NO JUSTICE FOR JON: Florida Judge Kills the Rule of Law on Broken Back of Dead Motorcyclist

Today, America officially died as the last bastion of justice for the wrongfully deceased and their families. Any hint of optimism we may have had left, which was not much, must now be eradicated from our conscience. Abjection is the new standard of jurisprudence in America.


First, we had O.J. Simpson’s baffling acquittal led by his rhyming lineup of “dream team” lawyers. Then, Casey Anthony's “trial of the century” circus act grants her a staggering verdict of innocence juggled and dropped on our fragile psyche by the incompetent State of Florida. Now, add another name and face to the list of late victims stripped of their due justice: Jon Michael Green.

On May 3, 2010, Jon Michael Green, age 23, lost his life[1] tragically to a distracted, careless, and negligent driver in Southeast Florida. Jon was traveling eastbound on his 2007 Kawasaki motorcycle in Pembroke Pines, Florida, when a driver named Fran Folic failed to account for Jon in the opposite lane, failed to yield the right of way, and turned left directly into his path, ejecting him from the motorbike instantly. Jon first struck the pavement more than fifty feet away from the initial point of impact, tumbled uncontrollably several more times before finally coming to rest against a sewer drain catch basin.

He was unconscious, unresponsive, bleeding profusely, and suffering from a litany of internal and external ghastly injuries. And yes, Jon was wearing a helmet. Jon died less than 48-hours later in a level-one trauma unit from massive and catastrophic injuries.

Unfortunately, Jon didn’t just die from his body-shattering injuries, his family had to withdraw life support and watch him helplessly suffocate to death in torment. Why? A team of neurosurgeons and trauma specialists unanimously agreed Jon’s injuries were so substantial, so complete and irreversible, that he was a “locked-in” quadriplegic[2] with a fractured and crushed spine, unable to breathe on his own, unable to move at all, not even flutter his eyelids—his condition was beyond grave; it was hopeless.

Jon’s mind, however, was alert, horrifyingly intact in fact, and keenly aware of his own imminent death. Jon’s only means by which to communicate his mental lucidity: a nurse holding open his eyelids manually while doctors assessed his mental status through a series of simple, “look left for ‘no’ or right for ‘yes’ questions and answers. Jon’s binary acknowledgments through his left or right eye movements showed they where consistently and appropriately proper. He was trapped silently and impotently inside his own completely broken, hemorrhaging, and dying body. The only compassionate decision afforded to his family was to free Jon’s tortured mind from a flaccid body through death.

Then, on July 15, 2011, more than a year later, after numerous delays, baseless continuances, and farcical defense shenanigans, in a small, quiet courthouse minus any media attention in Hollywood, Florida, the accused, Fran Folic, was implausibly exonerated of Jon’s death. After nearly five hours of tense courtroom testimony, Judge Arlene Joy Simon acquitted Fran Folic of failing to yield the right of way and, as a result, blameless for Jon’s fatal injuries. The grounds for such an incongruent decision? No Intent.

A driver of an automobile may now presumably drive carelessly and negligently—according to the dishonorable, perhaps venal, and certainly malfeasant Judge Arlene Joy Simon—so long as their resulting actions (in this case, a tragic and fatal motorcycle crash), do not show deliberate “intent.” Judge Simon shockingly opined, since punishing the driver of the SUV, Fran Folic, would not bring back the dead, she pronounced, against logic and overwhelming and indisputable evidence, the accused was “not guilty.” In the eyes of the State of Florida, and in the homunculus mind of Judge Simon, Fran Folic was not guilty because she and her own two living children had suffered too much angst while waiting for trial. Pity the living. Punish the dead.

Yes, you read that correctly, a driver can turn left while failing to yield the right of way to oncoming traffic, cause a fatality, and still be acquitted because "the defendant did not intend harm” and “it will not bring your son back." The ignoble Judge Simon uttered this obtuse and obscene verdict from the bench to the decedent’s mother, Susan R. Green, with virtually no deliberation and only moments after closing arguments. Justice, and this justice of the court, is not only blind, deaf to reason, but also callous and cruel.

