Times Editorial : A troubling detail
Posted on Saturday, February 24, 2007
Sometimes, a situation that attracts news
coverage can be fairly unsettling. Sure,
there are murders and other crimes that offend most readers’ sensibilities because of the act being reported. Then there are other stories that bother us for other reasons. Take, for instance, Wednesday’s story about a Fayetteville man accused of perpetrating one of the all-time classic flame-outs. Here’s the background: On Nov. 30, Jonathan Brett Butler, 23, showed up at 414 E. 12 th Street and argued with the alleged victim. The woman told police she asked Butler to leave, but he returned a short while later. This time, he didn’t leave quietly. He reportedly threw an empty vodka bottle at the ceiling. He ripped pictures off the wall. He broke the front window with his fist. Here’s where the tale gets really scary. The victim told authorities that Butler then climbed into his 2003 Hummer and appeared to drive straight at the victim. Butler missed her — but he did manage to steer his ride straight through the residence. Reportedly, he then backed out and took one more swipe at the house, crashing through a bedroom wall. A few feet this way or that and the Hummer very well might have injured or killed three children who were inside the house. Most of the fallout from this incident is standard stuff. On Dec. 14 Butler was formally charged in Washington County Circuit Court with attempted first-degree murder, among other things. In the wake of that, a judge set a bond of $ 100, 000, which Butler’s family managed to obtain. He was freed, under conditions that he have no contact with the victim. Even with the judge’s mandates, Butler is alleged to have made contact with the victim by driving by her house and dropping messages off at her front door. On Feb. 2, Circuit Judge Kim Smith revoked Butler’s bond. He ended up back in jail. Then, in a court appearance last week, Butler’s trial was delayed, so his attorney asked for his release on bond again. The judge agreed, this time requiring Butler to wear an ankle monitor and requiring that he remain at his father’s home. If he left the house (except for a couple of specified exceptions ), the monitor would alert authorities that he had violated the conditions of his release (again ). We don’t usually make a habit of offering up opinions about cases in the judicial system. There’s a reason judges and juries handle those matters, and it’s because cases are often far more complicated than one might first believe. Our judges typically make good decisions around here. This time we’re not so sure. Yes, being accused of a crime doesn’t always merit jail time until the trial. Sometimes monitoring a person’s whereabouts is enough. Sometimes forcing them to appear through a significant bond is enough. But in this case, we wonder what’s enough. Maybe Smith is right. Maybe he knows something we don’t. Maybe Butler’s father has assured Smith that his son won’t cause any more problems, that he won’t come out of his dad’s house until he’s told. Maybe the ankle monitor will work. Maybe deep down Butler is a good kid, and one bad night has placed him and his family in an extremely agonizing situation. Maybe. Consider this from the victim’s perspective, though. Here we have a man who is alleged to have lost all control and reason to the point that he used a massive SUV to ram into a house with three kids inside. If these allegations are true, Butler demonstrated a complete disregard for human life, including the lives of children. Then, this same man is alleged to have ignored the warnings of the judge by re-establishing the unwelcome contact with the woman police say he assaulted. The question we hope is never answered: If Butler loses control or good judgment a third time, how comforting will that ankle monitor be to the victim if he shows up on her porch ? Ankle monitoring has its place in the judicial system, especially in the case of nonviolent offenses. If the driver of that Hummer had gotten his way back in November, though, we’d likely be talking about murder charges right now. The reality that Butler was freed again is troubling.
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