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The facts and only the facts about Rome NY

Kayleo

By Kayleo
in General geocaching topics

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Johfra

+Johfra

Posted
Posted
Paul Repak received an ACD (Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal). If he does not commit (or alleged to commit) these types of crimes for six months the case is dismissed. The judge used the word alleged by the way, that is not my opinion.

We tried to talk to Repak after the trial and he became very agitated almost on the verge of crying (my opinion). We just simply asked why? He first said talk to my lawyer, then said that the notebook (my log book from the cache he had stolen two years ago) was on a public trail. That was it.

On a side note not a single cache has gone missing since his arrest.

Interesting that you saw possible signs of remorse, or at least regret, in his face. I hope that's the case. I guess I am a bit surprised at the six month time period, considering that this "alleged" theft has been "allegedly" going on for ten years, though. But he is an intelligent man... I suspect he has learned his lesson and probably has paid a very steep cost in attorney fees and personal grief, at the very least. Probably some degree or another of shame, as well.

 

Not sure if the remorse was for the crimes or the getting caught. All I know is that it kind of scared me a bit because he looked a little over the edge to me. The six months is for misdemeanors....one year for felonies...thats the law, cannot be changed or differwent lengths set.

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GOF and Bacall

GOF and Bacall

Posted
Posted

Paul Repak received an ACD (Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal). If he does not commit (or alleged to commit) these types of crimes for six months the case is dismissed. The judge used the word alleged by the way, that is not my opinion.

We tried to talk to Repak after the trial and he became very agitated almost on the verge of crying (my opinion). We just simply asked why? He first said talk to my lawyer, then said that the notebook (my log book from the cache he had stolen two years ago) was on a public trail. That was it.

On a side note not a single cache has gone missing since his arrest.

 

Thank you for the update.

 

Thank you for taking the time from your schedule to see this thing through. I haven't even scratched the surface of this game yet, but understand how terribly frustrating it must have been for the entire Geo-community up there for the last few years. Hopefully, Paul will reach out and try to make ammends for the damage he has done now that everything is in the open.

 

I doubt that he will make amends. To be honest it would surprise me if it isn't a condition of the ACD that he must not knowingly contact any geocachers.

 

Sad story. Glad it's over.

 

Is an ACD what I've heard of as a suspended sentence?

 

Does the ACD mean that he pled or was found guilty? I don't know the law but I think you have to be found guilty to receive a punishment, even a suspended one.

 

Or is an ACD a warning... whether you did it or not, go forth and sin no more?

 

Can you (or anyone who knows NY law) elaborate on what was said about "If he does not commit (or alleged to commit) these types of crimes for six months the case is dismissed."

 

Surely his future can't depend on no one alleging that he stole another cache?

 

I am not a lawyer but have known people who have had cases end in ACDs. No, I am not one of those people. :) It was most likely part of a deal between his lawyer and the prosecuting attorney. If at the end of the six months he has not been caught doing this, or probably any crimes, the charges will be dismissed and he can continue on with life as if it never happened. It's just the outcome I said it was gonna be.

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Team Cotati

+Team Cotati

Posted
Posted
I am just wondering how much this is going to cost the tax payers. Plus what the judge will say after he or she composes themselves after reading the case. :)
Approximately as much as if the judge and DA sat in their offices doing nothing all day long. Why? Have you got a problem with our officials actually earning their living?

 

I truly feel sorry for the citizens of Rome if in fact this was allowed to go to trial. I can't hardly believe that.

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knowschad

knowschad

Posted
Posted (edited)
I am just wondering how much this is going to cost the tax payers. Plus what the judge will say after he or she composes themselves after reading the case. :)
Approximately as much as if the judge and DA sat in their offices doing nothing all day long. Why? Have you got a problem with our officials actually earning their living?

 

I truly feel sorry for the citizens of Rome if in fact this was allowed to go to trial. I can't hardly believe that.

Better they go to trial than for Nero to fiddle. Why on earth would you feel sorry for them? Edited by knowschad
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Team Cotati

+Team Cotati

Posted
Posted
I am just wondering how much this is going to cost the tax payers. Plus what the judge will say after he or she composes themselves after reading the case. :)
Approximately as much as if the judge and DA sat in their offices doing nothing all day long. Why? Have you got a problem with our officials actually earning their living?

 

I truly feel sorry for the citizens of Rome if in fact this was allowed to go to trial. I can't hardly believe that.

