Yuri Wainwright update...

[JMC]

Charles Yuri Wainwright voluntarily entered a plea of guilty to the original charge of cyberstalking through electronic media today in the 12th Circuit Court of Forrest and Perry county.

http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080620/NEWS01/80620016&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

[OTM]

Just as I called it.

[virgo]

Even more interesting...

Wainwright will be released and placed on four years of probation under the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

[TheKing]

keeping the boy a year in jail while his case is being 'reviewed' at an impossible bond... only to give him probation?

something is amiss

[OTM]

Time served and probation. What's amiss about that? That's all he was going to get anyway if they went to trial if he was found guilty.

[politically incorrect]

So, this guy was such a threat and was so dangerous that he is kept in jail on $1 million bond for over a year, and he gets put out on the streets with probation? Either the authorities were dead wrong at first when they charged him or they are royally screwing up now letting a wacko back into the public domain.

If he is a homicidal maniac, will he care about the conditions of his probation? Shouldn't mental health treatment be a condition - as in being put in an institution, perhaps?

Just wondering.

[Fish-Bait]

bagel.

[Pirate_129]

Anyone ever stop to think Wainwright nor his attorney's ever tried to have the bond reduced because they knew they were going to plead guilty and felt serving the time in the county jail would assure him probation at his sentencing? Time served in county is far better than time in state custody and any attorney worth their salt will tell you this.

Stop looking for the conspiracy and apply a little common sense. Wainwright never even filed for a bond reduction hearing. He would likely have had several hearings over the course of a year had he wanted one. He would also have likely gotten a significant bond reduction had he fought for it.

The bottom line is he knew he would be convicted and was likely advised to stay locked up in county to give him a chip in bargaining for probation and the possibility of expungement. If you'll look back, this is what myself, OTM, and several others versed in the system and tactics of dfense lawyers predicted would happen months ago. :smt023

[marion]

I'm not suprised at all. However, I am rather disappointed with his sentencing. Granted, we still don't know exactly what he did and probably never will but he did plead guilty to a cyberstalking charge. I'm sorry but that kind of charge should NEVER be expunged from someone's record. I understand drug charges but not that. Sure he may not have been serious but this isn't something to play with.

I'm also wondering about mental health treatment as well but it may have been included since the paper only listed some of his punishment (at least that's the way it sounded to me).

[hryder29@comcast.net]

Read the official court documents that are available on the Hattiesburg American website. There is a great deal of information in those documents that provide a better understanding of this story. My opinion is that he needs mental health treatment and that it should not be out patient. Read the documents and then post comments.

[marion]

Read the official court documents that are available on the Hattiesburg American website. There is a great deal of information in those documents that provide a better understanding of this story. My opinion is that he needs mental health treatment and that it should not be out patient. Read the documents and then post comments.

Thanks for pointing this out. I didn't even notice them.

[marion]

Okay, so if this is all going to be expunged from his records, assuming he complies with everything the court ordered, how will anyone ever know that he's not supposed to posses a firearm or any of the other things listed? I'm sure there has to be a logical answer to this....

This just bothers me. That list of no-no's is nothing but words on a page. If Yuri wants to posses a weapon, he will. If he wants to threaten or harm those people, he will. Granted, he might go to jail afterwards but it won't make much of a difference after the deed has been done. The documents say he has mental problems, consequences often don't matter to those that do.

[Optimus Prime]

The online documents at the HA say that Wainwright was charged with "Cyberstalking-Posting of Messages Through Electronic Media in violation of Miss. Code section 97-45-17..."

I don't know if the district attorney doesn't know the Mississippi Code or if the online version of the code is erroneous, but section 97-45-17, the law Yuri was charged with--but not found or declared guilty of--violating, does not mention "cyberstalking." There is a separate statute for cyberstalking.

