Lynch at Large

Usually Larry Jegley is a stand-up kind of prosecutor, but nobody is perfect. There comes news in the Democrat-Gazette of a plea bargain which is nothing but offensive and smells of favoritism.

Three days before he was to stand trial, John Patrick Moody, 27, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor negligent homicide Friday before Pulaski County Circuit Judge John Langston.
In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop a felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, a Class D felony that carried a maximum of six years in prison.
The judge imposed the sentence recommended by prosecutors, 12 months in jail with one month suspended, 100 hours of community service, the maximum fine and alcohol treatment.

Ray Lincoln used to say that the really bad news was in Saturday's paper because folks tended to not read it. In the interest of keeping the people of Pulaski County, and all mankind, well informed, let us remember the horrible death of bicyclist Jason Nolan Pratt, whose corpse was thrown into a tree by the force of the coliseum.

And just for the record, it makes no difference whatsoever whether the victim's father approved of the plea bargain. I don't care if he did a little dance, the rest of us will always be in danger from an unpunished rich punk because of this sweet deal.

According to police reports, a witness saw two men - whom he later identified as John Moody and his youngest brother, 19-year-old William Lawson Moody - unloading an ice chest from the Land Rover and putting a pack of beer into a dark Ford Mustang in the parking lot of the Bank of the Ozarks at 7500 Cantrell Road within an hour of the estimated crash time.
They left behind the Land Rover, which had a flat tire, the report said.
Two days later, the same witness saw the Land Rover and a silver sport utility vehicle leave the bank parking lot together and called police, reports said.
Investigators were able to trace the Land Rover to Ed Moody, who told them his eldest son, John, had been driving the SUV on Aug. 6 while he was out of the country. Ed Moody also told police his son had called him that morning and told him he had a flat tire, reports said.
Moody and his sons refused to cooperate further with police, authorities said.

Punk kid is attending South Texas College of Law in Houston and this little mishap will not even cause a small bleep on his rocket ride to wealth and fame.

Larry Jegley should be too ashamed to show his face in public after bowing down to this kind of high-handed cover up.