Judge Arlene Joy Simon ruled unconscionably, since the defendant did not willfully intend to strike the motorcyclist when turning left and failing to yield to oncoming traffic, she therefore could not find her blameworthy. Still worse, Judge Simon disregarded the corroborating testimony of a near dozen eyewitnesses and the investigating police detective, evidence, pictures, reports, measurements, calculations, and charts of the crash scene inexorably showing Ms. Folic at fault. Moreover, the judge misconstrued, painfully mangled, and even ignored outright Florida’s traffic statutes and existing laws.

Parenthetically, while testimony and evidence from a related civil trial are inadmissible in a criminal proceeding in Florida, the defendant, through her liability insurance carrier Allstate, determined Ms. Folic to be the “at-fault driver” and settled the wrongful death claim out of court for an undisclosed amount. Further, Ms. Folic was cited by the Pembroke Pines Police Department, after a four-month homicide investigation, with two moving traffic violations, “failure to yield the right of way through a highway crossing section,” and, “failure to yield the right of way when turning left.” The deceased, Jon Green, was not posthumously cited nor did the police traffic investigation or the homicide investigation uncover any wrongdoing on Mr. Green’s behalf.

In other words, it was a mockery, a sham; a kangaroo court proceeding in a banana republic presided over by a prejudiced judge. It was a sick joke; a grave transgression perpetrated on the Green family and a courtroom debacle that disgraces the memory of a young, blameless motorcyclist who lost his life at the hands of negligent SUV driver. Or, as one bewildered but astute courtroom observer asked in disbelief, “How is it that you're ‘allowed’ legally to fail to yield to traffic? It makes no sense at all!”

As a result of this contemptible edict by a legally illiterate judge in Broward County, Florida, a person need not heed traffic laws any longer, as there are no consequences to one’s neglectful actions, even when they fail their duty of care to another motorist when operating an automobile. Consequently, going forward, according to the vacant Judge, Arlene Joy Simon of Florida’s 17th Judicial Circuit court, the punishment of lawfully wrong actions is vitiated when there is no intent. Egregious and negligent accidents and crashes, however, are permissible.

So, people of Florida and America too, listen up, drive as inattentively as you like with total disregard for public safety, just be confident you didn’t “intend” to speed, or “intend” to run over pedestrians, or “intend” to crash into motorcyclists, etc. Spin the steering wheel in any direction you prefer, spin your wheels as hastily as you desire, mash the accelerator at will—hell, blindfold yourself as you enter the vehicle, but know, no matter the outcome—even death, it’s the intent, or lack thereof, that really matters. Neglect, it seems, even when it results in paralysis and death, is now officially sanctioned by Florida and their deplorable Judge, Arlene Joy Simon.

I once said modestly, “I navigate the avenues of life best when I traffic in words.” However, this time, I have no words expressive enough to traverse this travesty of injustice.

Author’s Note: A blog in honor of the memory of Jon Michael Green, entitled, NO JUSTICE FOR JON, has been set up by the Green Family so people may voice their outrage publicly over Judge Arlene Joy Simon’s egregiously wrongheaded not guilty verdict and, “to broadcasting the injustice of the malfeasant ruling by the dishonorable Judge Arlene Joy Simon of Florida’s 17th Judicial Circuit court.” Membership is not required to leave a comment (simply chose “anonymous” in the comment box section), but please also consider joining this worthy, cost-free cause to help put an end to non sequitur decisions by activist judges who chose to legislate from the bench, rather than uphold and follow the letter of the law.

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References and notes:
[1] http://www.vindy.com/news/tributes/2010/may/07/jon-michael-gree/guestbook/

[2] “Tetraplegia,” or quadriplegia, is a devastating state of illness or injury that leaves the victim with no motor or sensory function and a complete loss or near total impairment in controlling bowel and bladder, independent limb movement, sexual function, digestion, breathing, including cranial muscle paralysis, and other autonomic functions. A “locked in” quadriplegic usually retains some or most of their mental faculties, typically aware of their grave state, but unable to move or communicate with the outside world in any fashion.

