In the 1990's youthful Attorney Raipher Pellegrino seemed like one of the rising stars of Springfield politics. The son of a popular judge, Raipher was elected to the City Council on his first try. However, he soon became, like so many of the bright young talents associated with the administration of former Springfield Mayor Michael Albano, identified in the public's mind with some of the sleazier aspects of that era, causing him to be removed from office by the voters. His defenders at the time argued that Pelegrino was unfairly singled out for criticism, that he was no worse than many others who were slithering through the political scene at the time, and in some ways better.
In any case, Pellegrino doesn't appear to have suffered much from his political demise, as he continues to work for one of Springfield's most lucrative law firms. Pellegrino also deserves credit for the work he did on State Street restoring a historic building at mostly his own expense that had fallen into seemingly hopeless disrepair.
However it is Pellegrino's legal career, rather than his political one, that has caused him to surface on the vengeful website People You'll See in Hell. This is a website for people who want to publicly indict others as deserving to spend eternity in Hell. To me that sounds like a website begging to be sued out of existence, but it has escaped that fate thus far. Among those indicted on the website is Raipher.
Categories of indictment include Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Insanity, Lust, Pride, Sloth and Wrath. Raipher is indicted under the categories of Greed and Lust. The charges involve a weird case Pellegrino won involving a person accused of entering the Calvin Coolidge dorm at UMass and sexually attacking a student. The accused claimed that they were walking in their sleep at the time they committed the crime and should therefore be found innocent. With Raipher's help the defendant was acquitted. The case provided the basis for Pellegrino being nominated for Hell:
If you thought there could not be another reason to lose sleep at night, Raipher D. Pellegrino is there to defend that which goes bump or more like “boink” in the night. For 156 years jurors had more than enough common sense as to believe that someone could commit a major crime while sleepwalking. In 2002, with the magic word “somnambulism” (the medical term for sleep walking), Raipher defended a multiple raper – someone was able to stay asleep while sexually assaulting multiple women in the Coolidge Dorm at the University of Massachusetts in 2001. The sleepwalking rapist was 19 – I would believe it a bit more if instead the perp was 91. I’ve aced a few classes I’ve slept through, but I wake up for sex because sex is definitely more interesting than Algebra, Geometry English, etc…
Seems crazy? OK I have done a few crazy things half asleep. But when someone says “no” and fights back, how does one sleep through that? I have a hard enough time getting into my own house awake, never mind going into someone else’s “asleep”. I did have a friend who woke up in the cellar of a strange building, but he had been drinking.
So, if somnambulism means sleep walking, what’s the term for sleep entering, sleep boinking and sleep sexual assaulting?
As of Oct 28th 2008 Attorney Pellegrino has now made it legal to enter a neighbor’s house and grope 19-year-old women as long as one can say they were asleep the entire time in the state of Illinois. This POS was a college athletic director, someone who is going to tell others how to manage their bodies and yet have no control over his!
So now Attorney Pellegrino is the first defense lawyer to successfully use this defense twice. I am more than sure his rates have increased. I also wonder what defendant number three is going to be able to claim they snoozed through.
Ouch! Following this indictment by someone anonymously calling themselves "The Nibbler" readers are invited to become jurors and vote on Raipher's fate. Does Raipher D. Pellegrino, Attorney at Law, deserve Hell? So far this is the jury's verdict.
Yes (51.0%, 116 Votes)
All Lawyers belong in Hell (29.0%, 65 Votes)
No (21.0%, 47 Votes)
Hey, doesn't look too good so far for Atty. Pellegerino, but note that at least one in five say Raipher should be spared the fire and brimstone. Unfortunately, besides voting jurors can also leave comments, and many of these make the original indictment seem tame. For example:
Only in America can you sexually assault someone, then hire a guy who looks like a coke addict who helps you beat the case with a sleepwalking defense. Or in this case sleepfucking.
However Raipher does have his defenders, even his admirers:
I’d be okay with hiring this guy. If I’m going to hire a lawyer, I want the greasiest, most unethical, slimiest motherfucker money can buy. This guy can do it with a smile on his face – is he in the Yellow Pages?
However one thoughtful commenter seems to feel that the case in question is more an indictment of the legal system than of Raipher personally.
I don’t know about this one. I graduated from law school and had an opportunity to spend some time on both sides of the fence. Honestly, my final reaction was that the system is just in terrible shape. Period. It’s not defense attorneys any more than it is judges or DAs.
The courts are crowded and my general impression was that your crime doesn’t matter to anyone – DAs included – unless it’s a really big deal. There are no Law and Order show downs between prosecutors and defense attorneys. Sure, some have personal problems with each other and overall they stayed away from each other, but not always. There was definitely a lot of laughing across the aisle while waiting for a judge. They’d talk about family or vacations, argue for a bit over a case and walk out of the courtroom chatting again.
The point is that, in my humble opinion, the entire system is in shambles. most people just take the plea and there’s no real individualized assessment, no real look at how dangerous a particular person may be if they get the oh-too-often probation offer. Sentences have become so seemingly random that it’s maddening. Sure, some defense attorneys are worse than others. but some judges are terrible and some DAs are jaded and disinterested. It’s all just so, so messed up.
To read the full indictment and comments click here. What I'm wondering is why, instead of picking on Raipher, no one has written up an indictment to Hell for former Springfield Mayor Mike Albano, whose administration helped corrupt a whole generation of young (and not so young) local politicians.
Green Street Lamps
One of the worst aspects of Springfield's decline was that at one point they had to turn off street lamps in order to save money, not a good idea in city already struggling with high crime. Shut off by Mayor Albano, the street lights were quickly restored by money saving measures introduced by Albano's successor, Charles V. Ryan.
But to make sure that never happens again, maybe the city should consider investing in these new solar/wind powered street lights!
The innovative wind and solar powered hybrid street lamp concept can not only produce light by using renewable energy, also it’s a boost to an everyday object that can operate completely off-grid. This concept was derived from the effort of designers to create a more sustainable future that integrates a range of reusable energy technologies into everyday life objects. These lamps comprise a solar array connected with a wind turbine, and can produce up to 380W of power.
These wind/solar powered street lamps are fitted to locally made, usual galvanized steel poles and can be easily swapped with previous street lamps. The turbines can be either a horizontal axis wind turbine or a 2nd generation 300W vertical axis wind turbine. Two solar panels are mounted on the side of the pole that is capable of producing up to 80W of power.
With the Control Board now gone, maybe buying these lamps would be one way of proving that the city can come up with ways to save money on its own.
New Road
The main drag in downtown Amherst is getting repaved.
I don't know whether it's one of those "stimulus" projects or just something Amherst had planned to do all along. I guess if it was a stimulus project it would have one of those stupid signs Jim Polito took offence to.
Can you believe those signs cost 300 dollars apiece? Just like the government to waste our money while telling us what they're wasting our money on.
What is former WGGB man Polito doing these days? Still doing radio up in Worcester. Here he is surrounded by WGBY producer Tony Dunne and Magi Bish, mother of the tragic Molly.
Anyway, the construction didn't seem to have any effect on this sidewalk sale.
Despite the economy being in a seemingly unstoppable downward spiral, Antonio's Pizza has a Help Wanted sign.
However, that may have less to do with an uptick in the economy than that their normal source of help - college students - have split for the summer.
Today's Video
If you get confused listen to the music play.
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