Letters | WHERE'S THE JUSTICE IN PIER 34 SENTENCING?

MONICA Kristina Rodriguez is my niece. She was one of the Pier 34 victims who died tragically along with Jean Marie Ferraro and DeAnn White on May 18, 2000.

Words can't describe how her loss has affected her parents, brother, boyfriend, family and friends. She was special. She was the daughter I didn't have. On Mother's Day and on my birthday, she always called and made sure her Aunt Mari received flowers. Her favorite phrase was "I love life!"

I attended the first Pier 34 trial in 2006. When the jury reached a 10-2 guilty verdict, families and friends were disappointed but there was still hope that a second trial would render the required unanimous guilty outcome.

Just before the second trial began in June, Eli Karetny pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and recklessly endangering 43 lives. Michael Asbell pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment, conspiracy and risking a catastrophe, the same as a guilty plea.

The DA's office asked for a 1-to-5- year sentence for each of the three involuntary manslaughter charges. Before sentencing, Mayor Street and Councilmen Frank D. Cicco and Jim Kenney wrote letters to Judge Sheila Woods-Skipper asking for leniency and no jail terms for the "two pillars of the community."

No consideration was given to the three victims, their families nor the 40 others who experienced physical and emotional injuries for a lifetime. On June 22, Woods-Skipper's sentence of house arrest and probation for Karetny and Asbell demonstrated that the lives of Monica Rodriguez, Jean Ferraro and DeAnn White weren't worth a single day of incarceration.

Her decision left the impression that a judge can be influenced by political connections and affluent backgrounds. We are taught to believe that, in America, there is justice for all. In the Pier 34 case, we have seen there is justice for none.

Mari Siegmund

Corpus Christi, Texas

More kudos for Kalas

Re Bill Conlin's recent column on Harry Kalas:

I've been following the Phillies since 1964, and there is no one better at broadcasting a game than "Harry the K." It was an honor and privilege to listen to Ashburn and Kalas call Phillies games all those years. The team was a loser more than we care to remember, but they always had a winner in the broadcast booth - Harry!

There will never be another like him (sad but true).

Jim S. Smith, Folsom, Pa.