UPDATE: TRAWICK SACKS ROBBINS FOR FIVE YEAR LOSS
The long, sad saga of former Oakland Raider center Barrett Robbins has come to a conclusion with a five year prison sentence of the former NFL star for violating his probation for testing positive for cocaine. The Herald has the story here.
We're not criticizing Judge Trawick here, but we are disturbed by the sentence. ASA David Gilbert (another fair and well respected player in this saga) asked for a prison sentence.
It is well known that Robbins is bi-polar. People with mental diseases self medicate with drugs. It just strikes us as wrong that we send mentally ill people to prison. We don't send overweight diabetics who self medicate by eating Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream to prison. But we send mentally ill people to prison all the time. And the quote attributed to Mr. Gilbert that Mr. Robbins deserves prison time because "he is big and quick" and thus presents more of a danger than, lets say a 5 foot 100 pound Miami Dolphin Cheerleader, also strikes us as wrong.
We recognize that Mr. Robbins was given chance after chance and at some point there are no chances left. And that's probably what happened here. It's just sad that we all know Mr. Robbins is mentally ill and prison is the best we can do.
FRIDAY'S SYMPOSIUM: THUS SPOKETH RUMPOLE.
And BTW, this shows that our judiciary needs qualified individuals with the varied life experience Mr. Kuntz, a former journalist, has. We hope he runs/applies again.
Also, follow Robert Kuntz on Twitter @RobertKuntz.
"SOME OF MY BEST IDEAS COME FROM MY CLIENTS."
It's a good post with a simple but often overlooked practice tip- speak to (not at) your client, and listen (and don't interrupt) when they respond. It's amazing what you will learn.
Have a great weekend. For those of you not writing op-ed pieces on the late Justice Rhenquist, it is a beautiful day (so we hear) in South Florida (as we fly back from LA). Get out and enjoy Florida and we will see you in court Monday.