Perfect example of what's wrong in our society.

[Erebus]

Man pleads guilty in FHS cheerleader rape case

My comments are in red.

By Jonathan Graham
Sentinel & Enterprise
Article Launched:

WORCESTER -- A Fitchburg man was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in state prison for kidnapping and raping a 17-year-old Fitchburg High School cheerleader because her brother owed thousands of dollars in drug money.

Nolen J. "Spider" Holzapfel, 26, of 219 Milk St., pleaded guilty to 17 charges in Worcester Superior Court Wednesday, including rape, assault to rape, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of armed assault in a dwelling, and two counts of armed robbery.

Holzapfel answered Superior Court Judge John T. Lu's question's quietly during Wednesday's hearing before pleading guilty as part of a plea deal with District Attorney John Conte's office.

His white dress shirt was buttoned up to his chin, hiding the spider tattoos on his neck.

Holzapfel, along with Lunenburg resident Francis G. Leach, broke into the 17-year-old victim's Fitchburg home early in the morning on Aug. 25, 2004, Assistant District Attorney Paula Frasso said.

"Mr. Leach was looking for (the victim's older brother) to settle a drug debt of $50,000," Frasso said.

When they could not find her brother, the two men forced the girl into the back of their car at knifepoint, Frasso said.

Holzapfel sat in the back of the car with the victim, and he raped her as they drove toward Lunenburg.

"(The victim) was then blindfolded, then driven toward Newburyport, where she was put on a boat," Frasso said.

The two men left threatening messages on the victim's brother's phone, one of which told him that his sister was "all hemmed up," Frasso said.

Police issued an AMBER Alert after the kidnapping, and 13 hours later, the victim appeared back at her home, barefoot.

Holzapfel and Leach had previously broken into a Lawrence Street home the same morning, but had only found the roommate of the man who owed them drug money, Frasso said.

Holzapfel and Leach took the roommate to the rape victim's house at knife point, but he escaped.

Frasso said prosecutors dismissed two home invasion charges because the crimes required a minimum 20-year sentence.

Prosecutors also reduced the rape charge from aggravated rape, and a kidnapping charge from aggravated kidnapping as a part of the plea deal.
***?!?! He kidnaps, rapes, and terrorizes a 17 year old girl over a dispute she had nothing to do with and they lower and drop charges? Why, were they afraid that they couldn't get a conviction? This makes no damn sence. This guy should go away for life and they went out of their way to go as easy as they could on him!!

Frasso said the incident's two victims agreed with the plea deal.
I wouldn't have agreed to anything less than pliers and a blow torch.
Lu ordered Holzapfel to be registered as a sex offender and undergo sex offender counseling.

A jury found Leach guilty earlier this year of two counts of home invasion, two counts of kidnapping and two counts of armed assault in a dwelling.

He is serving a 20- to 25-year sentence in state prison.
So the accomplice gets 20-25 and the actual rapist gets 18-20?!?!?!
The jury acquitted Leach of all rape charges in connection with the incident.

Fitchburg Police Chief Edward Cronin has called the 2004 incident "one of the most heinous crimes I've seen."

Leach, of 79 Mt. Vernon St., Fitchburg, has filed a motion requesting a shorter sentence, but Superior Court Judge John S. McCann has not yet ruled on it.

Holzapfel's attorney, Leonard Staples of Ashburnham, said he may come back to the court to request a shorter sentence for Holzapfel, if McCann reduces Leach's prison term.

"I would file a motion to revise and revoke ... I don't know what's going to happen with the co-defendant's motion to revise and revoke," Staples said.

Staples said before the hearing that Holzapfel could have received a sentence of more than 30 years if a jury had found him guilty on all charges.

And they wonder why they can't stop crime. They don't even try to. They blame guns for crime and then go easy on the criminal.

 

[doubleg]

Hope her brother is happy. He got his sister killed because he wanted to be a "stick up kid". You dont just go around and steal 50,000 from a bunch of drug dealers, murders, and rapists.

 

[Erebus]

Actually she's not dead she was released after hours of horror, but yes the brother certainly bears some level of responsibility.

 

[Alex45ACP]

Sounds like another victory in the War on (people who use certain types of) Drugs.

 

[Manedwolf]

It's Massachusetts. They're VERY soft on criminals. New Hampshire's DOJ and police departments are angry at them for this, saying, rightly so, that their sentencing endangers New Hampshire cops because violent felons come over the border.

