Suspect avoids prison despite arrest records
Source: Agencies |
July 12, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE suspect in the "Grim Sleeper" killings in Los Angeles was arrested at least 15 times for burglary, assaults and other crimes, but avoided prison even though a probation officer urged that he be given the maximum allowed, court and jail records show.
The crimes of 57-year-old Lonnie Franklin Jr never were considered serious enough to send him to state prison or to warrant his entry in the state's DNA database, authorities said.
"He's danced to the raindrops for a long time without getting wet," Detective Dennis Kilcoyne, head of the task force probing the killings, told the Los Angeles Times.
Franklin was arrested on Wednesday on 10 counts of murder and other charges in the deaths of young black women that started in the 1980s, then appear to have stopped, only to resume again 14 years later - sparking the nickname Grim Sleeper.
At a Saturday community forum on the murders, city councilman and former police chief Bernard Parks said law enforcement and police should not be faulted for their past handling of Franklin.
"That's not unusual," Parks said of Franklin's short sentences and frequent quick releases. He said jails are "constantly evaluating who can be let go to make room."
But Parks, who as police chief from 1997-2002 ordered new examinations of cold case files and as city councilman in the area of the killings raised a reward of $US500,000 before the arrest, said he understands frustration from victim's relatives and community.
"If people are dead, there is no consolation, there is no excuse," he said.
Parks said California was slower than many big states in adding property crimes to those where DNA is automatically collected from convicts, and that may have prevented an earlier arrest.
The crimes of 57-year-old Lonnie Franklin Jr never were considered serious enough to send him to state prison or to warrant his entry in the state's DNA database, authorities said.
"He's danced to the raindrops for a long time without getting wet," Detective Dennis Kilcoyne, head of the task force probing the killings, told the Los Angeles Times.
Franklin was arrested on Wednesday on 10 counts of murder and other charges in the deaths of young black women that started in the 1980s, then appear to have stopped, only to resume again 14 years later - sparking the nickname Grim Sleeper.
At a Saturday community forum on the murders, city councilman and former police chief Bernard Parks said law enforcement and police should not be faulted for their past handling of Franklin.
"That's not unusual," Parks said of Franklin's short sentences and frequent quick releases. He said jails are "constantly evaluating who can be let go to make room."
But Parks, who as police chief from 1997-2002 ordered new examinations of cold case files and as city councilman in the area of the killings raised a reward of $US500,000 before the arrest, said he understands frustration from victim's relatives and community.
"If people are dead, there is no consolation, there is no excuse," he said.
Parks said California was slower than many big states in adding property crimes to those where DNA is automatically collected from convicts, and that may have prevented an earlier arrest.
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