Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Furor Erupts Over Killing of Witness in MS-13 Gang Case

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/nyregion/ms-13-long-island.html

The slaying became a flash point in the debate over changes to the criminal justice system adopted in New York.




Wilmer Maldonado Rodriguez’s body was discovered in the backyard of a house in New Cassel, N.Y.
Credit...
Howard Schnapp for Newsday
By Ed Shanahan
Feb. 5, 2020
Updated 9:29 p.m. ET


In October 2018, Wilmer Maldonado Rodriguez stepped in to protect two boys who were being threatened by members of the MS-13 gang on Long Island, officials said. In return, the gang members stabbed Mr. Rodriguez repeatedly and hit him in the head with a bat.
Despite the vicious assault, Mr. Rodriguez agreed to testify against the gang members, who were charged with assault and witness intimidation as a result of the attack, officials said.
On Sunday, Mr. Rodriguez was found beaten to death outside a home in New Cassel, N.Y., and by Wednesday, his killing had become a flash point in the debate over a series of criminal justice changes enacted by the New York State Legislature in 2019 at the urging of progressive lawmakers.
Since the start of the year, when the changes took effect, police officials and prosecutors in New York have focused most of their criticism on an overhaul of the state’s bail laws, which they said was allowing criminals to go free.

But the killing of Mr. Rodriguez, 36, turned attention to a change in the so-called discovery law, which governs when prosecutors must turn over information about their investigative findings.

The murder came several weeks after a judge ordered prosecutors to disclose Mr. Rodriguez’s identity to lawyers who represented his alleged attackers, officials said.


New York had been one of just 10 states that let prosecutors wait until the eve of trial to turn over witness names and statements and other crucial evidence. Under the new discovery rules, such information must generally be shared within 15 days of a defendant’s arraignment.
Madeline Singas, the Nassau County district attorney, did not specifically cite the new law as contributing to Mr. Rodriguez’s death, but she suggested that being forced to identify him well before trial had hampered the authorities’ ability to protect him, and had ultimately cost him his life.
“This courageous man was prepared to testify against alleged assailants at an upcoming trial, but he was brutally beaten to death before he could,” Ms. Singas said in a statement, adding that the case “underscores the importance of safeguarding the identities of witnesses and victims of crimes.”

Patrick Ryder, the Nassau County police commissioner, echoed that sentiment at a news conference.
“This man’s dead because we didn’t do enough,” Mr. Ryder said, according to Newsday. He added, “This law is not helping us.”
But proponents of the changes, who said they were necessary to increase the fairness of the criminal justice system, said that those tying Mr. Rodriguez’s death to the new discovery rules were off base.
Scott Hechinger, a public defender, wrote on Twitter that the revised discovery law explicitly allowed judges to shield the names of witnesses in the process. The law, passed as part of last year’s budget, also says that discovery can be limited to the defendant’s lawyer or legal team, and not shared with the defendant.


Founded in Los Angeles by refugees from El Salvador, MS-13 has long had a base of operations in Long Island, which has been plagued by gang violence in recent years.
In December, the district attorney’s office in Suffolk County, which is next to Nassau, brought sweeping charges against 96 MS-13 members and associates, who were accused of participating in a vast criminal enterprise that carried out assaults, drug deals and murders.
“As we know, MS-13 is a ruthless, savage gang,’’ Timothy D. Sini, the Suffolk County district attorney, said at the time, adding that the group committed “acts of violence to recruit, retain, and control its members and exact revenge on its rivals, as well as to extort innocent members of our community.”


The gang’s notoriety has attracted the attention of President Trump, who has frequently invoked its name and reputation as a kind of shorthand for justifying a crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
“We are getting MS-13 gang members, and many other people that shouldn’t be here, out of our country,” he said on Twitter when Suffolk County officials announced the charges in December.
Jesse McKinley contributed reporting.

Vermin, and should be treated as such!

Criminal Justice Reform. This is what Trump was so inexplicably proud of accomplishing.

The leadership has to be systematically eliminated any and Everytime their identities become known.

