TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: vault

  • Supporters react to Esmie Tseng’s sentence

    Supporters react to Esmie Tseng’s sentence

    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.

  • Esmie Tseng sentenced

    Esmie Tseng sentenced

    Esmie Tseng sentenced to prison:

    The Overland Park teen-ager who pleaded guilty to killing her mother was sentenced today to eight years and four months in prison.

    Esmie Tseng, 17, declined to say anything during the brief hearing in Johnson County District Court. She had pleaded guilty in March to voluntary manslaughter.

    The sentence imposed by Judge Brenda Cameron was recommended by both sides last month as part of a plea agreement.

    Esmie’s mother, 55-year-old Shu Yi Zhang, died after being stabbed to death on Aug. 19.

  • Esmie Tseng not eligible for juvenile detention

    Esmie Tseng not eligible for juvenile detention

    Esmie ineligible for youth prison:

    Supporters of Esmie Tseng, the Kansas girl who pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the stabbing death of her mother, had their hopes raised and summarily dashed last week…

    Supporters of Tseng who lost their fight to have her tried as a juvenile were still lobbying last week for the judge to show mercy.

    They were encouraged briefly when they learned the Kansas Department of Corrections was researching whether state law would allow Tseng to be placed in the state’s juvenile facility for females, in Beloit in north central Kansas. Then they were disappointed to find out Friday that she was not eligible to go there.

    Esmie Tseng agreed to a plea of voluntary manslaughter, an adult charge, and a recommended sentence of 8 years and 4 months. The judge is not bound to follow the agreement.

    Sentencing will take place later this month.

  • Esmie’s abuse

    Esmie’s abuse

    Teenager pleads guilty in mother’s stabbing death:

    This is just another story about Esmie Tseng’s plea, but I finally get to hear what kind of abuse Esmie went through…

    In Esmie Tseng’s world, a test score of 96 might have gotten the 16-year-old grounded.

    Her mother expected more. Always more. And when the Overland Park girl fell short, she often was punished in ‘unfair and cruel’ ways, Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison said Monday.

    Sometimes, he said, Esmie’s mother tried to teach her a lesson by humiliating her: She made her daughter take off all her clothes.

    But Esmie also was under a lot of pressure, primarily from her mother, to perform at unrealistically high levels, Morrison said. Slight transgressions often resulted in punishments such as not being able to go outside for extended periods of time, he said, or not being able to do the kinds of things that teens like to do.

    “She lived in a highly structured environment,” Morrison said.

    “It was not uncommon for her to be ordered to take her clothes off as a way to humiliate her, if that gives you a flavor of what was going on.”

    I feel bad for Esmie. I really do. That’s not sarcasm. Mental abuse like that from a parent is one of the worst tortures that a teenager can go through. However, that abuse did not warrant the violent response that Esmie gave…

    Assistant District Attorney John Fritz said that Esmie had stabbed her mother with a knife. When her mother took away the knife, Esmie grabbed another and stabbed her multiple times. Esmie did not call for help, he said.

    The way Esmie’s mother treated her would have been grounds to call social services, not a multiple stabbing with two different knives.

    Also, did Esmie’s father know that this treatment was going on?

    Now that I know a little more about the events leading up to the murder of Shu Yi Zhang, I can offer an opinion on the sentencing.

    I think the suggested eight years and four months is very reasonable for the offense and what led up to it. As I said, I feel bad for Esmie, but stabbing her mother to death was a severe over-reaction, and she needs to be punished.

    She will still have much of her life ahead of her when she gets out.

  • Esmie Tseng pleads guilty

    Esmie Tseng pleads guilty

    Esmie Tseng pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter:

    In a shocking turn of events, shocking to me anyway, Esmie Tseng, the 16-year-old Kansas teen accused of stabbing her mother to death, has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter…

    Esmie Tseng, 16, pleaded guilty to the charge after agreeing to have her case moved to adult court. Sentencing was set for May 3.

    Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to recommend a sentence of 100 months in prison, or about 8 years and four months. The defense agreed it would not ask for probation.

    I’m curious as to why she pleaded guilty to an adult charge when so many people thought she should be tried as a juvenile?

  • Esmie Tseng revisited

    Esmie Tseng revisited

    Friends argue 16-year-old girl needs help, not prison, following her mother’s murder:

    This is another story that I’ve been following here. It’s the story of Esmie Tseng, a 16-year-old Kansas girl who is accused of stabbing her mother, Shu Y. Tseng, to death. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten a chance to post the previous entries since The Great Website Meltdown of 2005.

    What makes this story attention-getting is the support she is getting from friends and strangers alike who do not want her tried as an adult, which is basically what this article is about.

    I have yet to hear an official motive for the killing, but it may be because I haven’t researched too hard. I just post dribs and drabs of what I get through the media. However, Esmie’s mom has been portrayed as this overbearing mother putting way too much pressure to succeed on her daughter…

    “Her mom leaves a note on her bed that basically said, ‘If you don’t take the state championship, we’re taking the piano away,’” Horwitz said. “(Esmie) puts in (her journal) a couple times that the only thing that defines her is piano and her escape from life is to sit down and play Bach for a few hours.”

