Fugitive Mom Arrested in San Diego After 32 Years on the Lam

Source: Fox news

SANTEE, Calif. — Marie Walsh kept a low profile for 32 years, trying to escape her past life as Susan LeFevre.

She raised three children with her husband of 23 years, Alan, who never knew she was using an assumed identity. Authorities wanted her for escaping from a Detroit prison a year into a maximum 20-year sentence on heroin charges.

Now, LeFevre, 53, is in jail awaiting extradition from California to Michigan on an escape warrant.

She was arrested April 24 outside her home in San Diego's posh Carmel Valley area, wearing a sweat suit and driving a black Lexus SUV. Authorities say her cover was blown by an anonymous caller who tipped Michigan authorities to her new name.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353496,00.html

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20 FUCKING YEARS!!!

Refuse extradition California and shame on her parents, her fucking lawyers, the fucking prosecutor, and fucking judge for doing that to her.


BTW I know I'm stretching this but could we rec. this thread as well

You'd think she was a Nazi war criminal/fugitive by listening to all of these blowhards from the "law enforcement" crowd.

:eyes:

for escape.

the statute of limitations only applies to crimes where nobody has actually been charged...if they know you did it- it doesn't go away.

Little bureaucratic slight of hand, sell the assets to another shell corporation and voila! No charges, no worries.

If you want to argue this point, explain to me why Dow Chemical is not responsible for Union Carbide's little accident in Bhopal.

since the accident didn't happen in the u.s., i don't really think that our laws would apply- perhaps you're more familiar with the situation?

besides, this thread has nothing to do with corporate malfeasance.

That if she was a corporation, she would have nothing to worry about. No corporate accountability for Bhopal, the Exxon Valdez, etc.

after being sentenced to prison for selling heroin.

You cannot charge a copration to prison.

The poster was showing the PRIORITIES of the "justice" system in America.

that has nothing to do with the thread topic.

Stupid response.

The man was making a point as to what happens to corporations and the CEOS who run them when THEY commit crimes, compared to what happens to us Filthy Little Nobodies when WE do much less.

They will run our peasant asses tothe ends of the Earth while bringing the slippers and cognac to the CEOs who rob or murder through their corporations.

This is not anti-corporate blather. It is reality. The Enron bunch stole the retirements and likely ruined the lives of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands.

Most of them went free. Ken Lay got a fake death and some plastic surgery from his Bushie Pals and is now very likely laughing his ass off somewhere in the Caribbean.

A few got some time in Federal Grey Poupon "prison".

Are you really that dense? Did you really miss the point so badly that all you could figure was some non sequitur blather of your own.

Stupid is as stupid does, ain't it so?

Seriously, why rob a bank these days when you can just go and get a Corporate License? :sarcasm:

Even the smaller-than-Exxon Corporations get away with this criminal shit.

:shrug:

;) And unfortunately these days the majority of them are never sentenced. It's as if our American System is protecting them or something.:grr:

Just go get your Corporate "Personhood" and you're immune from the law! :sarcasm:

nt

by his CORPORATION.

Did Ken Lay go out and shoot someone? Personally rob or rape someone? No. His instrument was the corporation he wielded and thus his crimes are corproaqte, not ersonal, in nature.

What is the densest material in the universe.

You know I can't answer that, QuestionAll, not without violating DU Rules.

They had no right to deprive her of her freedom for that. As far as I'm concerned, if she escapes again, she's welcome to hide out in my house. These draconian drug laws need to be abolished.

and they're just using the 'anonymous caller' method to act on what would otherwise be illegally obtained evidence.

'who wants to bet the 'anonymous caller' found this info out by NSA spying?
Posted by darue
and they're just using the 'anonymous caller' method to act on what would otherwise be illegally obtained evidence."

Let the poor woman go. Sounds like she's been rehabilitated already. Heroin charges... good grief. She's a reformed junky and they want to lock her up for 10 years now?!?!?

What the hell? Put her out on probation or something ffs.

.

K & R.

I'll reserve comments until I learn more, but it appears to be a monstrous outrage.

Isn't there supposed to be a statute of limitations in most cases?

No statute of limitations on murder, probably not on escaping prison either. But if you rape someone or molest a child, just wait a decade and you'll be safe to scream it from the rooftops :sarcasm:

I wanted to see if there was more than a heroin charge.

