Difference between revisions of "User:RahalMccall69"

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(Roger Goodell has no excuse for mishandling Ray Rice's punishment_0)
(Burglar who shot, paralyzed Lebanon man sentenced to 30 years)
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Imagining yourself in a small enclosed space with an angry and violent professional football player is even worse. Seeing the callous way Rice reacted after he knocked out a woman he supposedly loved is unimaginable.
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A New Hampshire man who shot and paralyzed a Lebanon homeowner during a burglary at the man s home last year was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison.
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But knowing that this incident is just one of many, differentiated only because it was caught on video?
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Ronald Bauer, 49, formerly of Farmington, New Hampshire, was sentenced by Superior Court Justice Paul Fritzche to begin serving the sentence for shooting Richard Potorski after Bauer completes a different New Hampshire prison term in which his minimum release date will be 2023.
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Quite honestly, it turns my stomach.
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The back-to-back sentences in New Hampshire for armed robbery, drug and firearm charges followed by the shooting sentence in Maine mean Bauer will likely spend the rest of his life in prison, <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/michaelkorssonline.php> michael kors outlet</a>  according to the York County District Attorney s Office.
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But that's the easy part. It's easy to stand against a heinous act caught on video for everyone to see. There is very little room for discussion. There <a href=http://www.alportico.net/prodotti/christianlouboutin-sale.jkmsw.php>Christian Louboutin Sale</a>  is little to no gray area. Few among us can see that video and not want Rice's head on a platter. We want him off our team, out of our league and thrown in jail. Or worse.
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Potorski, whose spine was severed by the bullet and who retains some function in his upper body, appeared in a wheelchair at the sentencing hearing in York County Superior Court in Alfred. He did not speak at the hearing.
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And yet, it took a public airing of that video to make any of those things happen.
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Bauer also chose not to speak at the hearing, Deputy District Attorney Justina McGettigan said.
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We don't yet know if commissioner Roger Goodell saw it before the rest of us. The NFL claims it is new to the league. TMZ claims it will provide evidence to the contrary. If TMZ is right, then it means Goodell watched the same horrific scene that we did and thought it wasn't worth breaking protocol.  
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That shot <a href=http://www.museosangennaro.com/Public/wdluk.php>Louboutin Shoes Sale</a>  paralyzed him, and the bullet is still in his body, McGettigan said of Potorski s injuries.
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It means he was planning to allow Rice back on his field and he was willing to let fans wonder about the level of the player's guilt when he knew it wasn't in doubt. He would have allowed Rice to disgrace his league.  
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Bauer pleaded guilty to Class A felony charges of elevated aggravated assault and burglary with use of firearm as part of a plea agreement reached by his attorney, Robert LeBrasseur, and Assistant District Attorney John Connelly.
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And if he did that, it's hard to see how he is fit to lead the most powerful and popular sport in this country.
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The plea agreement called for Bauer to be sentenced to the maximum prison term of 30 years. As part of the agreement, lesser charges of theft and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon were dismissed.
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Imagine for a moment Goodell watching this video and then proceeding with the two-game suspension. It would mean that he either a) didn't believe it was serious enough to warrant further action, b) was so afraid of the NFLPA that he didn't want to fight the union on this, or c) wanted to protect the league's image so badly that he figured it would never come out publicly.
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On Jan. 8, 2013, Potorski returned home from work to eat lunch and was surprised to find Bauer, a stranger who carried a gun, coming up the interior stairs from the <a href=http://www.symbiose.ca/images/christianlouboutin.gwij.php>Christian Louboutin Outlet</a>  basement, according to the district attorney s office.
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If he didn't think it was serious then he lacks some basic human emotions that most of us seemed to feel when we saw it.
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The two men spoke to each other, then Bauer shot Potorski. As Potorski lay on the floor asking for help, Bauer replied, Cry me a river, the district attorney s office said in a news release.
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If he didn't think this was worth fighting the NFLPA then he badly miscalculated. This is, after all, the same guy that brazenly told the union that the league needed a larger cut of the revenue but wouldn't provide any evidence of it. He has proven that no problem fighting the players when it suits his interest even shutting down the league for it.
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Bauer then stole Potorski s cellphone and other items in the house and fled using Potorski s vehicle.
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But even more, he would have insulted the union for believing that its leaders wouldn't support a ban for Rice after seeing the video themselves.
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Investigators used the stolen cellphone to track Bauer, leading to his arrest and the arrest of a co-defendant, 49-year-old Susan Gutierrez.
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And if he hoped that this wouldn't come out, then he hasn't been paying attention to the world in which we live. A world in which TMZ and other entities are willing to pay top dollar for juicy information. A world in which nude cell-phone pictures get leaked. Certainly he couldn't have been so blind.  
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The case against Gutierrez remains pending. She is accused of driving Bauer to the scene of the crime.  
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If Goodell saw that video before the public, he is not fit to be the commissioner of the NFL.
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Maine State Police said last year that the couple burglarized the home to get money to feed their drug habit. Potorski s vehicle was found in Rochester, New Hampshire.
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But I know what you're thinking: what if he really didn't see the video?
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Scott Dolan can be contacted at 791-6304 or at:
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Good question. And it leads to a return query: why not? Why did Goodell not seek to investigate this as thoroughly as possible?
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Unfortunately, that answer is incredibly murky. But it leads to problem that I have always believed is pervasive in professional sports. I may be a bit of a pessimist and the occasional conspiracy theorist, but I strongly believe there are a lot of ugly things going on in sports that we don't want to know about.  
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We don't always want to know where the money goes or who profits or how athletes, coaches and owners treat others. We sense that athletes are not exactly model citizens; we see movies in which they are entitled by coaches and boosters who fix their misdeeds and mistreatments of others. We know of the second, third and seventh chances given to talents like Lawrence Phillips and J.R. Rider.
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It's easy to write them off as exceptions, as guys who just couldn't escape their demons or simply bad people. But we get uncomfortable when our <a href=http://www.alportico.net/prodotti/christianlouboutin-sale.jkmsw.php>Christian Louboutin Outlet</a>  heroes, especially the well-groomed ones, turn out to be no better or even worse.
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But as I've said many times, we don't know athletes, we only know their talents. Rice never struck me as a bad guy but interviews on TV don't tell <a href=http://www.museosangennaro.com/Public/wdluk.php>Louboutin Shoes UK</a>  us anything. Neither do character testimonials from coaches or teammates just look at what John Harbaugh and others said about Rice after the initial suspension. They learn early how to please the public by speaking for the cameras. They are taught the value of supporting their own and eliminating "distractions" in order to achieve the goals for which they are paid and praised.  
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We don't know them. We know the image of them that the league wants us to see. And TMZ is spoiling that image. In fact, this was always the expected outcome of TMZ's promise to get into the sports business a few years ago. It was planning to peek under the rug and we the fans are a little uncomfortable learning about what's under there. We get pretty uncomfortable realizing that Richie Incognito and Ray Rice might not be lone wolves they are just the stories that have gone viral.
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Right now TMZ is going after big stories and big fish. But what if it decides to uncover every athlete who cheats or blows his money on garbage or doesn't tip or whatever? I'm not sure we want to walk down this road unless we can walk far enough to actually clean up sports.
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And does anyone think we can do that?
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Goodell may or may not remain atop the NFL but he is more indicative of the problem than simply part of it. He runs a league that employs plenty of talented but severely flawed humans who have been entitled, empowered and enriched by the game. We pay them for those talents but we often don't really want to know about the flaws. We seem too often to want to excuse them because we are rooting for laundry and we don't truly know the players themselves. Maybe we want sports cleaned up, but Goodell has shown himself to be the wrong guy to do it.  
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Maybe his own entitlement prevents it.
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Revision as of 01:24, 2 October 2014