Better they go to trial than for Nero to fiddle. Why on earth would you feel sorry for them?

 

Cases thousands of times more significant than this are settled in this country every single day, most likely many many times every single day. Taking something like this to a trial is an utter waste of resources. If the Rome prosecutors office isn't capable of settling cases such as this then they ought to be fired.

 

If there was actually a trial that is.

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WRASTRO

+WRASTRO

Posted
Posted
I am just wondering how much this is going to cost the tax payers. Plus what the judge will say after he or she composes themselves after reading the case. :)
Approximately as much as if the judge and DA sat in their offices doing nothing all day long. Why? Have you got a problem with our officials actually earning their living?

 

I truly feel sorry for the citizens of Rome if in fact this was allowed to go to trial. I can't hardly believe that.

Better they go to trial than for Nero to fiddle. Why on earth would you feel sorry for them?

 

Cases thousands of times more significant than this are settled in this country every single day, most likely many many times every single day. Taking something like this to a trial is an utter waste of resources. If the Rome prosecutors office isn't capable of settling cases such as this then they ought to be fired.

 

If there was actually a trial that is.

Sometimes there needs to be a trial just over the basic concept. It has to do with the basic philosophies that we hold dear as a society.

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joranda

+joranda

Posted
Posted
I am just wondering how much this is going to cost the tax payers. Plus what the judge will say after he or she composes themselves after reading the case. :)
Approximately as much as if the judge and DA sat in their offices doing nothing all day long. Why? Have you got a problem with our officials actually earning their living?

 

I truly feel sorry for the citizens of Rome if in fact this was allowed to go to trial. I can't hardly believe that.

Better they go to trial than for Nero to fiddle. Why on earth would you feel sorry for them?

 

Cases thousands of times more significant than this are settled in this country every single day, most likely many many times every single day. Taking something like this to a trial is an utter waste of resources. If the Rome prosecutors office isn't capable of settling cases such as this then they ought to be fired.

 

If there was actually a trial that is.

 

I second that. There has got to of been more IMPORTANT cases than something like that. And we wonder why our economy is the way it is. We waste too much tax payers money.

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joranda

+joranda

Posted
Posted
I am just wondering how much this is going to cost the tax payers. Plus what the judge will say after he or she composes themselves after reading the case. :)
Approximately as much as if the judge and DA sat in their offices doing nothing all day long. Why? Have you got a problem with our officials actually earning their living?

 

I truly feel sorry for the citizens of Rome if in fact this was allowed to go to trial. I can't hardly believe that.

Better they go to trial than for Nero to fiddle. Why on earth would you feel sorry for them?

 

Cases thousands of times more significant than this are settled in this country every single day, most likely many many times every single day. Taking something like this to a trial is an utter waste of resources. If the Rome prosecutors office isn't capable of settling cases such as this then they ought to be fired.

 

If there was actually a trial that is.

Sometimes there needs to be a trial just over the basic concept. It has to do with the basic philosophies that we hold dear as a society.

 

The basic philosophies of tupperware hiding? If you leave it you should be will to handle if it comes up missing. I understand that everything I place a cache or send out a TB or coin. That is just the way the game goes. Some play the game a bit different than others.

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Borst68

+Borst68

Posted
Posted

Hopefully the attention/humiliation he received will be enough to keep him on the straight and narrow. I'm sure he never fathomed that it would come to this. Perhaps this has been noted by others but a conviction could have had serious repercussions on his security clearance for his work with the military. I would think he'll be VERY careful to stay away from anything related to geocaching.

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bittsen

+bittsen

Posted
Posted

He got off way too easy.

 

He disrupted hundreds of lives (sure it was a small disruption) and should have had his life disrupted hundreds of ways (even if they were small disruptions).

 

Think of the countless gallons of gas wasted searching for caches that he stole. Think of the countless hours of enjoyment he robbed others. Think of the disappointment that all the children suffered.

 

Yes, he got off way too easy IMHO.

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popokiiti

+popokiiti

Posted
Posted

Appreciate the updates. Hopefully, leaving a name off something won't be the legal loophole that lets someone off. I knew of someone who had two digits reversed (eg 32 instead of 23) on his "ticket" and the case was thrown out. I hope the judge can decide the punishment without going to trial.....

Thanks again, Kayleo, for keeping us in the loop.

