Friday, March 11, 2011

Judge Baumgartner Gets Suspended Sentence

 
Judge Baumgartner at Letalvis Cobbins' sentencing.

 
By David in TN
Friday, 1:52 a.m.

Today, Judge Richard Baumgartner, who presided over the Knoxville Horror trials, received a suspended sentence, as he pled guilty to official misconduct. He was secretly buying pills from a probationer in his own court.

Jamie Satterfield writes:

At the time, the pair's dealer-buyer relationship launched, Baumgartner was in the middle of a series of trials in the torture slayings of Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23, amid the glare of television cameras and internet coverage that allowed watchers across the globe access to the judge's courtroom.

Although people could watch the live stream of the trials on the internet, the national media ignored the trials. The exception was TruTV’s In Session showing the replay of the first trial. TruTV didn't cover any of the other three. The case was heavily covered locally only.

3 comments:

DC Handgun Info said...

Will some "advocate" of the convicts in the Knoxville Horror now seek to overturn their well-deserved convictions on the grounds that the judge was impaired? He is a DISGRACE to the judicial system and -- if things go badly -- could be directly responsible for the convicts' "Get Out Of Jail Free" card. Deplorable!

Californian said...

You wonder how many people he put in jail for drug possession. Man, the war on drugs is a big goat rope.

Anonymous said...

I attended the sentencing hearings for two of the defendants, Davidson and Coleman. Judge Baumgartner had his Calendar before each. Most of the people who appeared before him were drug offenders. The judge went pretty easy on them.

The general legal opinion is that the verdicts are unlikely to be overturned. The appellate courts will supposedly consider the rulings on their own merits. There may well be an attempt to reduce the sentences.

David In TN