My glass is always have empty. A pessimist at heart. Almost a year has gone by, and what we have are some civil violations that in the end will be watered down once these attornies whittle down the charges to a plea bargain. No monies will be given back as a form of restitution, and Chris will have to leave the internet business as part of the deal or leave the reptile business for the next several years. A very fitting conclusion ........dont you agree!
I cannot understand why this man was not arrested. Nor can I understand why people were able to file complaints, document these depositions and Det. Brown (whom I think really owes this group some type of an explanation) explain how someone can steal money from people and get away with it.
Now let me explain something to you, granted I may not have lost any money, but fraud is fraud. I know the workings of the police dept and the court systems. When a crime is committed, it gets referred to the detective division. (excluding uniformed officers). Once a deposition is filed, the detective can and usually goes out and brings that person into the station house, gets fingerprinted, maybe photographed, and is usually held over for the first arraingment. That did not happen here! Their were at least a dozen depositons. So what went wrong?
The detective who was handling the case, could have had some major imput into the whole matter, and even with some pressure from outside sources, lilke the federal authorities, pursuade the DA's office to follow though with a felony. This was not an isolated situation, but a calculated plan to extort monies from people, , So what went wrong? We could not even get misdemenor charges filed!
No arrest, no indictment, and please do not tell me that the officer was so busy because of other police work such as escaped felons, etc. Its allot of nonsense. I know because I worked in the worst precinct in NYC, and even if the detectives were that busy, they would get uniformed officers to go to the persons home and make the arrest and bring him to the stationhouse for booking!
The bottom line is that this sends a very clear message to other copycats like Chris, that this is what you can expect in the herp industry. It infuriates me to see people send money in advance to someone and they just keep it! They dont give a dam about the senders concerns, dont provide the service, or the goods, and get away with fraud which is a crime in every state in this country.
Last year in Daytona , my booth was right across from NERDS, when one of his employees was arrested at the show, handcuffed and taken to the nearest stationhouse for booking. Bail had to be paid by NERD, and this poor guy had his family their as well. His big crime related to a misconstrued permit application over a baby snake that was on the table. I dont mind telling you it was a horrible experience to watch. Several other people their with their own booths were arrested as well. They committed no fraud, did not steal anything, but were arrested nevertheless and allowed the court system to deal with these matters. This should have been done with Chris as well. But it did not. So yes, I am not optimistic because this scenerio will repeat itself over and over again. No example has been set here other than a slap on the wrist. We both know that Chris could very easily get into this business again through other people and start all over again. This time, even if the police are notified that "he's at it again, its not going to make a dam bit of a difference" to the police, the DA's office or the court system.
Why you ask ? Because this is the Herp business ! Rampant with loosers who get attracted to free money, and it will continue to do so unless someone puts a stop to it.