This is why I have always maintained, in other forums, that it is of the utmost importance that we know what Yuri wrote that got him locked in jail on a $1 million bond. The standard of 97-45-17 is as follows:

"A person shall not post a message for the purpose of causing injury to any person through the use of any medium of communication."The term "injury" is not defined in the statute or in "Computer Crimes" chapter of the code. Neither the words "threat" nor "cyberstalking" appear anywhere in the statute that Yuri plead guilty to.

But they still haven't, and now apparently never will tell us what Yuri wrote. So we don't know what the state's standard is for a statement that causes "injury" to "any person." That's unacceptable in a country where we're supposed to enjoy free speech.


The cyberstalking statute (97-45-15) has an altogether different standard and does mention threats:

(a) Use in electronic mail or electronic communication any words or language threatening to inflict bodily harm to any person or to that person's child, sibling, spouse or dependent, or physical injury to the property of any person, or for the purpose of extorting money or other things of value from any person. (b) Electronically mail or electronically communicate to another repeatedly, whether or not conversation ensues, for the purpose of threatening, terrifying or harassing any person.
(c) Electronically mail or electronically communicate to another and to knowingly make any false statement concerning death, injury, illness, disfigurement, indecent conduct, or criminal conduct of the person electronically mailed or of any member of the person's family or household with the intent to threaten, terrify or harass.
So which one did Yuri supposedly do? Did he cause "injury," like telling Bill Crosby (mentioned in the court documents) his class sucks? Did he put that in a MySpace email? Or did he threaten to inflict bodily harm or physical injury to Bill Crosby and/or any of the other people Yuri is now supposed to have nothing to do with?

Well, we'll never know which one Yuri did, unless he tells us. Fortunately, there was no gag order mentioned in the court documents. Maybe there is one and it just wasn't made public.

But back to my original point--why was he charged with violating 97-45-17 if he was really violating 97-45-15 or vice versa? Is it legal or just plain correct to charge someone with a crime--cyberstalking, in this case--that isn't even mentioned in the cited statute? I mean, can district attorneys just mix and match statutes to fit whatever they feel makes their case stronger?

For example, if the court document had said Wainwright was charged with "Murder-Posting of Messages Through Electronic Media, in violation of Miss. Code 97-45-17" even though murder isn't mentioned anywhere in 97-45-17, would that have been a problem? I mean, I would think so, but apparently not, if the standards we see here are any indication.

[wilebill]

So do you think he'd just plead guilty to something that he didn't do? Was his lawyer a goober and doesn't know the difference between a 15 and a 17?

[Optimus Prime]

Yeah, people plead guilty to things they didn't do all the time. It's not their first choice, of course, but when they have been rotting in jail for over a year under a $1 million bond they can't afford to pay, they want the **** out of jail. So they must've told him, "Look, just cop to it--you'll only get probation and we'll let you go."

They get the headline they wanted--"Yuri Wainwright pleads guilty" (he originally plead innocent)--and Yuri gets to walk. They don't have to say what evidence they had or didn't have on him, and there must not be a gag order because they've done such a thorough job of making him seem like a nutcase (although his "mental condition" is not specified in the court documents) that they figure no one will believe his side of the story.

This is not justice. This is absurdity.

[marion]

Yeah, people plead guilty to things they didn't do all the time. It's not their first choice, of course, but when they have been rotting in jail for over a year under a $1 million bond they can't afford to pay, they want the **** out of jail. So they must've told him, "Look, just cop to it--you'll only get probation and we'll let you go."

They get the headline they wanted--"Yuri Wainwright pleads guilty" (he originally plead innocent)--and Yuri gets to walk. They don't have to say what evidence they had or didn't have on him, and there must not be a gag order because they've done such a thorough job of making him seem like a nutcase (although his "mental condition" is not specified in the court documents) that they figure no one will believe his side of the story.

This is not justice. This is absurdity.

I think you must've missed this part:

"The Defendant/Respondent was evaluated by medical doctors at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield who diagnosed him as having a mental condition rendering him potentially dangerous to others in the future." (from State of Mississippi versus Charles Yuri Wainwright, Agreed Order http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/assets/pdf/DB111082620.PDF ) Did the doctors at Whitfiled just make that up?

