Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta requested Jeremy Goulet's military records be reviewed inferring that, if the military had done their job, Goulet would not have been free to kill two Santa Cruz, CA police detectives.
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer jumped into the fray stating Goulet had slipped through the system of military justice which has consistently failed to prevent sexual assault within its own ranks. Moreover, the Defense Department estimates there were 19,000 cases of sexual assault in the military during 2011. These figures, if accurate, indicate there were 52.06 sexual assaults per day or 2.17 per hour which means a military person could be subject to some form of sexual assault during the time it takes to read this article.
Even if we accept these incredible estimates of the military's flawed justice system, it turns out they were not the only ones who had a crack at Goulet. In late 2007 while Goulet was living in Portland, Oregon, he was charged with privacy invasion, gun possession and attempted murder, but was convicted of two misdemeanors. He did go to jail for two years - not for the two misdemeanors - but because he failed to comply with court-ordered treatment.
In September 2011, Goulet
moved to Berkeley, CA and in August 2012, he was accused of peering into a
house and took a plea deal for 20 days in jail and three years probation.
Incredibly, Santa Cruz had a
crack at him as well. On Feb. 22,
2013, he broke into a co-worker's home and allegedly groped her while she was
in bed. He was arrested for drunk
and disorderly conduct, and released without bail even though he was still on probation
from the episode in Berkeley. Four
days later he opened fire and killed two police detectives. He died 30 minutes later in a
shoot-out. It could be argued that
if he had been incarcerated - well, you know the rest.
But to be fair, the Santa Cruz
Judge may not have had any options.
It was not all that long ago (Oct 2011) that Governor Jerry Brown
instituted his infamous "Realignment" plan to relieve crowded State prisons in
accordance to a federal mandate.
This realignment program sent thousands of so-called "low-level
offenders" to local jurisdictions.
But local jails were also over-crowded resulting in the early release of
many into a probationary arrangement.
Goulet could very well have been considered a low-level offender - so
why bother with bail and the chance he might end up in an over-crowded jail
facility?
A recent (Feb. 25, 2013)
Associated Press article revealed that thousands of California parolees, many
of them sex offenders, are removing court-ordered GPS monitors resulting in
more than 3,400 arrest warrants.
The AP article quotes Matt Hill, a Fresno parole agent, "It's a huge
problem - if the public knew, they'd be shocked."
Many counties have been under
their own court orders to reduce jail populations and some counties have freed
parole violators within days, or even hours, of arrest; accordingly, there is
little risk of serving time by removing GPS devices because state prisons and
local jails are too full to hold them.
It appears Jeremy Goulet is
but the tip of the ice-burg. There
are literally thousands of low-level offenders wandering loose on California
streets. This leaves us with one
final question: "How long will it be until another community suffers a
shoot-out disaster?"