One that just killed the first NH cop killed in the line of duty in over 30 years was one, who wasn't even put away for attempted murder much earlier in Massachusetts...it was just that the gun failed to fire. And after he killed the cop, he ran to his grandmother's in MA and hid. Thankfully, though, he was stupid and made calls on a cellphone that the police tracked the location of. It even took an effort to get him extradited back to NH to stand trial!

Massachusetts doesn't even enter felons in the FBI database they're supposed to. Only about five percent actually get put in.

If you want to be a violent criminal, it's a great place to be. Plea bargains, reduced sentences and time served is pretty much it.

It's also, I believe, the only state where thugs caught in felony assault or armed robbery go right back out on the street, but a law-abiding citizen carrying pepperspray without a permit can get a two-year sentence.

So when you say "our society" and "our country", look what state the incident's gone on in. If it's IL, MA or most of CA, it's not "our country" at all.

 

[Standing Wolf]

New Hampshire's DOJ and police departments are angry at them for this, saying, rightly so, that their sentencing endangers New Hampshire cops because violent felons come over the border.

Well, yeah, but doesn't New Hampshire send all those killer guns to Massachussets?

 

[hqmhqm]

It's very frustrating to see all these cases in MA of basic slaps on the wrist to violent repeat criminals, and then they turn around and try to restrict the purchase of guns for law abiding citizens even more. Virtually every one of the crimes committed with guns here are done my felons who already are not allowed to purchase or own them, and virtually zero of them are committed by legal gun owners, yet every time a crime is committed there are cries to restrict the sale of guns even further.

The real irony is that the so-called tough gun laws here are never, ever, in practice applied to criminals who commit crimes with guns, because they are structured to be in conflict with all other sentencing guidelines. So in practice, the "mandatory" year in jail for illegal gun possession can only be applied to someone who has committed no other crime at all, and in practice is never used.

That, combined with obscenely light sentences for violent crimes, makes a for a weird, almost surreal, environment for discussing 2nd ammendment rights.

 

[Jeff White]

So when you say "our society" and "our country", look what state the incident's gone on in. If it's IL, MA or most of CA, it's not "our country" at all.

This kind of thing happens in all 50 states and the 4 territories. It boils down to money. We don't fund the court system adequately. There are only so many courtrooms, judges, prosecutors and public defenders. The court system can only handle a small fraction of the cases that are filed. So rather then tie up a judge, prosecution team and defense team for the weeks a jury trial can take, plea bargains are offered.

I don't like it anymore then you do. But that's the way it is everywhere in the US.

It won't be a change in public attitude that will end the death penalty in the US. It will be the cost of prosecuting a capitol case.

Back in September I attended a class the Illinois Attorney General's Office put on about investigating and prosecuting stalking cases. The lawyers from the attorney generals office made no bones about it, make a good felony case so we can get the perp to plead to the misdemeanor and not have to go to trial. The asistant states attorneys in the class all nodded their heads, the cops, well we just rolled our eyes.

That is what our legal system has come down to. So if you really want to fix it, you should demand that the legislature provide the money so that our court system can handle the caseload. This will mean you, the citizen is going to have to make the unpleasant choice of cutting other government services or raising your taxes.

Jeff

 

[Kim]

Live in a rural area. Things go alot faster. Less plea bargins. Stalking, rape and murder are not taken lightly. Stupid gun charges will be more over looked. A little more common sense. I had a stalker. He got charged with terroristic threating. This was 11 years ago. I actually told the prosecutor what sentence I wanted him punished with. He was 19. Kinda a pervert with porn. I told him a felony charge that will never be wiped off the books, no jail time and 5 years probation. That is what the Judge gave him. I could have got him jailed for a few years but I thought that too harsh. He pleaded guilty. He would have lost a jury trial. It was taken care of within a month.

 

[Kim]

There is nothing unpleasant about cutting gov. services. We could cut the budget by 75% and not cut anything that was constitutional and a necessary function of our government. I mean they spend 2.7 trillion a year on the book alone.:banghead:

 

[Jeff White]

I live and work in a rural area. About 1/3 of the cases we file get to trial unless the suspect pleads out. I recently had two people I arrested for aggravated battery released and their bond money returned. They had to do it that way so they could bring the charges again. If they had kept the bond, and the 120 days to get to trial came and went, they would have been kicked loose and there would have been no chance of ever bringing them to trial on those charges.

As for cutting govt. serivces, I'm all for it, but you're not going to sell the public on the idea.