    While her mother sounds like a control freak, it’s still no reason to stab her repeatedly if that is, in fact, the motive.

    Unless I hear a better explanation of why she killed her mother, I have no problems at all with her being tried as an adult.

  • Marvin Osantowski Sentenced

    Marvin Osantowski Sentenced

    Convicted teen’s dad gets probation in deal:

    Marvin Osantowski, the father of would be school shooter Andrew Osantowski, was sentenced to 18 months probation after pleading guilty to receiving a stolen golf cart from his son…

    In exchange, prosecutors dropped charges that Marvin Osantowski helped his son hide a cache of weapons, including an AK-47, bomb-making devices and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in the family home in Clinton Township.

    Marvin Osantowski, a DaimlerChrysler employee with disabilities, said he accepted the plea deal to spare his family a trial on the weapons charges.

    “To keep Andrew out of the news, I chose this route,” Osantowski said. “Am I happy it took so long? No.”

    Biernat also modified Marvin Osantowksi’s probation terms to allow him to visit his son in the Macomb Correctional Facility in Lenox Township.

  • Osantowski’s MySpace a Fake?

    Osantowski’s MySpace a Fake?

    Yesterday I told you about what was believed to be Andrew Osantowski’s MySpace account. Well, I received word today from someone on decent authority that the site is a fake. I guess, as they at Snopes, we’ll classify this one “Undetermined”.

  • Esmie Tseng’s Dad Speaks Out

    Esmie Tseng’s Dad Speaks Out

    If tried as adult, daughter “doomed”: (Log in info)

    Kind of a fitting headline, don’t you think? Anyway, Esmie Tseng’s father has spoken out against his daughter being tried as an adult…

    “If my daughter is tried and penalized with hardened criminals and recidivists, she will be doomed,” Tao Tseng said in the statement. “I have already been deprived of my wife. I am afraid I will not survive the loss of my daughter, a more devastating blow.”
    Tao Tseng released the statement after a group that had organized to support his daughter asked him to comment, said Robin Scully, Tao Tseng”s attorney. The group, Concerned Citizens for Esmie, has a Web site at www.esmie.com .

    “He is obviously very, very concerned about his daughter,” Scully said of Tao Tseng. Scully said he was providing Tao Tseng with legal guidance and keeping him updated on the case. “He wants the best for her and wants her to be tried in juvenile court.”

    In the statement, Tao Tseng said he was deeply saddened by the tragedy, but that he continued to love and care for his daughter and will do so for the rest of his life.

    “If Esmie becomes a part of the adult criminal system, it will simply be another tragedy because her wonderful gifts and talents will without question be forever lost,” he said. “She has far too much to give to the world for that to happen.

    “My duty as a husband has been abruptly terminated. I am hanging on only because my duty as a father has yet to be performed.”

     

    Esmie Tseng was due in court today. A ruling on whether she will be tried as an adult may not be for another two to three months.

  • Andrew Osantowski’s MySpace

    Andrew Osantowski’s MySpace

    A few months ago, I wondered if Andrew Osantowski had internet access in prison, since his Yahoo profile had changed since he was sentenced. I received an e-mail today from someone in the know who said that he does not have net access in prison, but he has someone on the outside maintaining his internet presence. I was also sent a link to Osantowski’s MySpace account. Of course, I’m not going to link it but here’s a screenshot…

    What smacks you in the face first? Why the swastika claiming white power, of course. And like most MySpace sites, the background makes it totally unreadable but that’s ok, I’ll translate…

    Andrew’s Interests
    General Neo-Naziism, spray painting swastikas, fertilizer bombs
    Books The Threat of the Hitler Cult, Adolf Hitler, The Neo-Nazis This profile was edited with Thomas’ myspace editor™ V2.5
    Heroes Adolf Hitler, Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold

    And if that wasn’t enough…

    Andrew’s Blurbs

    About me:
    i’m 18 and am pretty anti social, i am very interested in Hitler and the Nazi’s. a while back i got in some major trouble but im back now and im ready to get my life back on track. if you want im me sometime my sn is nazibotsadistic

    Who I’d like to meet:
    McGinty’s!

    What’s scary is that he has 100 MySpace friends. Do the MySpace drones just add anyone indiscriminately?

    What’s even scarier is that when he says he wants to meet the McGinty’s he means Celia McGinty, the Idaho teenage girl who turned him in, and Celia’s father, Sgt. George McGinty, who is a policeman in Washington who first alerted authorities to Osantowski’s plot to shoot up his school. Does that sound like a thinly veiled threat to anyone else?

    For someone who is still obsessed with Nazism and the scumbags Harris and Klebold it doesn’t sound like someone who said this at his sentencing…

    “I am truly sorry for the things I have done. My family never raised me like this.”

    “Whichever path leads to normalcy and freedom is the one I want to take,”

    Just think, this unrepentant ball of hate will be out of jail when he’s 22.

    UPDATE: The site is possibly a fake.