This morning's Ithaca Journal leads with the 12-year sentence handed down yesterday to Karel "Ricky" Westerling for his conviction on rape and kidnapping charges following an incident last December.
There are two articles on the Ithaca schools, one in the print edition looking at the welcome freshman got at Ithaca High School, and the other exploring the possible cost of a major construction bond.
Posted by simon at September 7, 2006 12:45 PM in Ithaca Journal , crime , schools (Ithaca)
My son's case was overturned due to Judge Sherman mishandling the trial, and then all the charges were dropped against him on May 16, 2008 because there was proof that the girl that accused him of these crimes lied. If you could post this it would be very much appreciated. The Ithaca Journal did everything in their power to convict my son in print by leaving keys fact out of their reporting, distorting what they did report, and in some cases, down right made stuff up. I guess it's all about selling papers. After nearly 2 1/2 years the truth finally came out about my son's innocence. Ricky spent 1 year and 340 days in prison, over a year of which he was over 5 hours away in the most brutal maximum security prison in New York State for crimes he did not commit.
The District Attorney's Office was either driving this bus of lies, or was taken for a ride. There appears to be no perjury charges in this case. You decide.
We are so proud of Rick for the way he has conducted himself during this horrific ordeal. We love him very much.
I am a friend of Ricky's and he is one of the most caring people you will ever meet. All of his friends knew that he was not guilty and that he was suffering in prison for no good reason. Everytime I read an article in the Ithaca Journal about him I got so upset. They did not present the facts and they most certainly did not follow the code of ethics for journalists. As a student studying journalism I know how important it is to be ethical in order to remain credible as a journalist. The 4 main points of the ethics code adopted by the Society of Professional Journalists are:
1. Seek the truth and report it
2. Minimize harm
3. Act independently
4. Be accountable
The Journal did not follow these guidelines when reporting about Rick. Those reporters should not even be allowed to call themselves journalists. They made a good person look bad just to have a good front page story. This is just not right.