Jeff

 

[Manedwolf]

That is what our legal system has come down to. So if you really want to fix it, you should demand that the legislature provide the money so that our court system can handle the caseload. This will mean you, the citizen is going to have to make the unpleasant choice of cutting other government services or raising your taxes.

That's an easy one, I think. Start massive oversight on porkbarrel programs, prohibit funded riders in unrelated bills, and slash the hell out of entitlement programs, make "welfare" into "temporary circumstance self-enablement assistance". Period.

 

[Leatherneck]

That's an easy one, I think. Start massive oversight on porkbarrel programs, prohibit funded riders in unrelated bills, and slash the hell out of entitlement programs, make "welfare" into "temporary circumstance self-enablement assistance". Period.

Right. As if you could get a legislator and his/her constituents to kick the pork habit. Good luck with that. :banghead:

TC

 

[fineredmist]

Most of the people in the Socialist Republic of Ma. deserve this treatment as they elect and relect the feel good liberals who pull this crap. Vote them out and put in some people with backbone and things will change.

 

[MechAg94]

I am not sure if welfare is the problem anymore so much as social security. No seems to want to touch that.
I guess welfare may still be an issue at the state level.

Yeah, govt funding is not the issue. Getting the govt to spend the money on the right things is the issue.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

This kind of thing happens in all 50 states and the 4 territories. It boils down to money. We don't fund the court system adequately. There are only so many courtrooms, judges, prosecutors and public defenders. The court system can only handle a small fraction of the cases that are filed. So rather then tie up a judge, prosecution team and defense team for the weeks a jury trial can take, plea bargains are offered.

The average debt coming out of law school is on the order of $80,000 according to LSAC. In Dallas, a public defender or prosecutor makes around $40-50k/year. So to work as a prosecutor or public defender is essentially accepting that on top of your taxes, car and house payments, you will also be paying 10% of your salary to debt relief for about 20 years. As you can imagine, huge debt load + noncompetitive government pay is not a very appetizing choice for many law students.

The surprising thing to me is how many choose to take that career path anyway because they enjoy the work so much. If it weren't for criminal defense clinics and internships with the local prosecutor that expose students to this type of work, I bet the problem would be even worse than it is now.

 

[The Drew]

We don't fund the court system adequately. There are only so many courtrooms, judges, prosecutors and public defenders. The court system can only handle a small fraction of the cases that are filed. So rather then tie up a judge, prosecution team and defense team for the weeks a jury trial can take, plea bargains are offered.

Maybe the system is overloaded because of too many ridiculous laws??? Maybe the criminal justice system should stop worrying about what people do in the bedroom (prostitution) what they put in their bodies (War on Drugs)what "weapons" they happen to be carrying, and start enforcing laws like those against rape, robbery, and murder.

 

[buzz_knox]

This kind of thing happens in all 50 states and the 4 territories. It boils down to money. We don't fund the court system adequately. There are only so many courtrooms, judges, prosecutors and public defenders. The court system can only handle a small fraction of the cases that are filed. So rather then tie up a judge, prosecution team and defense team for the weeks a jury trial can take, plea bargains are offered.

It's not just about money. It's also about personal attitudes. A judge in TN decided that a couple of boys needed a father, so he only required a child rapist to serve time during the week, so he would be available to mentor the boys on weekends. In doing so, the judge ignored testimony that the father showed a video of the assault to the boys.

In another case here, three perps confessed to a rape, but charges were dropped. The victim left town and the perps went back to school. Apparently, the DA didn't want to rock the racial boat.

 

[highlander 5]

I live in Ma and never voted for a Dem in my life it sucks living here and can't wait till I retire.
BTW last year Vermont Judge gave a CHILD MOLESTER
30 days in jail you wanna talk about someone's ass being in the cross hairs.

 

[Erebus]

Maybe the criminal justice system should stop worrying about what people do in the bedroom (prostitution) what they put in their bodies (War on Drugs)what "weapons" they happen to be carrying, and start enforcing laws like those against rape, robbery, and murder.

Agreed
But as far as the courts go they let people who are convicted of or plead guilty to horrible crimes off with a wrist slap all the time.

 

[mike101]

I wish I could say I was against capital punishment, and mean it. I don't think it's much of a deterrant. It's more like revenge.

Then, I read about something like this, and I'd happily throw the switch on the creeps myself. Life in prison is too good for them, but they should have at least been senenced to that. I wonder how long until they are up for parole ?