Now I am outraged! Why do they do this? It's clearly a Constitutional violation.

(Thanks for the reply, by the way. That's pretty much how I had it figured.)

Cheers.

The whole war on drugs is unconstitutional. Not a one of the founding fathers would even begin to contemplate tolerating the massive intrusion into our personal lives and state power that this phony and criminal 'war' has made possible.

-app

edit for spelling.

I was confusing this with double jeopardy.

Had she been merely indicted back then, and went on the lam, she would still have to stand trial.

NOw those people are working for Bush.From RR and now working for Bush. Sort of fun. If she had just had dealing in gun running she would have been better off.

I hope California denies extradition.

--

DHS - spying over here, so we don't have to spy over there.

nt.

whatever get added for the escape

Bulging prisons drain Michigan's budget: State faces hard choices as get-tough laws put more behind bars

Michigan runs one of the nation's largest and most costly prison systems, a $2 billion-a-year expense that is crowding out other spending priorities at a rate many officials fear the state can no longer afford.

Yet despite near-unanimous agreement that Michigan can't pay ever-rising corrections bills during a period of economic decline, politicians and law enforcement professionals remain hesitant to spend less by changing sentencing guidelines or paroling more prisoners.

The Corrections Department already devours 20 cents of every tax dollar in the state's general fund and employs nearly one in every three state government workers, compared with 9 percent of the work force 25 years ago.

"Because we're spending more state dollars in areas such as prisons, we're taking funding away from areas that are real priorities for citizens and for economic growth," said Dan Gilmartin, executive director of the Michigan Municipal League.

"Our efforts to grow Michigan's economy and keep our state competitive are threatened by the rising costs in the Department of Corrections," Gov. Jennifer Granholm told The Detroit News. "We spend more on prisons than we do on higher education, and that has got to change."

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080414/POLITICS/804140339

That war on drugs worked.....oh...wait..........

She wasn't sufficiently humble and broken down.

This is one fucked up nation.

LeFevre's legal troubles date to 1974, when she sold about $200 worth of drugs to an undercover agent. She was 19.

“That was it, the only time I was ever arrested,” LeFevre said. “I was promised probation. . . . I was a stupid little John Lennon, hippie-ish girl. A pothead.”

Michigan authorities called LeFevre a major drug trafficker who ran a heroin operation that earned about $2,000 a week.

“She was not your average street peddler selling narcotics to an undercover officer,” Marlan said. “They thought she was a big player.”

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080501-9999-1m1fugitive.html

:wow:

simple, mid-life, almost granny surbanite.

Yeah, that hairdo needs to change. I choked on some cereal when I read your post, BTW!

At least I hope it's an old photo. Yikes. :yoiks:

Wow, that's abut a year for every ten dollars!
:crazy:

That wasn't called for.

Blame Lennon, hippies and pot???

NOW, I hope they extradite her. One less Lexus SUV on the road.

leave Lennon out of it.

Don't be so hard on her. I remember reading an account of an American diplomat returning from a stint in Nazi Germany who told a friend he was astonished how Nazi Propaganda, like Bushiganda, just seeps into the mind.

Now that the Bushies have achieved most of what the Nazis have in terms of media and propaganda, the same can be said for we Imperial Subjects of Amerika.

It is the customary apologia to the Bushies who rule us, though I am sure that woman did not think consciously about any of that when she said it. That is the essence of good propaganda, that it works at the subconscious level out of the reach of the conscious defense of the person.

Anyway, she was just smashing the Left verbally because that is conventional wisdom, and in truth due to the Bushie capture of our media and national dialogue, it may make her some points.

I am not endorsing or condoning this, just stating reality. I guarantee you she goes in with double the vitriol for the "John Lennon hippies" at trial and sentencing.

To be honest, in terms of our national psyche, the national dialogue, and the revisionist Bushie history and lies that now pass as "conventional wisdom", it's probably the smart thing to do. (ugh, I almost :puke: saying that)

However, and we cannot know this, if she really is a Bushie and reqally believes this shit, then fuck her.

Are you talking about Reagan's Iran Contra O. North? How does he tie-in with MI?

and they gravitate to positions of authority with potential for abuse.

in positions of Authority. Fucking unfortunately.

let's wait and see what California and Michigan work out.

