SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A disagreement in a courtroom is spilling out into the public arena. The Sacramento County District Attorney (SCDA) is accusing a judge of creating an illegal plea deal with a man accused of grabbing five different women from behind in the Natomas area.
“After five incidents of him approaching five separate women, touching their buttocks,” said Sonia Martinez-Satchell, Deputy District Attorney with the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.
The District Attorney’s office says those incidents happened in parking lots in Natomas over two months beginning in September 2023.
The SCDA’s Office says Elijah ____ admitted to the police to the crime, and he did it for sexual arousal. They are calling him a ‘Serial Sexual Batterer.’
“The offenses he was charged with, five counts of penal code section 243.9, require sex offender registration,” said Martinez-Satchell.
Due to the plea deal Judge Allison Zuvela offered under the Deferred Entry of Judgement, the SCDA’s office says he would not need to register as a sex offender.
“The victims were denied an opportunity to make their voice heard in front of judge,” said Martinez-Satchell.
The Deferred Entry to Judgement allows a case to be dismissed if the person accused of a crime completes a program that includes education workshops and community service to help rehabilitate a person not to commit the crime again.
“It is completely normal to hear about Deferred Entry of Judgement resolution of a case,” said Candice Fields, who is a Criminal Defense Attorney in Sacramento and is not connected to this case.
The SCDA’s news release called the plea deal ‘illegal,’ but Fields says that is open to debate.
Talk about pulling a rabbit out of the hat! I could have used a magician like that. That said, grabbing random women on the behind is not cool! (Outside of gay bars (because it’s “ironic” and Latin countries.)
DA smelt victory and it was possibly snatched away by the judge. Recall effort forthcoming?
I know this is not cool.
But this did not used to be a sex crime worthy of 15 years on the Registry.
Talk about overkill.
He could’ve robbed 5 women at gunpoint and got less time a bit ridiculous that the DA is so concerned about this but not as concerned with theft or actual violence
Yes, it’s obnoxious and boorish behavior but a little historical perspective makes clear that it has only recently come to be seen as an actual “sex crime” with future-destroying implications. Our society has lost all sense that punishment should fit actual crimes or bear a rational relationship to objective, demonstrable harm. It has been decided, over some three or four decades, that something like “spectral evidence” should be admissible in criminal courts establishing harm to victims and evil intent to perpetrators with the result that criminal sanctions have been untethered to reality ever since.
Back when I was a younger man, still in good shape etc… I had many women (usually older, around my mothers age) who would grab my butt (or worse) unwantedly. I guess it is only sexual harassment/assault when it is happening to them. If the laws were charged fairly (and grabbing resulted in a registerable offense) there would be as many if not more women on “the list” than men, going by my experience of bars and the women who frequent them. But no, societal double standard sees it as only harmless fun and flirting when a woman does it, but for men…well they are evil predators.
In a world where “the list” exists, I hardly think grabbing someone’s butt should rise to the level of placing someone on that list…but if that is what they want to do, at least do so equally.
When I use to install windows and doors in theses really nice Beach homes, older women would hit on us all the time. I remember this one Job, This lady kept slapping my azz all day her and my co-workers would laugh every time she did it it was very uncomfortable BUT because she’s a woman and I’m a man it wasn’t a big deal.