Why the hell these gangs haven't been added to the list of designated foreign terrorist groups is beyond comprehension. They aren't American citizens by and large, local LEO has been proven ineffective so why the hell have we not brought in SOF's, rooted them out and eradicated this plague? If Isis was operating in the open on American soil commiting the amount of crime these [bleep] are we would, so why not? Because they're the most protected species in this country....the illegal alien.

Do you understand the difference between federal and state laws?

+1

They are pretty easy to spot. Just declare an open season.

Those little fellas dipped in ink need crosshairs painted on them.

NY state probably wanted him dead. Save the state some court expense.

we need to deploy a few of those soleimani drones here at home.

Drop some missles on those MFer’s

These are the very same low lifes that the left pilloried Trump for when he called them animals.

Colorado is failing to execute for the same offense. I tend to favor a very careful investigation, then a short drop. And not 20 years later. There is an argument for the MAX pridon scenario

Sounds like the gang members should go on a Pinotche Helicopter ride

Lawyers like keeping crime rolling .
So nothing will ever be done - book it ..

Did you forget something/
Sarcasm font?

Hang em high and publicly!

Let some ''white supremacists'' start dealing with the ms-13ers - you'll see the gov't going full tactical on them 24/7/365 LONG prison sentences ..

New Dork, Cal., an I'll. Are the most screwed up states in the country, if they can't or WON'T fix themselves then let them suffer their rewards. I'm thinking and hoping in his second term we will see the Trump straighten their sorry asses out. That very thought makes them piss their pants and that is why they hate him. MB

Damn right! Eliminate them with extreme prejudice and send a message to the other low life's that want to come here.

MS 13 is a Salvadorian gang and was pandered to by Schumer and Bloomberg and the laws of NY favor their ability to be in NYC to a very real extent. So the people of NYC and to a large degree NY State create the problem, yet the people are so stupid that they either (A) keep voting for the overt traitors or (B) are so lazy and careless they allow the vote fraud that installs them.
But in either case Plato's old saying keeps showing itself to be true. People always get the government you deserve, but seldom the one they like.

NY is a stronghold of Dem/Comms who are simply too stupid to see the ship they sink is the one they are riding on. If the politicians in NY are not installed by vote fraud the truth is that a MAJORITY of voters place these treasonous creatures in office Look at AOC and understand--- as stupid as that attention whore is, ---and as little as she knows..............she won an election, which is 100% proof she is smarter then those that voted for her, and FAR smarter then those that continue to allow her ----------if she was installed by vote fraud.

You get the government you deserve.

Or to quote out own Declaration of Independence:
All governments derive their powers from the CONSENT of the governed.

This is not simply a theory.
Bloomberg, A.O.C. Clinton, Tlaib, Schif, Pelosi Pressley, Omar, Feinstine, Schumer, Warren, Johnson, Biden, Sanders and many others are openly treasonous and all are for the destruction of the Constitutional Republic so it can be folded into a World Government (Communist of course) and yet these creatures can claim many people stupid enough to vote for them. So as stupid as someone can be to think Guam could capsize, they are still smarter then anyone that would vote for them. Like Paddler.
Paddler is not someone that is worth reading but I point out something here. He says he is a doctor. I personally doubt that, but lets say it was true. Can you imagine letting someone like Paddler care for your health? Well letting Paddler have sway over your health when hew is clearly without any wisdom at all is exactly the same as voting for one of the carrier swamp creatures or any new radical democrat. Paddler is very stupid. Anyone that gives him credence enough to make decisions for you if even stupider.
So we look at the track records of erosion of Rights put forth by Socialist not just in the USA, but world wide and see an unbroken pattern. Now you democrats...............vote for one that wants to do that to you and your family.

And yes, they can really be that stupid. That how these Satan-lovers get votes.

So, New Yorkers being outraged at MS13 and not understanding that there would be NO MS13 members in the country at all if it were not for Dem/Comms is like trying to smoke enough cigarettes to cure your lung cancer.

But I'll bet New York still keeps voting for them and those that don't keep allowing the vote fraud to go unpunished. Vote Democrat! That'll fix it------------- and "show the Republicans and Constitutionalists"!

Or for those that Hate the God of the Bible, the book that our western civilization bases most of it's laws on.......You can strike back at those that believe in Him by voting for a Muslim. That'll show us!

(Have another cigarette)