I've got a strong feeling that the fact she has been able to live a positive, productive life while raising a family will probably ensure that the law enforcement agency work out a deal. She'll probably be sent back to MI to face a judge who will look at all the facts and probably give her a suspended jail sentence and put her on probation for X amount of years and then allow her to serve her probation in CA.

As other have pointed out, MI jail system has bigger issues to worry about then a fifty-ish mother who hasn't committed a serious crime in thirty years.

which has become about as politically expedient as advocating responsible firearms regulation.

What's so positive about living in "San Diego's posh Carmel Valley area, wearing a sweat suit and driving a black Lexus SUV"?

OK. That swipe she made at John Lennon got me mad. :evilgrin:

:eyes:

personally, i think she needs to serve every minute of the sentence she was given.

if she had been a black man who lived under the radar as a janitor for 30 years- would the treatment be the same?

I have very little doubt the outcome would be the same as I listed above.

If he/she had held down a job for 30 years (any job), raised a family, and was a productive member of society, I see no reason a judge would send anyone of any color back to jail. Especially for a crime, with no victims, that happened thirty years ago.

It is clear that this person is not a threat to society and so they'll get a stern talking to along with a slap on the wrist (suspended sentence) and then allowed to return home (probably with some house arrest) to take of their family.

At the end of the day, it is about whether or not a judge would be doing more harm than good by sending a person in this situation back to jail. I think any rational judge would say that more harm would be done by sending this person back to jail.

i guess his decision will probably be influenced by the demographics of the community he serves.

at a judge who let a person, of any color and who was not a threat to society and had committed a non-violent, victimless crime 30 years ago, off with a slap on the wrist.

just a hunch.

A person's past performance as good indicator of future behavior is more important in this case than a person's skin color.

Now what if this has a 21 year old white woman vs a 21 black male, both having escaped from jail on a drug charge? In that instance I would agree that a white woman would probably receive a lighter penalty than a black male.

My point is that the amount of time that a person in this circumstance was able to contribute to society and not have any other run ins with the law is a more important factor than of their skin color.

What the judge will look at, when dealing with a non-violent crime with no victim, is whether his decision to send someone to jail will ultimately benefit society or harm it. If a person ,for the past thirty two years, has contributed to society by having a job, raising a family, paying taxes, and broken no laws there will be little to no benefit to send that person to jail.

Any judge who let someone like this off to return to their family would probably have an easier time getting re-elected than if they sent this person back to jail.

I certainly was. I read the story and my first thought was "she's got to be Black, that's the only reason they'd do someone that way who's *obviously* self-rehabilitated".

If the authorities decided not to pursue her, and it came out later that they knew where she was but elected not to apprehend her, many of the same people on this thread saying how unfair this case is would be saying, instead, "unequal justice for white women vs. black men." The authorities are in a Catch 22 here. They have no choice but to arrest her, extradite her, and let a judge in Michigan decide what to do with her.

Whether right or wrong, my bet is she will be made to serve her sentence.
They are not going to give her a deal-that would be my bet.

Michigan was lenient in the 70's compared to Texas. Try life for possession. (of course he is a black man)



http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/127/garrettcampaign.shtml

I remember when he was rearrested and tossed back inside.

I believe public pressure finally resulted in his pardon and release, but I'm not sure about that. Couldn't find that information after a brief search....

My memory still works. (sometimes)

her Lexus addiction. :sarcasm:

I wonder how her kids and husband are dealing with this now.

I hate that she was selling drugs, but I am so tired of what we are paying to prosecute drug crimes.

:sarcasm:

The original crime is irrelevant. Some sort of penalty has to be devised for her so as to not set the precedent that
busting out of prison is acceptable so long as you live a law-abiding existence ex post. The claim of "but look at how good
I was since I busted out!" doesn't cut much ice. Suppose they'd caught up with her, say, six months after busting out. Could
she make the same argument then? Should society have to wait to see if she self-corrected? Probably not.

