Punishment Fails to Fit the Crime
Re “Judge Suspends Landlord’s Stay in Run-Down Unit,” April 11:
Orange County Superior Court Judge W. Michael Hayes is quoted as saying, “Mr. Menlo owes me 37 days, and I intend to get them.”
It is precisely this sort of stupefying pomposity that breeds contempt for the courts and the officials who populate them. Mr. Menlo, of course, is Sam Menlo, whose failure to maintain decent living conditions for tenants in apartments he owns resulted, according to your story, in 34 criminal counts being levied against him, including charges of numerous fire, health and safety code violations.
What Hayes apparently fails to recognize is that Menlo owes him nothing. Menlo’s debt is to society, and 60 days of home confinement in one of the slums he created doesn’t begin to pay the bill. The sentence itself is a perversion of justice.
GREGG A. PAYNE
Monarch Beach
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