@@@ A New Hampshire man who shot and paralyzed a Lebanon homeowner during a burglary at the man s home last year was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison. Ronald Bauer, 49, formerly of Farmington, New Hampshire, was sentenced by Superior Court Justice Paul Fritzche to begin serving the sentence for shooting Richard Potorski after Bauer completes a different New Hampshire prison term in which his minimum release date will be 2023. The back-to-back sentences in New Hampshire for armed robbery, drug and firearm charges followed by the shooting sentence in Maine mean Bauer will likely spend the rest of his life in prison, <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/michaelkorssonline.php> michael kors outlet</a> according to the York County District Attorney s Office. Potorski, whose spine was severed by the bullet and who retains some function in his upper body, appeared in a wheelchair at the sentencing hearing in York County Superior Court in Alfred. He did not speak at the hearing. Bauer also chose not to speak at the hearing, Deputy District Attorney Justina McGettigan said. 

That shot <a href=http://www.museosangennaro.com/Public/wdluk.php>Louboutin Shoes Sale</a>  paralyzed him, and the bullet is still in his body, McGettigan said of Potorski s injuries.

Bauer pleaded guilty to Class A felony charges of elevated aggravated assault and burglary with use of firearm as part of a plea agreement reached by his attorney, Robert LeBrasseur, and Assistant District Attorney John Connelly. The plea agreement called for Bauer to be sentenced to the maximum prison term of 30 years. As part of the agreement, lesser charges of theft and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon were dismissed. On Jan. 8, 2013, Potorski returned home from work to eat lunch and was surprised to find Bauer, a stranger who carried a gun, coming up the interior stairs from the <a href=http://www.symbiose.ca/images/christianlouboutin.gwij.php>Christian Louboutin Outlet</a> basement, according to the district attorney s office. The two men spoke to each other, then Bauer shot Potorski. As Potorski lay on the floor asking for help, Bauer replied, Cry me a river, the district attorney s office said in a news release. Bauer then stole Potorski s cellphone and other items in the house and fled using Potorski s vehicle. Investigators used the stolen cellphone to track Bauer, leading to his arrest and the arrest of a co-defendant, 49-year-old Susan Gutierrez. The case against Gutierrez remains pending. She is accused of driving Bauer to the scene of the crime. Maine State Police said last year that the couple burglarized the home to get money to feed their drug habit. Potorski s vehicle was found in Rochester, New Hampshire. Scott Dolan can be contacted at 791-6304 or at:

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