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bobdammit

+bobdammit

Posted
Posted

Hopefully the attention/humiliation he received will be enough to keep him on the straight and narrow. I'm sure he never fathomed that it would come to this. Perhaps this has been noted by others but a conviction could have had serious repercussions on his security clearance for his work with the military. I would think he'll be VERY careful to stay away from anything related to geocaching.

As someone who has gone the ACD route before (in my youthful over exuberance) MOST security sensitive positions care more about ARRESTS than CONVICTIONS. I had to list an ACD from almost 20 years ago for my TSA clearance. :laughing:

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bittsen

+bittsen

Posted
Posted

Hopefully the attention/humiliation he received will be enough to keep him on the straight and narrow. I'm sure he never fathomed that it would come to this. Perhaps this has been noted by others but a conviction could have had serious repercussions on his security clearance for his work with the military. I would think he'll be VERY careful to stay away from anything related to geocaching.

As someone who has gone the ACD route before (in my youthful over exuberance) MOST security sensitive positions care more about ARRESTS than CONVICTIONS. I had to list an ACD from almost 20 years ago for my TSA clearance. :laughing:

 

It's amusing and frustrating how some people/organizations get hung up on the past. You can keep your nose clean for 3 decades and some people get hung up on something you did when you just turned 18.

 

I suspect that this ACD will get expunged in the future for just this reason.

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sbell111

+sbell111

Posted
Posted

Hopefully the attention/humiliation he received will be enough to keep him on the straight and narrow. I'm sure he never fathomed that it would come to this. Perhaps this has been noted by others but a conviction could have had serious repercussions on his security clearance for his work with the military. I would think he'll be VERY careful to stay away from anything related to geocaching.

As someone who has gone the ACD route before (in my youthful over exuberance) MOST security sensitive positions care more about ARRESTS than CONVICTIONS. I had to list an ACD from almost 20 years ago for my TSA clearance. :D

The fact that they wish to know about arrests doesn't mean that they care more about arrests than convictions.

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Pirate Rat

+Pirate Rat

Posted
Posted (edited)

There's always Civil court. Maybe someone involved has free legal, and is willing to drag him into court to pay for the ammo boxes.

 

Or... somebody could start and maintain a Paul Repak entry on wikipedia... :)

 

(Just the facts, folks. Not slander if it's on the public record...)

Edited by PIRATE RAT
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Gamaliel

+Gamaliel

Posted
Posted

There's always Civil court. Maybe someone involved has free legal, and is willing to drag him into court to pay for the ammo boxes.

 

Or... somebody could start and maintain a Paul Repak entry on wikipedia... :)

 

(Just the facts, folks. Not slander if it's on the public record...)

 

Please don't. We'll just have to delete it. (Relevant policies here)

 

However, there is no reason that there couldn't be a brief discussion of cache theft in the geocaching article mentioning Mr. Repak in the context of the broader issue.

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geodarts

+geodarts

Posted
Posted

I was busy and forgot about the hearing date. Like others, I expected an ACD; I fantasized about how interesting it would be to litigate some of the underlying issues (but could not come up with a reason why any of the parties would want to do this); but the bottom line is that I am glad that the caches in the area do not appear to be disappearing any more.

 

There are some models, like restorative justice, where the goal is to seek a resolution of the case that would allow victims and offenders to come to a better understanding. It would have been interesting to find out more about what motivated Mr. Repak. But for the most part, the law is not there to provide emotional satisfaction.

 

Still, somewhere in the back of my mind, is this image of a conversion. Paul on the road to Damascus. Where two years down the line, he turns his talent the other direction and starts to publish puzzle caches worthy of someone who edited the book, "Multifrequency Electronic/ Photonic Devices and Systems for Dual-use Applications."

 

In the meantime, thank you to all who kept us informed about this case.

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6079smithw

+6079smithw

Posted
Posted (edited)

The only thing that needed to be decided here was whether he should have been water-boarded, impaled (head-down of course) or drawn and quartered.

Some may suggest making him listen to Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life" at a min 95 db for 10 hrs. straight, but it was only a mag-key container... let's show a little restraint here!

Edited by 6079smithw
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thedeadpirate

+thedeadpirate

Posted
Posted

The only thing that needed to be decided here was whether he should have been water-boarded, impaled (head-down of course) or drawn and quartered.

Some may suggest making him listen to Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life" at a min 95 db for 10 hrs. straight, but it was only a mag-key container... let's show a little restraint here!

 

Now see, this post belongs in the other thread.

