with claiming to be a fake Native American at first and then….well…take a guess.
APL is looking for a manager for its non-ferrous metals acquisition team, this guy seems to have the right skill set.
Quote EX-PH2
“OTR truckers make more than the value of those grave markers and flag stems.”
Several years ago I talked with a friend who managed the training of the new drivers for a local trucking firm. At the start of the second week attrition was about 25 percent of the class, as that was when the DOT drug screens came back.
I just fervently pray that every weekend he is in prison is a unending ordeal for him.
What a shitball.
Hmmmm. . . . . hypothetical here. . . .
What 2/17AC said is right, a REAL vet would have had this booger snatcher arrested and put through the judicial system.
BUt NOW that “justice” has been done, and this grave robber let back out on the street, NOW a vet can let loose with his/her full emotions, and next thing we’ll hear about this grave robbing booger snatcher, is that he was found as a pile of plasma and indistinguishable flesh at the back end of a dark alley.
Just sayin’. . . hypothetically. . .
Weekends in the county jail, getting three hots and a cot and money that he does have since he had to steal the flag stands for his drugs? Yeah, how much would you like to bet that he is back in court within the month.
Idiot should have been given a long period of time in jail, where he’ll receive personalized “therapy” sessions with Drs. Thor, Tiny, Julio and Bubba.
I’m still not in shock over the what the Judge did here… Did anybody notice this turd was claiming to be a Eagle Scout… ????…
Back in the day 90s that is
Weekends in jail and a broke guy ordered to pay restitution… yeah, right.
Re the judge’s dumbass comment – if a vet did decide to school this guy, he would probably be charged forthwith, not to mention lose his productive job, possibly residence, credit, maybe even children to CPS. There is a reason it is called the “criminal justice” system, as opposed to ‘victim’s justice’ or some such.
I just spent some time on google looking at other plea bargains approved and sentences imposed by the judge in this case, Noonan. From sexual assaults to possession of drugs, and all points in between, if you want to commit crime, you need to get yourself to Genesee county, New York. It’s a criminal defendant’s dream. Even in the rare instances when someone goes to trial and is convicted, the prosecutors up there often will recommend kindly sentences. In fact, from what I’ve seen, I’d have to say that the sentence in this case was harsh, compared to most.
NY has both elected and appointed judges.
If this one is elected, the voters of NY are getting what they apparently want and deserve: a judge who also is IMO a fool.
Fuck Joseph Kuzma douchebag no class thief and child of privilege.
Shitbag! Hey Joseph Kuzma, after every weekend for the next four months, you’re gonna need some Anusol AND Preparation H waiting when you get home. See if the pharmacy can get them for you in the gallon jars!
We remember you Eilane Ricci and we’ll keep a light on until you come home.
I wonder just how soon he’ll fuck up again, and if they’ll do jack shit to him the next time?
#FreeElaineRicci
Well, Having had to deal with a similar situation with a neighbor of mine, who “helped himself” to a bunch of plaques and markers from the local cemetery, I can offer up this much:
If this thief thinks he can shirk off those fines, he’s in for a rude awakening. At least he should be. My neighbor tried to claim he was too poor to pay them off as agreed to, as he was on “disability” for his drug addiction.
The state took all but $50/month of his SSI/SSD check, and put a lien on any tax return he might get from both the state and the IRS. In addition, they suspended his driver’s license. Up here they will also take away any professional license/certificate you might have as well, until the fine(s) are paid off.
Here’s hoping his state will follow a similar path.