Corruption in office...this guy needs to go.

No, not New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. He definitely needs to resign or be impeached ASAP but I suspect that he's pretty much toast so I won't waste the shoe leather kicking him while he's down. This time I'm talking about Russell Stone, Prosecutor for the City of Denver.

It's just become public knowledge that Stone mis-used his position to cut two very sweet deals for Denver Nuggets basketball player Kenyon Martin. Martin was twice pulled over for driving at speeds in excess of 100 mph and for such offenses, any regular citizen would lose his or her driver's license. But then again, most of us don't play basketball well enough to draw the attention and win the favoritism of a prosecutor like Stone. But Martin does play basketball pretty well and for Martin, Stone gave him a plea in the first case that was well outside of the prosecutors' office guidelines and almost certainly much more lenient than any of the rest of us would ever have gotten.

In Martin's situation, associate city attorney Russell Stone had agreed to reopen a case three months after Martin pleaded guilty to two traffic violations in June 2006 that totaled nine points. Martin had been ticketed driving his Bentley 101 mph in a 30 mph zone in Cherry Creek just after midnight on Jan. 24, 2006, and had pleaded guilty to speeding and operating an unsafe vehicle.

Stone had agreed to the unusual step of reopening the case after Martin’s attorney Jonathan Rosen miscalculated the points against Martin's license in the guilty plea. The plea, along with an earlier speeding ticket in Arapahoe County, put Martin over the 12 points in a year -- a situation in which the state pulls a driver's privileges.

Rosen didn’t tell Denver County Judge Brian T. Campbell that Martin received a second high-speed ticket three weeks before Campbell agreed to reopen the case and allow Martin to plead to a lesser offense to save his license.

On Sept. 7, 2006, Martin was ticketed for driving his Range Rover 103 mph on southbound Interstate 25 -- a 55-mph zone -- at 2 a.m. On that ticket one assistant city attorney decided to add charges that would have totaled 20 points, assuring that Martin, if convicted, would not be able to drive for a year.

But two weeks later, the ticket Martin received in his Range Rover was moved to Stone's courtroom. He allowed Martin to plead to an offense that carried few enough points that he again was able to keep his license.

Campbell, who had since moved from traffic court, was upset when he learned about Martin’s second 100-mph ticket.
"All I have to do is sit there and say that was one of the times somebody got the better of me," Campbell said, blaming Rosen and Stone for the situation.

Once Campbell knew all the facts of the case, he clearly believed that Martin was treated differently than other defendants because of the lawyer’s actions.

Westminster resident Dan Glennon received three tickets in a year for going just 20 mph over the speed limit. He lost his license. “It tells me that there's obviously some preferential treatment going on based on your status and that's kind of unfortunate," he said when told about Martin’s “sweet deal.”

“I told them I needed (the license) to get to work and also for my job I needed it a lot of times for my job,” Glennon said. “They didn't care,”

Stone’s supervisor disciplined him when he found out about the deals, saying there was at least an appearance of favorable treatment for the basketball star.

Stone received a three-day unpaid suspension but appealed the punishment through the Career Service Authority. His punishment was upheld.

Martin, through his attorney, and Rosen declined to comment, as did Stone, saying talking to the media could hurt his career.
source

First of all, Stone now worries that talking to the media could hurt his career? This guy shouldn't even have a career now that he's been shown to have abused his position and given preferential treatment to this basketball player. I have to wonder if Stone didn't get comped to a few choice seats at Denver Nuggets games in return? But whether he did or didn't get a quid pro quo in this case, we can never be sure that he won't break the rules again in return for one later. He's demonstrated that he lacks the ethics to fairly and impartially seek justice and he needs to resign or be fired. A measly three-day suspension? Please...