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knowschad

knowschad

Posted
Posted (edited)
The only thing that needed to be decided here was whether he should have been water-boarded, impaled (head-down of course) or drawn and quartered.

Some may suggest making him listen to Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life" at a min 95 db for 10 hrs. straight, but it was only a mag-key container... let's show a little restraint here!

Legally, it may have just been a key container. The locals swear that it was 10 years worth of every sort of cache container they put out there. Think about it for a second before you respond... YOU put a cache out. It turns up missing. You replace it. It turns up missing. You archive it and it turns up missing again. You and he go on and on like this for... not a week... not a month... not one year, nor two, nor three... TEN YEARS. What were you doing ten years ago? Do you even remember?

 

Please take any reply to this message to the other thread.

 

[Edit:]

I realized after I posted the above, that my opinion, for those that may care, may seem to be inconsistent. I don't think they are. I do not condone the lynch mob mentality that some posts seem to have, but at the same time, I'm not one of those "geeze, guys... it was just a geocache!" people. The dude stole. I personally believe that he probably had a self-justifiable motive, but it was theft nevertheless. I believe the only abandoned geocaches are those that have been abandoned.

Edited by knowschad
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Packanack

+Packanack

Posted
Posted (edited)

de minimis non curat lex

 

ACD is sometimes referred to as a withhold, withhold adjudication for a period of time and then dismiss the charges if there is no other allegation of problem. It is only used for first time minor offenses where people have otherwise unblemished records. Second chance as it were. This would be the typical case for that , an otherwise upstanding member of the community who has no prior problems who just made a stupid mistake.

 

Frequently employed in the 18 to 19 year old class of offenders, who are no longer juveniles and are now in adult court facing serious problems that can mess them over for the rest of their lives, but have no other problems. Usually a college kid who throws a punch, a beer bottle or tantrum while boozing. Or a housewife who walks out of Bloomies with a purse from the design section. Can't tell you how many of the 18 year olds who get withholds and never have another problem. Second chance, I have had em.

Edited by Packanack
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thedeadpirate

+thedeadpirate

Posted
Posted
The only thing that needed to be decided here was whether he should have been water-boarded, impaled (head-down of course) or drawn and quartered.

Some may suggest making him listen to Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life" at a min 95 db for 10 hrs. straight, but it was only a mag-key container... let's show a little restraint here!

Legally, it may have just been a key container. The locals swear that it was 10 years worth of every sort of cache container they put out there. Think about it for a second before you respond... YOU put a cache out. It turns up missing. You replace it. It turns up missing. You archive it and it turns up missing again. You and he go on and on like this for... not a week... not a month... not one year, nor two, nor three... TEN YEARS. What were you doing ten years ago? Do you even remember?

 

Please take any reply to this message to the other thread.

 

[Edit:]

I realized after I posted the above, that my opinion, for those that may care, may seem to be inconsistent. I don't think they are. I do not condone the lynch mob mentality that some posts seem to have, but at the same time, I'm not one of those "geeze, guys... it was just a geocache!" people. The dude stole. I personally believe that he probably had a self-justifiable motive, but it was theft nevertheless. I believe the only abandoned geocaches are those that have been abandoned.

 

Oh, my four legged friend, it would have been better to just point him to the other thread and then let him have it there. :D

 

Now this thread may just erupt with all the stuff that should be over there. :)

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Frank Broughton

+Frank Broughton

Posted
Posted
de minimis non curat lex

 

ACD is sometimes referred to as a withhold, withhold adjudication for a period of time and then dismiss the charges if there is no other allegation of problem. It is only used for first time minor offenses where people have otherwise unblemished records. Second chance as it were. This would be the typical case for that , an otherwise upstanding member of the community who has no prior problems who just made a stupid mistake.

 

Frequently employed in the 18 to 19 year old class of offenders, who are no longer juveniles and are now in adult court facing serious problems that can mess them over for the rest of their lives, but have no other problems. Usually a college kid who throws a punch, a beer bottle or tantrum while boozing. Or a housewife who walks out of Bloomies with a purse from the design section. Can't tell you how many of the 18 year olds who get withholds and never have another problem. Second chance, I have had em.

 

You are mixing up a YO with an ACD. Youthful offender is the term you speak of above (although some can use the numerous times too). An ACD also know as "a conditional discharge" can be used many times for all ages. After the determined amount of time of good behavior the case is dismissed and many times sealed with an ACD.

 

Unfortunately, I know too much about both.

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