Why Palin is a Danger to Us All

A Ranelli Rumination
BY FRANK J. RANELLI

Tuesday, October 07, 2008


If we are to succeed as a nation, we all must be in utter agreement about who Sarah Palin is as a person; she is stunningly uninformed and breathtakingly overconfident. Orwellian with an outward, Machiavellian patina is an aptly just description of Palin.

However, her unconcealed, overt certitude is potentially the biggest problem of all. She has mastered the art of flowery platitudes and sneering contempt. All of which, to the low-information, Neanderthal voters we are all unfortunately witnessing first hand from the right wing political spectrum, combined with her tacky, sophomoric charm, actually makes her very attractive, in a very spine-chilling kind of way. She uses blatantly appealing demagoguery to create eerie exultations among a fringe fraction and faction of Americans – the visceral, not cerebral coterie that follows her with frightening credulity.

It is this set of events and actions that concerns me the most. She is a glib, authoritarian person who has a Manichean mindset – a dualist – one who only sees the world as good or evil; no nuance, nothing abstract or ever vague. Moreover, after judiciously studying authoritarian personalities for over two years, I can tell you they are loose with facts but stridently persuasive. They are charming, disarming, almost irresistible, yet completely morally bankrupt and amoral. They are hostile toward intellectuals, takes pleasure in deriding academia and immense pride in their willful ignorance.

The problem here is they are masters at using base intellect, not intelligence, to plead to people's pathos. (Many grisly dictators of the past were all "gifted" experts at this tactic.) In essence, they are scheming, devious and capable of anything in order to subvert the will of other people in order to achieve their objectives. And their objectives are not inline or in step with a progressive, balanced America – they are wholly recalcitrant reactionaries.

Here, with Palin, we see the pathology and pattern of someone infatuated and fixated on one's identity to the exclusion of others – an inborn need for social dominance (often overlooked as merely being "spirited"), personal ambition bereft of circumspection, outrageously aggrandized bragging, arrogant immodesty, and total insensitivity.

It is these sophistry skills and nefarious guile that disturbs me greatly. All of these traits are markers identified in one of only two groups of maladaptive, narcissistic personalities – authoritarians and sociopaths.

Do I make these indictments lightly, no, but it has become increasingly clear that Sarah Palin's confrontational convictions are more than a benign personality tick; it is a deeper insight into how she would govern a nation in every respect: Unflinchingly autocratic.

Stop her, we must!

Religion’s Fruitless Journey

A Ranelli Rumination
BY FRANK J. RANELLI

Written Monday, September 29, 2008


All religions, by their very nature, are illogical, fruitless journeys for the weak of mind. Faith is a deceptive and disingenuous path that is a stark dichotomy of danger and delusion. I see faith as a poor attempt to bridge the unknown—a lazy one, barren and hostile toward science and reason, intellect and progression. It requires no evidence, or even credibility, but merely faith itself—which is simply an irrational endeavor into self-delusion out of an innate need, perhaps to assuage one’s own internal doubts about life. I find these ideas personally astonishing and crippling—I see them as a hollow crutch for people who have doubts, fears, and struggle with mortality. Denial of man’s own mortality is the sole purpose he clings to an Iron Age creed and a nonexistent supernatural deity. Ignorance plays a part, but it is more about temporal rejection and acceptance of our own fate and fears. Blindly obedient faith—the uncritical view that fantasy trumps fact—is the indisputable and unpardonable transgression of humanity; it is the wedge that divides our universal commonality into a chasm of intolerable intolerance. Accordingly, proclaiming piousness and quoting apocryphal scripture does not give one the privilege to make a statement of fact sans sufficient and irrefutable evidence, of which, in regards to religion or God, there simply is none.

