Aaron Hernandez charged with 1st degree murder; released by Patriots

[Reverend]

 
I missed the article that reported that he wanted to get put in general population, can you link that?

 
I can't get HTML to embed in Lombardis, but go here (NECN.com story) and check the video at 01:25.

 

[Rovin Romine]

Still confused as to what a guy in cuffs is doing alone in a hallway with no guards there.

 
That's what it's been reported as - who knows what really happened.  I know Rev's done a lot of prison research, so he might flesh out what's going on here.   This is where AH is being held.  http://www.bcso-ma.us/facilities.htm
 
***
 
Thinking about that indecent exposure case reminded me of a few things to share.
 
Generally, jails are used to house short term offenders (usually sentenced to less than a year) and those awaiting trial.  Jails are usually based in the municipality that has jurisdiction, which is usually the county.   
 
State prisons (as opposed to Federal prisons) are usually state level institutions, like the name suggests.  They house people sentenced to longer terms (usually more than a year).  (There's yet another layer of incarceration involving home arrest, detention in a medical facility, detention in a psych facility, etc.) 
 
While there's a lot of litigation and regulation for both jails and prisons, they can be administered in radically different ways.   While I've yet to see a pleasant jail, some are relatively clean and violence free.  Others seem like they're out of Mad Max.  I don't know what kind of jail AH is in (meaning the "culture" inside the jail).  It's not inconceivable that a guard might leave two people in close proximity.  Depends on the policies of the jail really. 
 
***
 
If you're curious about jailhouse culture and want to see something interesting, Louis Theroux did a special on Miami's main jail.  I'd recommend it and have linked it below.  Most of the footage is from inside the jail, and the inmates are actual inmates.  (This is the jail I spend most of my time in, as it's the largest pre-trial population, although Miami has 4 other jails, two generally considered better, two generally considered worse).  I think Theroux did a pretty good job showing the actual culture without exaggerating or downplaying.  
 
I don't watch many cop, crime, legal, jail, or prison TV shows or movies.  For every insightful bit, there are three times as many things which are total BS.  
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnTKrfd7Hss
 
 
There's also a separate 7 min. special on the 9th Floor of that same jail - which is the psych floor, aka "the forgotten floor."
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61oLKebaEdo
 
There was a large lawsuit over the 9th floor.  It sort of changed, and sort of didn't.  The conditions really were as bad as portrayed.   I haven't been on the 9th floor since 2010.  (As a private attorney, I usually don't get retained for this kind of thing, since many people on the 9th floor are indigent.)  However, when I was a PD, I pretty much always had at least one client on the floor.  I also did a rotation in what was unofficially "the county mental health docket."   The green smock things you see the guys in are called Furgeson gowns - basically padded canvas wraparounds like dresses.  Named after: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/05/john-errol-ferguson-executed_n_3709871.html
 
I've probably posted both these here before.  I just think they're something people out to see/know about how our country often is. 

 

[Granite Sox]

He can't run the route tree in there, can he?

  
Spider Y Banana

 

[Reverend]

 
That's what it's been reported as - who knows what really happened.  
 

 
I finally found a report in the NY Daily News that addresses the jail's public statements--it's kinda incredible how many people are content to repeat TMZ's initial report.
 
Anyway, as I think a few of us suspected, it's not yet clear, but if it wasn't a set-up, looks like someone really fucked up.
 

Only one inmate is supposed to be in the area at a time, and the former NFL tight end has purposely been kept segregated from other prisoners because of his celebrity status.
 
Aaron Hernandez, 24, had kept his nose clean during his time in jail until Tuesday, when he was involved in a fight with another inmate.
 
Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson would not confirm who started the brawl, but said neither inmate needed medical attention and that the punchout was over within one minute. Three guards were nearby, Hodgson told the Daily News.
 
