Tuesday, August 21, 2007

This makes it better?

On Friday, August 17 2007, John Acerra, 50, pleaded guilty to drug charges. He had been accused of selling crystal methamphetamine out of his office and home.

Acerra was the principal of Nitschmann Middle School in Bethleham PA and had been arrested in his office there on Feb 27 during a police sting. He did resign his position two days after the arrest. Friday, he pleaded guilty to two counts of felony delivery of methamphetamine and one count of felony possession with intent to deliver and he faces at least two years in prison when he is sentenced October 18 2007.

The prosecutors have said that there was no indication that Acerra sold the drugs to students.

On Thursday, August 16 2007, Charles L McCardie, 47, pleaded guilty in Platte County Cicuit Court MO, to a misdemeanor count of invasion of privacy. Judge Owen Lee Hull then sentenced him to the maximum of one year in prison.

The case began in June 2006, when the victim's mother reported that her 16 year-old daughter had found a camera hidden in the smoke detector in her room. Investigators found a wireless camera and wireless recievers in the downstairs living room and office of the home.

McCardie, the former chairman of the Farley Board of Trustees, originally denied knowledge of the camera and claimed that it must have been installed when the family was out of town for a weekend. Prosecutors though, stated that McCardie had installed the camera so that he could watch his stepdaughter without her knowledge.

As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped the child pornography charge.

I do wonder though, how it is better that a school principal who is dealing out of his office in the school, didn't sell to students there? He was selling to someone and it may be that person who is selling to the students. As for a stepfather putting a hidden camera in a girls room..... why drop the child pornography charge? I am sure that he wasn't watching to see if she had picked up her room when she was supposed to.

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