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Judge
Defends Light Sentences
Brennan spoke at the Frost School where Lawrence residents expressed disappointment and outrage that he had given no jail time to three people convicted of staging car accidents for auto insurance money. The official sentence Brennan handed down was a “continuation without a finding”, which means that if they don’t get caught breaking the law in the next year, their criminal records will be wiped clean. Brennan’s light sentencing sparked anger and frustration among Lawrence residents who pay high insurance rates, largely due to the epidemic of auto insurance fraud in the city. “The lawyers and chiropractors are
the real culprits here. In my view they should go to jail
for a long time,” Brennan said in response to
questions from one Lawrence resident who questioned his
decision to give auto insurance fraud perpetrators a
“slap on the wrist”. “I gave consideration in one case,”
Brennan said, “it was a husband and wife; one of
them was not an American citizen and there were some
immigration problems. I thought that possible deportation
was unusually harsh for this type of crime, especially
for a first time offender.” Brennan blamed the District Attorney’s office for “recommending a suspended sentence” and said he was following that recommendation when he originally handed down his original ruling. “I was not aware of the wide implications when the first case came in. It was just another case like every other first time offender who comes in to court. But after reading the newspaper and seeing the television special about auto theft on Chronicle, I changed my mind.” Brennan said that as a judge he has to be careful not to react to public sentiment when considering the details of a case. “You can’t be carried away by public sentiment,” he said. “But you can’t ignore it either. In one case, the defendant was 57 years old with no prior record. This case should be treated differently than the mules....those who work for the chiropractors and lawyers who arranged (the staged accidents).” “One way to punish them is to assess triple damages, hit them in the pocketbook. I assessed the costs of three times what they were trying to get (by defrauding the insurance companies). I thought that was appropriate for the crime committed.” Brennan was recently appointed as the Chief Administrative Justice for Lawrence Superior Court. Brennan said that Lawrence Superior Court hears more than 25,000 cases per year, collected $2,999,000 in fines and fees last year and is ranked the 4th busiest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. *Send your comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com |
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LAWRENCE
- Essex County Superior Court Judge Thomas Brennan was
the guest speaker at the Mount Vernon Neighborhood
Association in Lawrence last month.