"Following our investigation, we'll be able to determine if one or both of the inmates will get any disciplinary action, from a rule violation to administrative discipline or it could rise to criminal charges if it's determined that one was involved in directly assaulting and battering another inmate," Hodgson told the News on Wednesday.
 
Hodgson said that the housing unit has eight cells total - six of which were occupied at the time of the fight.
 
“It’s a specialized unit, the procedure is one inmate allowed out at a time, so obviously that’s a concern to me and everyone here, that there was potentially a shortfall, a systematic failure in our procedures,” he said. “We’re going to look at, why were they out at the same time? Was it a judgement error on the part of a staff member, some emergency or something, what exactly was it?”
 
Hodgson said the claim that the unidentified inmate was handcuffed would be looked at as part of the investigation, which is expected to take a few days.
 
Inmates cannot interact physically with one another at the segregated housing unit, but Hodgson said they can verbally interact.
 
The other inmate reportedly was harassing Hernandez all day before the beatdown, according to reports.
 
Hernandez was out of his cell during his rec time, when he can “make phone calls, take a shower, what have you,” when the fight erupted, Hodgson said.
 
 

 

[JimBoSox9]

Forget about Aaron Hernandez for a second.  If this other guy ran his mouth all day at a badder dude because he knew it was hear-but-can't-touch, and then got his ass beat down because a guard made a (honest or otherwise) whoopsie in the hallway....that's hilarious.

 

[Reverend]

Forget about Aaron Hernandez for a second.  If this other guy ran his mouth all day at a badder dude because he knew it was hear-but-can't-touch, and then got his ass beat down because a guard made a (honest or otherwise) whoopsie in the hallway....that's hilarious.

 
Having to listen to wanna-be-super-thug run his mouth all day could well lead to an annoyed corrections officer making an "otherwise" whoopsie in the hallway, in fact.
 
It would be risky and stupid to do with such a high profile inmate where news is likely to get out, but a lot of COs, even the ones who are decent people, aren't exactly rocket surgeons.
 
Edit: But yeah, while I am very anti-prison violence for a number of reasons I've discussed in several forums, the wanna-be who's tough while safely behind bars/body-guards/shielding/bulletproofglass/whatever and the fierce and powerful person/animal/alien/whatever who gets whomped when the bars unexpectedly get rolled back is pretty much a staple of schadenfreude dating back to... hell, there are probably cave paintings of Grok taunting a saber-toothed tiger from a tree who gets mauled when the tree gets knocked down by a sudden storm or something.

 

[Marciano490]

 
Oh yes.  FL has very permissive void dire rules.  I did the void dire - took about an hour and a half for my portion.  Packed house - all the interns and a couple of my colleagues came to watch.  The prosecutor was so turned about/embarrassed that she basically let me pre-try the case.  
 
In fact, we were sort of surprised we ended up in trail - we thought the embarrassment/absurdity factor would drive down the offer to something reasonable.  It still cracks me up.  We tried to do it straight faced but couldn't.  In retrospect, I think the laughter helped.  Laughing juries are more likely to let something slide.  
 
One prospective female juror (not seated) said something along the lines of: "and I don't know, isn't it like, like torture, to make someone stop halfway?"  I soft-pedaled the response (don't even remember what I said), but my trial partner later told me he'd have given me nearly anything if I'd responded with, "God bless you ma'am!" 

 
Please tell me you made an 8th Amendment argument.

 

[Rovin Romine]

 
Please tell me you made an 8th Amendment argument.

 
Sure did.  First amendment argument as well.   (I did both motions for JOA, and my trial partner closed.)  The judge seemed less than amused though.  
 
I also worked in a Lawrence argument about government intrusion into sexual expression.  FL actually has a good pre-Lawrence case on this, Campbell, in which the arresting undercover officers were not considered to be "offended," even though they witnessed indecent behavior.  You have to also read the underlying DCA decision to understand the circumstances the court was ruling on in Campbell, but taken together they're pretty progressive for 1976. http://www.leagle.com/decision/1976620331So2d289_1620
 
I looked up the case again because this may have been my favorite case law quotation to read in open court:

 
 
Additionally, who in the dark and crowded recesses of the YumYum Tree at 2:00 a.m. on July 6, 1974, was "offended"?

