Patriots owner Kraft offered plea deal in prostitution case
Quote:
...Kraft and 24 other men charged with soliciting prostitution...(have been) offered the standard diversion program offered to first-time offenders. The men must concede they would be found guilty, perform 100 hours community service and attend a class on prostitution’s dangers and how it perpetuates human trafficking...They must also be tested for sexually transmitted diseases and pay a court fee of $5,000 per count...Kraft, 77, was charged with two counts...
In return, the charges of misdemeanor soliciting prostitution would be dropped...(Kraft) has pleaded not guilty...If (he) refuses the deal, he would be put on trial and, if found guilty, face a possible year in jail, although that would be unlikely...
(No one has) accepted so far...
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And it's not hard to figure out why -- it's NOT a plea deal.
A plea deal is when you're "rewarded" with less punishment in exchange for pleading guilty to either lesser charges ("We'll let you plead guilty to loitering instead of soliciting prostitution") or fewer charges ("We'll let you plead guilty to one count of soliciting prostitution instead of two"). Removing the possibility of jail and/or probation -- or deleting the charges from their criminal records -- AFTER successful completion the diversion program would be legitimate plea deal offers. But even they would require a plea to
some degree of guilt, not a "concession" to it.
If this is the prosecution's idea of a plea deal, they must WANT to take everyone to trial.