Victims’ Lives Lost and Forgotten

Re: “Man Gets 15 Years to Life in Deaths of 3 Teens,” Feb. 2.

It’s really sad that people who hold public office and are supposed to look out for the public are more interested in their own career advancement and don’t take the victims into account. Superior Court Judge Sandy Kriegler and Deputy Dist. Atty. Shellie Samuels did the public and themselves a big disservice by agreeing to plea bargain with Oscar Orlando Argueta. Instead of serving a life sentence without parole, or getting the death penalty, Oscar Argueta will be eligible for parole in 10 years. I wonder if any of the teenagers he killed would have been married or had families by the time he is out on parole.

This is typical of the L.A. district attorney’s office. When a suspect is being pursued by police, what do they have to lose? If they get away, they’re free. If they crash and kill innocent bystanders, they can just plea bargain everything down to a minimum time. This occurs without any thoughts of the victims.

The district attorney is willing to spend millions of dollars to prosecute O.J. Simpson so vigorously. What about the thousands of victims in L.A. County every day? I hope that Kriegler and Samuels are able to live guilt-free in 10 years when Argueta is free to commit more crimes.

As a police officer in L.A. County, I see this sort of recklessness firsthand every day. I can only hope that the next family that loses a loved one to this type of recklessness isn’t mine.

JEFFREY CLARK

Burbank