• Twitter
  • Facebook
News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

Today's wrist-slap

Couldn't he at least be required to serve his probation locked in his basement?

At the urging of the son Eric Urbano locked in a basement with a cup in which to urinate, a judge accepted Urbano's plea deal and sentenced him to no jail time Thursday.

Urbano, 38, of the 1400 block of Spy Run Avenue, will serve three years on probation under the deal that convicts him of Class D felony dependent neglect. He is to have no contact with the boy, and Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull ordered him to complete anger management and parenting courses.

I don't mean to be flip here (well, not just that anyway). The victim's wishes should be taken into consideration, but they don't always have to be followed. The point of society punishing criminals is that all of us are harmed or potentially so by breaches of the law.

This guy didn't just lock his son in the basement while he went out partying; he was in Florida. He is also accused of withholding medicine to treat the boy's mental illness. I don't think anger management and parenting courses are going to turn him around, but his son showed a lot of class for asking the court for compassion.

Quantcast