Why America Will Falter

A Ranelli Rumination
BY FRANK J. RANELLI

Thursday, September 18, 2008


My own conclusions are rather nihilistic, but history and historians support this theory (See Kevin Phillip’s; American Theocracy). All governments historically – from the ancient Roman Empire to the modern American hegemonic State – always end up expanding until they collapse. This is ubiquitously brought about by over-reaching imperialism, jingoism, exploitation of religion and economic overreach. It is further precipitated by hyperinflation, uncontrollable debt and deficits, combined with reckless leveraging and borrowing. Inevitably, and thusly, leading to an economic crisis and collapse, causing an entropic decay and demise of the nation state. It is akin to a malignant cancer that grows exponentially until it kills off the host – society itself.

Warmonger McCain gets it wrong…again!

John McCain’s latest effort to extol the false virtues war:


"When you win wars, troops come home,” John McCain, July 21, 2008

Actually,

“When you wage war, people die.” Frank J. Ranelli, 7/21/2008

:: ::

Just another, “War is Peace”, Orwellian quote from John McCain.

Why Conservatives Can’t Govern

BY FRANK J. RANELLI

June 21, 2008

The straightforward, yet wholly emblematic and exemplary truth about conservatives – how they view government and how they govern – can be discerned from the utter underpinnings of what conservative values [sic] denote. In essence, one cannot stand in opposition to a government of the people and then set about being good stewards of the government when placed in positions within the very government they oppose. If one possesses a grand antipathy for government then it is antithetical to believe that the same people who are hostile to its (government) very existence could – or will – be competent at governing in any way conceivable.

Put another way, a person or group of people who deem government as the problem therefore becomes (or creates) the problem and not the solution. When conservatives adjoin with the exact entity (government) that powers the will of the people – with which they have such anathema for and have pronounced it as the ills of what ails us – we as a citizenry and a nation are irreparably harmed.

To be curt or pithy, Republicans are the “party of me” and Democrats are the “party of we.” Henceforth, We the People, hereby demand our government be returned to its rightful owners, “the People of these United States”, and not a group of despotic plutocrats who are fueled by hatred and run on narcissistic greed.

The absence of proof as God

A RUMINATION BY FRANK J. RANELLI


Religion is still the greatest threat to humankind’s own extinction. It is gravely disturbing that the ABSENCE OF PROOF is the clarion call for a large swath of sanctimonious supporters who believe a dubious figure of ancient canonical lore will magically appear, and soon, as a redeemer for the devoted few.

However, it is refreshing that an emergence of sanity – through a renaissance of rational-thinkers – has risen up in opposition to the religious, reactionary throng of certitude in mysticism as authenticity.

So many of us are duped into denial and deluded by proselytizers who indoctrinate us from life’s true reality. Therefore, I find it to be a prescient sign of the 21st century’s ‘movement realism’ that has begun to wholesale reject religion and the foolish optimism of mystic liberating deities.

Finally, a small but bonafided subset of critical and independent-minded thinkers have emerged to confront once-sacred canon as dubious and not beyond reproach. Thusly, the time has come to dispel the myths, lies, and duplicity of religion.

It is time for that “true reality” to be revealed – that god simply does not exist.

Somber Ship of State

A RUMINATION BY FRANK J. RANELLI


The rise of the Authoritarians and Neoconservatives – and their manifest drive to create oligarchies for business and a plutocratic society – should generate immense concern and desire for a seminal change, but will it ever?

As a progressive research writer and author of four years now, I find a vast majority of Americans apathetic, dejected and complacent, rather than galvanized and poised to affect desperately needed change. Among other causes, “distracted consumerism” may be, in my judgment, a core cause.

When O.J. Simpson’s latest arrest garners the lion’s share of media coverage, while the restoration of a keystone of democracy, habeas corpus, receives only a cursory glance, I find myself disturbed and worried that Americans have truly lost our way and our roots as an egalitarian society governed by the rule of law.

As contemporaries of it, are we too myopic to see we are living through another gilded age and only history, long after this era has ended, will correctly narrate the events of the first part of the 21st century?