Frankly, that scares me to death, probably even more so for the people he threatened.

[Optimus Prime]

No, I didn't miss that part. I mentioned the "mental condition" in my post above. Specifically, I noted that the "mental condition" is conspicuously unspecified. Well, that leads to all kinds of speculation as to what the condition could possibly be, and given Wainwright's incarceration and the unproven charges against him, most people will assume he's schizophrenic or psychotic or some such.

The part about being "potentially dangerous to others" applies to everyone in the world--we all have the potential to be dangerous to others, and that fact is unremarkable. We can't assume the worst or the best about Yuri's mental condition because it's intentionally left unspecified by the court.

Yuri doesn't scare me to death--what scares me to death is someone being locked in jail for writing an email. Did he threaten someone? I don't know. None of us know. And that's why it's unfortunate that this didn't go to trial, because then we would've found out. The prosecution would've had to put their cards on the table. But they didn't.

So hopefully Yuri will now log back on to his MySpace page and tell us what really happened. Or maybe he'll join myhattiesburg...

[Optimus Prime]

And as for whether or not the doctors at Whitfield just made up Wainwright's diagnosis...

I wouldn't put it past them. After all, the district attorney made up a charge--"cyberstalking-posting of messages through electronic media." It's easy to imagine him telling the Whitfield people to get creative with their diagnoses.

[marion]

The part about being "potentially dangerous to others" applies to everyone in the world--we all have the potential to be dangerous to others, and that fact is unremarkable. We can't assume the worst or the best about Yuri's mental condition because it's intentionally left unspecified by the court.



Well, seeing as how the doctors at Whitfield could have deemed him as NOT being a threat to society, as they sometimes do, it becomes pretty remarkable.

I'm sorry, I just cannot believe that EVERYONE involved, including Yuri's lawyer, made up this whole senario. You can continue believing whatever you want.....

[Optimus Prime]

I only want to believe the truth. And we don't know the truth of anything regarding this case because they wouldn't tell us anything before the trial, and now five days before the trial, it gets shut down, assuring that the facts will never come out under oath.

But don't you find it the least bit curious that even though 97-45-17 says nothing about cyberstalking, the court order combines two separate statutes--97-45-15 and 97-45-17--into one?

I just noticed that the court order also made public Yuri's complete Social Security number. That's a nice touch.

[OTM]

Yeah, that's what Yuri should have done, gone to trial and risk going to prison so some bleeding hearts could see what the evidence was and what he really did...please. We've already gone over this before, but all of these bleeding hearts should have taken up a collection and signed the bond and got him out of jail if they were so concerned. Btw, DA's let defendants plead guilty to a different charge from what they were originally charged with in order to get around some sentencing guidelines with the original charge. I don't know if this was the case, but it's possible in this case and maybe that's what Yuri's attorney worked out for him.

[Prissy39110]

So, this guy was such a threat and was so dangerous that he is kept in jail on $1 million bond for over a year, and he gets put out on the streets with probation? Either the authorities were dead wrong at first when they charged him or they are royally screwing up now letting a wacko back into the public domain.

If he is a homicidal maniac, will he care about the conditions of his probation? Shouldn't mental health treatment be a condition - as in being put in an institution, perhaps?

Just wondering.


i agree with the homicidal maniac part...if he is nuts then probation will not stop him. He will simply re-offend.

[Prissy39110]

Yeah, that's what Yuri should have done, gone to trial and risk going to prison so some bleeding hearts could see what the evidence was and what he really did...please. We've already gone over this before, but all of these bleeding hearts should have taken up a collection and signed the bond and got him out of jail if they were so concerned. Btw, DA's let defendants plead guilty to a different charge from what they were originally charged with in order to get around some sentencing guidelines with the original charge. I don't know if this was the case, but it's possible in this case and maybe that's what Yuri's attorney worked out for him.

:smt023

[Pirate_129]

...and the charges are no longer unproven. :smt023