Investigating One's Crime Scene

As reported by the Florida Sun-Sentinel, a Broward County jail inmate accused of masturbating in his cell while a female deputy watched him on closed-circuit television was convicted of indecent exposure this week. The jury took 45 minutes to convict Terry Lee Alexander of the misdemeanor, and he was sentenced to 60 extra days in jail. He could have received a maximium one-year sentence.

Alexander, 20, was sitting on his bunk alone in his cell "choking the turkey" last November when a female deputy, monitoring his cell from a nearby control room, took offense. Alexander's court-appointed defense attorney, Kathleen McHugh, said her client did nothing wrong, he was alone, and his cell, tantamount to his home, is not open to the public.

"I think the government's gone awry," McHugh said. "Has it been a slow year in crime that they've got to go prosecute masturbation in the Broward County Jail? Aren't there more heinous crimes to prosecute, like drug trafficking or sexual predators?"

Were it not for the masturbation charge, Alexander would have moved to the state prison system months ago, as a result of his conviction on armed robbery charges. But in the meantime, Broward taxpayers have been footing the bill — $91.29 a day — to keep Alexander in the main jail while the indecent exposure case has worked its way to a trial date. The grand total for Alexander's incarceration in that case is nearly $21,000. On top of that, the public will pay $1,150 for his attorney. Critics are appalled at what they call a deputy's "moral crusade" and question the value of prosecuting such cases.

The Daily Dude will spare you all the snide comments on "justice gone blind", "doing hard time", the "penal" system, or "behaving like a jerk" (I've read them too many times on the web).