Concerned over disproportional prosecution of petty crimes

By Caleb Gabel, Charles City

In case you haven’t been keeping up with recent court proceedings in Floyd County, you may not be aware that trial is underway stemming from 12 Charles City graduates being cited for underage drinking from July of this year. Underage drinking, a simple misdemeanor (which I am sure many of us have committed at some point in our younger lives), is the lowest level of crime and punishable by a $65 fine.

While I am certainly not advocating that underage drinking be legalized, I am hoping that our County Attorney’s Office keeps in mind that “throwing the book” at Charles City’s young adults is not proportional to the simple misdemeanors that allegedly occurred. Most of these defendants have no criminal records, are respectful young adults, and have contributed greatly to our community. All of the defendants are in college, and are forced to miss class and work in order to travel back to Charles City to sit in court for a simple misdemeanor charge.

In addition, police officers are forced to appear in court after their regularly scheduled shifts (when they should be at home with their families) to testify regarding a simple misdemeanor. Unfortunately, overcharging and an unwillingness to cooperate with first-time offenders charged with petty crimes is a recurring theme in Floyd County.
I urge County Attorney Rachel Ginbey to consider the following when evaluating cases in the future: “is this prosecutorial response congruent, proportional and fair to the charged offense?” Factors such as wasting taxpayer resources, prior criminal records, defendant remorse, plea deals, creative solutions in lieu of criminal prosecution, and ‘the bigger picture’ should always be considered prior to taking every crime to trial. For example, community service or a one day alcohol education class could have been offered to the graduates. In that situation, everybody wins and nobody loses. After all, trials are prosecuted on the tax payer’s dime and should be reserved for drug and violent offenses.

These graduates will not become “reformed” citizens, and our community will not become “safer” if they are convicted. In fact, it will unnecessarily make job hunting for these graduates that much harder once they graduate from college.

Let’s not forget these graduates are the future of our community. Whether or not they choose to return and raise a family someday likely depends on how fairly and reasonably they are treated, and whether their criminal records will be ruined as they apply for jobs. These graduates are not hardened criminals. Let’s keep our hard working police officers on the streets fighting crime, and Charles City alumni in college, not defending petty crimes at trial.