In 2007, a police sergeant over in New Jersey pleaded guilty to a charge of running a gambling hall. His request to withdraw that plea, and to take the case to trial, has just been rejected by a judge. The croupier cop’s extenuating circumstances left hizzoner unmoved.

Winstock told the judge on Thursday, as he has in the past, that his wife threatened to leave him if he didn’t plead guilty, and that he believed when he did, he would receive one year probation. The judge bristled, noting that the plea agreement called for no set period of probation and up to 364 days in the county jail, which Winstock never got.

“I agonized whether I would place a person who had been a public servant, apparently a good one, and place him in an environment which would be hostile to him,” Ahto said to Winstock, in explaining why he elected not to impose time behind bars.

Winstock said he appreciated that he wasn’t sent to jail but that he now wanted the chance to tell a jury his side of the story.

Don’t miss the comments! If it had been a ring of black laborers, you can bet that the drift of the comments would have been different.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
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