When giving candy is a crime
Probably most have seen the story out of Prescott, Arizona. where 38 year old lawyer Damon Rossi was arrested for his giving his client a piece of candy! It seems that Mr. Rossi had asked the officers in charge of his shackled client if he could give him a piece of candy, and they told him no. Rossi went ahead and did it anyway, which was probably not the wisest thing to do. Nothing was done at the time; instead, the deputies turned the matter over to the sheriff's department criminal division, and they decided to obtain an arrest warrant. They then went and arrested Rossi at his home, and took him to jail.
I'm not condoning what Mr. Rossi did, because it was a stupid thing to do; frankly, I don't have a lot of sympathy for him. If an officer tells you not to do something, you don't do it. If he didn't agree with the decision, he could have taken it up with a supervisor or the sheriff. Or he could have given the candy to the deputies, and asked them to give it to the client, after they made sure there wasn't any contraband. So he certainly can't claim the moral high ground on this.
On the other hand, you have to wonder whether obtaining an arrest warrant is the way to handle the situation. I'm not sure what the offense is - I guess its providing contraband. Technically, it might fit the definition. However, I don't think many prosecutors would want to argue before a jury that candy is contraband - especially right around Christmas.
Another problem I have is going to his home to arrest him. I'm sure he would have turned himself in. Were they worried he was going to run. Or maybe they worried he would show up with a pocket full of candy. Lawyers routinely obtain agreements from officers to notify them when a warrant is issued, so the client can turn themselves. It makes sense to do so, because they have better things to do than tracking someone down to serve a warrant when there is no reason to do so.
I'm sure this will all work itself out, but I think it is indicative of a bigger problem - the trend toward over-criminalization, or making everything a crime. Not everything is, or should be a crime. We seem to have developed a mentality that we need to regulate everything through criminal law. As a result, almost anything can now be a crime. We all know the results that has had on the jail population. But I wonder if it doesn't have more subtle results - do we start seeing right and wrong as whether it's legal or not? We can anything we want, as long as its not against the law?
I hope most people still have a moral compass, and they don't have to guess whether something is a crime or not. I still think most people never consider committing crimes - the idea of whether or not they would get caught isn't a factor. I only hope that we can continue live with those values - when we start having to guess at whether something is a crime or not, we will be in real trouble. I'm sure Mr. Rossi never dreamed he would end up being arrested in his home for giving out candy.
