Friends stand by Tseng, call sentence poor:
Some supporters of Esmie Tseng react to her sentencing…
“Nobody’s really better served by this (sentence),” Horwitz said. “When the judge talks about rehabilitation in the prison system … She needs help (after) years and years of challenges and what many argue to be abuse in the home situation.”
Another Tseng family friend, Grant Mallett, said his daughter used to play with Esmie. He said Esmie would not be forgotten.
“We’re committed to stay in touch and help her out as best we can,” Mallett said. “I saw her last week. Her spirits seemed to be quite good, and I was pleased and impressed with how she seems to be doing personally.”
Horwitz said real friends would not abandon Esmie.
“Everybody wants to visit her and write her. She has a lot of true friends,” he said. “She’s been in the community since kindergarten and the people who have known her her whole life know that this is a really good kid and a terrible set of circumstances.”
I am neither a supporter nor detractor of Esmie Tseng, but I can sympathize with Esmie. I really do. I also grew up in a house of abuse, so I know to some extent what she went through.
However, it doesn’t change the fact that she stabbed her mother with a kitchen knife and when her mother got the knife away from her, Esmie picked up another knife and stabbed her again. I have to agree with what the assistant D.A. said…
Assistant District Attorney Richard Guinn said the sentence, considering all factors, represented a “fair and just outcome.”
“We feel for the family, we feel for the dad, we feel for (Esmie) in terms of her situation at home,” Guinn said. “But we are also taking a very strong position here.”
Guinn said stabbing someone multiple times should draw prison time as opposed to the shorter sentence, perhaps three years, available through the juvenile justice system. With good behavior and considering time already served, Esmie faces about seven years in an adult prison, he said.
In prison, Esmie could advance herself academically through college classes, Guinn said.
“It’s up to her what she chooses to make of this time,” he said. “My impression in talking with her attorney is that she has put this chapter of her life behind and is now doing everything she can to make a worthwhile life for herself.”
I know I said I would never do one again, but I may have a special podcast on this sometime this weekend.