It's also simply a hell of a lot less work in the J&DR courts. Both the prosecution and defense seem to have agreed on that.
Granted, but the J&DR court can still kick this up to big-boy criminal court if they want to. They'd still have to convince the DA that pursuing this as a felony would be worth the time, effort, and money required to do so, but it would be the cleanest way to get him out of their hair. Note that I'm not saying that this will happen, but rather that the possibility exists.
Dragging it out keeps Chris safely incarcerated where he can't create any more work or hassle for both the prosecution and defense. I'm sure both the prosecution and defense are perfectly fine with that. So long as Chris is tucked away safely in jail, i doubt either of them spend more than five minutes a week even thinking about him.
Oh, believe me, given the shit that the courts deal with (and I'm including both J&DR and the civil & criminal courts in this) in that part of the world on a regular basis, Chris is going to be relatively low on the totem pole of offenders as far as they're concerned. He's a repugnant pile of shit, to be sure, but still not receiving as much attention as repeat offenders, violent criminals (I'm assuming that his congress with Borb was consensual by saying that), and RSOs.
Time served is a given since the maximum sentence for the misdemeanor Chris is charged with is one year. Whatever gets loaded on top of that will be things like mandatory therapy, no-contact with Barb, possibly housing in a managed care facility, and so on. Basically things to try to ensure Chris never becomes a problem for the courts again (it won't work, but the court has to try). I don't see Heilberg disagreeing with any of that.
Correct, but that only applies if the charge remains a misdemeanor; if it gets bumped up to a felony, the sentence can range from one to ten years. At that point, any suspended sentence, conditions of release, etc. can come into play. That's not to say that a misdemeanor sentence couldn't carry conditions of release, but, as you point out, that the maximum jail term would be one year.
Realistically, I doubt that Chris' case is going to get bumped up to a felony. He's a first-time sex offender, has the 'tism, and Borb may have consented to the act(s); none of this adds up to being, say, a recidivist child molester. As repulsive as both he and his actions were and are, he is the teflon tard and someone will find excuses for him yet again. Credit for time served, transfer to a care facility, and supervised release to include therapy and instruction in basic life skills would probably cover 90% of whatever ends up being handed down.
His stay at the hospital was not really for evaluation. It was to train him to say: "not guilty," or: "guilty," and: "yes, your honor" instead of: "mumble mumble ponies mumble CPU mumble sonichu mumble I'm famous on the internet," etc.
If he was sent where I think he was, he wouldn't be able to leave without both an entrance and exit evaluation. IIRC, it's required for anyone who is coming in as a patient from a jail facility, and I believe that the J&DR court also receives a copy of the evaluation(s). Chances are also good that he had minimal contact with the outside world during this time, including his lawyer - not that he was barred from talking with him, but rather that visits were
very strictly metered.
I think the court (prosecution, defense, and judge) would prefer it if he were placed in a managed care facility somewhere far, far out of their jurisdiction, but they're settling for jail for as long as possible.
Possibly, but given that the case is still in J&DR at present, my gut feeling is that they'll go for a therapeutic approach before further incarceration in sentencing. What form that therapy will take isn't clear at this point, but it is probably safe to assume that it will be at least some form of supervised release coupled with therapy and a no-go-near-Borb order.
More and more it seems the court simply doesn't want to deal with him, which is why I believe they set the next appearance so close to time served. There's no point in having him appear sooner. They know he's just going to waste everyone's time in court any time he does, so why bother?
J&DR in that part of the state is
always busy. Point taken, but that may have been the first available slot that was agreeable to both sides simply due to caseload. Agreed that the timing would put him close to the one-year mark, though.
It doesn't appear that jail did the trick, which is probably why they tried chucking him in the hospital. I'm not certain if that worked, either, or if the hospital tossed him back to jail because they are also tired of dealing with him.
The hospital stay was almost certainly mandated by the court. Bear in mind that J&DR has no jury trials and each case is ruled on by a judge; it's likely that the judge wanted observation and evaluation of Chris before continuing.
I still think that if Chris had plead guilty from the start in exchange for being placed somewhere as far away from Greene county as possible as soon as possible, the prosecution would have been all for it. The court would agree to just about anything to never have to deal with Chris ever again. And never mind being seen as soft on crime; I thing any prosecutor who got rid of Chris permanently would be hailed as a hero by the good people of Greene Country, no matter how it was accomplished.
Chris really doesn't factor all that much into the day-to-day fabric of life around Ruckersville, Charlottesville, Staunton, or Harrisonburg. We pay way more attention to him than anyone else there does. As far as the courts are concerned, he's small potatoes.
