i am certainly aware that our justice system has its flaws, but this…. this is ridiculous.

thedailywhat:

This Seems Kind Of Wrong of the Day: A 30-year-old Lufkin man, who was mistaken for burglar in his own home, was sentenced to 30 days in jail for resisting arrest.

When Lufkin Police responded to a call concerning a “black male” kicking in a front door on Finley St., homeowner Marco Sauceda locked himself in the bathroom and refused to come out. Officers eventually knocked down the door and shot Sauceda with a pepper ball gun.

“A person should feel secure in their own home no matter black, white, Hispanic, Asian, I don’t care who they are, they should feel secure in their own home,” Sauceda’s attorney Ryan Deaton told a six-panel Angelina County jury. “The police have no right to come in your house and push you around and beat you up and do the things they did on March, 15, 2009.”

Deaton further argued that his client “has a child’s mind,” along with an obstructive language barrier. Prosecutor Gary Taylor retorted that “this whole incident could have been avoided very easily if he would have said, ‘Me llamo Marco. Es mi casa’.”

While the jury eventually found Sauceda guilty of a Class A misdemeanor, a letter sent to Judge Derek Flournoy prior to the reading of the verdict asked for leniency. Flournoy later told Sauceda he doesn’t agree “with the notion you are a victim in this case,” and would have sentenced him to six months had it not been for the jury’s letter.

Deaton told the Lufkin Daily News that he is working on bringing a civil lawsuit against the city.

[tlfn / obscure.]