  
We also made a statutory argument based on plain language that the state failed to show that the jail was either a public or private place.  Arguably, the entire jail cannot be "public" without unduly restricting human sexual expression because the statue would forbid any "indecency" or "vulgarity."  Nor could there be a violation if the jail is "private premises of another," again because of the over reach and the lack of privacy in the jail.  I think we made the pro forma argument for vagueness as well, but IIRC the statues survived previous constitutional challenges for vagueness.  
 

 
 
800.03  Exposure of sexual organs.--It is unlawful to expose or exhibit one's sexual organs in public or on the private premises of another, or so near thereto as to be seen from such private premises, in a vulgar or indecent manner, or to be naked in public except in any place provided or set apart for that purpose. Violation of this section is a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083. A mother's breastfeeding of her baby does not under any circumstance violate this section.

 

[crystalline]

Additionally, who in the dark and crowded recesses of the YumYum Tree at 2:00 a.m. on July 6, 1974, was "offended"?

 
Nice.  I enjoyed that.
The defendant appears to have pulled off what must have been a fairly spectacular feat of balance:
 
 

At trial, there was evidence that appellant fondled the fully-clothed Jeffries in the pubic area for some five seconds with his right hand while holding aloft a tray full of glasses with his left hand.

 
Also this line is good:

For example, a lone male who endeavors to relieve the strain of tight undershorts while standing in a public place and being observed by a keen-eyed law official cannot be sure whether he has committed a criminal offense or not.

 

[Dogman]

http://www.empiresports.co/former-nfl-star-aaron-hernandez-escapes-prison-and-breaks-in-to-tom-bradys-home/
 
I hope he has Phragle's address too.

 

[Tony C]

Forget about Aaron Hernandez for a second.  If this other guy ran his mouth all day at a badder dude because he knew it was hear-but-can't-touch, and then got his ass beat down because a guard made a (honest or otherwise) whoopsie in the hallway....that's hilarious.

 
What is hilarious about beating the shit out of a handcuffed guy? Do tell.

 

[axx]

Hernandez to be charged with assault for beating up the inmate. That's not going to make the murder case any easier, Aaron.
 
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/03/06/assault-charges-to-be-pursued-against-aaron-hernandez/

 

[Reverend]

Hernandez to be charged with assault for beating up the inmate. That's not going to make the murder case any easier, Aaron.
 
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/03/06/assault-charges-to-be-pursued-against-aaron-hernandez/

Probably not gonna make it any harder, either.

 

[crystalline]

Hey, instead of killing this guy like in the past, he just beat the shit out of him. I'd call that progress.

If you take guns out of a society, all of a sudden fewer people get killed in the course of assaults. Gun control!

(Tongue squarely in cheek)

 

[Corsi]

 

Peter Wilson ‏@PetesWire  2m
BREAKING: Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace charged with murder connected to the June, 2013 homicide of Odin Lloyd in North Attleboro. #wbz
 

 

[RedOctober3829]

Hernandez
 
 

 

Wesley Lowery ‏@WesleyLowery 5m
Previously, Ortiz & Wallace charged w/ accessory to murder after fact. Under MA law, DA won't have to prove them gunman to convict of murder
 

 

Wesley Lowery ‏@WesleyLowery 2m
With all 3 charged w/murder, prosecutor won't have to prove which was the shooter under MA's joint venture law. Not good for Aaron Hernandez
 

 

[axx]

I can't imagine either getting convicted unless they knew about Hernandez's plans to take him to the site where Ortiz was killed. This feels like an attempt by the Prosecution to up the ante to get them to admit to what actually happened.

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

[Mod note: splitting out to a new thread]