My suggestion would be some sort of meaningful community service in Michigan, say, six uninterrupted weeks of helping the poor.
In the wintertime.

it is DEFINITELTY relevant. you don't get out of serving your sentence by going on the lam- she still owes that 20-year "debt to society".

the penalties for the escape should be added on top of it, but she definitely has to serve her time- and i don't think that she should get time off for good behaviour while serving, either.

in cases like this, examples need to be made- escape isn't worth it.

of course escape was worth it, instead of losing her entire youth and most of her middle age and coming out of prison as a old woman of no use to anyone and unable to do anything but sell more drugs to get a living, she got away as a young woman, had a family, and made a home while she was still young enough to do these things

any sane person would have attempted escape under the circumstances, if you think a sane person should be happy to sit by and throw away their own life because of an insane judge and a crooked DA, well, all i can say is...i don't agree

she was treated unfairly and she was left with no option except to escape

who would have done anything different in her shoes?

i suppose she was supposed to just quietly hang herself in her cell and give up on her one and only life?

the 20 year sentence was simply outrageous and unfair, and she was left with no option, we now have 30 years of proof that she is of no harm to anyone?

possessing? Sounds like that may have been the charge.

Selling heroin is serious business. It kills people. It was marketed specifically to young people (not kids...young adults and teens).

It was great she turned her life around. But....selling heroin was a felony, and she knew it. It harmed people in the area where she lived (that's an ipso facto thing...you don't have to prove it...by its nature, heroin was addictive and harmful).

The fact that there are more dangerous drugs now doesn't alter the fact that heroin was the most destructive drug on the streets in 1976, and she decided to deal it.

If she'd done her time, she'd have been out years ago. I guess it's up to her to decide whether she made the right choice in living these past years free instead of her remaining years free.

As the criminals say....don't do the crime if you can't do the time. They may find some way to lessen her sentence, now that she's older, a credit to the community, a mother, etc., etc. But I agree with the officials that she needs to go back to the slammer. She did the crime. That was her choice.

first of all "if she had done her time, she would have been out years ago" -- no, you can't know that

if she had "done her time," she would have served at least 10 years and probably much more since her sentence was for 20, she would have lost her youth, and she would be unemployable in any legal job, and would probably end up having no choice but to return to crime after a two decade's education by violent offenders in the same prison

you don't know how she would have been injured physically or psychologically by two decades in prison and your casual assumption that she would have been free now is just not what happens to people incarcerated for drug crimes for many years, there is just no place for them to go and be a productive part of society after that

if you look at people you know who have done time for drugs, and people you know who were also addicts but didn't end up doing time, you already know that drug addiction is always sad but it pretty much becomes a label you never escape once you've been in prison

the woman has proved, for 30 years, that she is of no danger to anyone, but enough is never enough for this sick society, if you make a mistake, by god, you should be killed, cooked, and eaten

you say it was her choice, but who among us would choose to be an addict?

and while I am indeed being critical- also note that I think you speak for the majority of Americans.

Which is why I fully expect the worlds' largest prison system to keep expanding indefinitely, no matter what the cost.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

while we get raped by the government huh? No matter how excessive or unjust the punishment was, just sit back and take it because gawd almighty, we wouldn't want to set a dangerous precedent.

Most convicts get released long significantly earlier that the length of time they are sentenced to.

Her sentence was 10 to 20.

FYI, many states and the federal government have done away with parole. You get sentenced to 10 years, you do 10 years, perhaps minus a few months for good behavior.

She did escape, and was free for 30 years. Which was the better course of action?

Let the woman go.

and believe me they don't give a shit. They will revictimize her and send her back.

I would have ran too. What a terrible horrible injustice this is.

Decriminalize Drugs damn it!:grr: You push your Pharmaceuticals on us what's the difference?

.....When will we ever grow up and start dealing with the drug issue like responsible adults instead of destroying classes of people over having some drug on them or in them. Education and rehab works, not putting millions of people in jail for profit and punishment.....damn this country

"When you are on the lam, donate to the GOP!!!"

Sheesh! When will people learn?

That's her crime.

She escaped from prison before they had a chance to teach her how to do that.

Yes she fled, christ, I would have too, and so would EVERY ONE of you.
Anyone that say's different is a liar.

I say let her be, running for that long is punishment enough.

Doesn't serve justice (a quaint idea, I know) and it sure wouldn't "reform" her...

She will serve her sentence, unless she gets a pardon from the governor.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080501-1719-bn01fugitive.html

... you get more prison time for selling something that MIGHT hurt someone than you do for cold blooded murder.

Only in America.

I'd read it.