LORENZINI SCREAMS VIA TEXT BLAST CAMPAIGN LIKE A WOUNDED JACKAL WHEN HELD ACCOUNTABLE BY OPPONENT FOR
‘RECKLESS RULING’
BY KEN ROSSIGNOL
THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY
LEONARDTOWN, MD – The two contestants for the open St. Mary’s County Circuit Court Judgeship got into a high-tech sparring match involving the record of Amy Lorenzini, the appointed judge of lame-duck Governor Larry Hogan, which was blasted in a mass mailer issued by her challenger, attorney Sue Ann Armitage. The response was fast and furious.
The mailer distributed to voters on May 7, 2024, by Armitage blasted Lorenzini, stating that St. Mary’s County is not safe with Judge Amy Lorenzini, accusing her of issuing a light sentence to a convicted rapist who served only ten months in jail, due to being given credit for time served of 220 days, according to court records. The convicted rapist, Jacy Brice Torres Ponce, then molested a child shortly before committing suicide in 2023.
Court records reveal that two other St. Mary’s Circuit Court Judges arraigned Ponce and presided over his trial before shifting the sentencing off to Lorenzini, who sentenced him to twenty years in prison with all but eighteen months suspended.
Armitage’s flyer called Lorenzini’s ruling ‘reckless’ and put an innocent child in harm’s way, as she ignored sentencing guidelines for rape by force that called for from five to ten years in prison.
Lorenzini responded with a black and white digital card inserted in text messages during the dinner hour on May 7th, calling Armitage’s attack an ethics violation.
Voters might believe that it is about time someone held a Judge accountable for weak sentencing, and if it is a lawyer who seeks to replace that judge on the bench, then so be it.
Judges often use the practice of ‘reconsideration’ as a way to give a soft-on-crime touch after the glare of public scrutiny has been shifted by other events, resulting in a few months after a tough sentencing is handed down, replacing that edict with a light sentence and even allowing the convict to be allowed out of jail.
SITTING JUDGES ARE BEING DETHRONED BY VOTERS
Former Governor Larry Hogan’s record in seeing his appointments survive elections hasn’t been good lately. In 2020, voters dumped three of Hogan’s appointments as Circuit Court Judges in Charles, Prince George’s, and Howard Counties.
Charles County Circuit Court Judge Patrick Devine was on the bench from January 4, 2019, to December 18, 2020, until he lost the election in 2020 to Makeba Gibbs. Devine was one of three sitting judges appointed by Governor Larry Hogan to be tossed off the bench by voters in the 2020 election. The others were Jared McCarthy in Prince Georges County, who April T. Ademiluyi beat, and John T. Kuchno in Howard County, who Quincy L. Coleman defeated.
Voters in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, received a mass mailer from the Sue Ann Armitage campaign on May 7, 2024.
A mass phone text received by voters from Amy Lorenzini’s campaign on May 7, 2024:
Obituary of Jacy Brice Ponce Torres
St. Mary’s Sheriff’s Department press release:
03/17/22- Jacy Brice Ponce Torres, age 21 of California- Disruption of School Activities and Disorderly Conduct by Dep. Allebach# 392.
Judges Stanalonis, left, and Stamm were both involved in this case, but the sentencing was assigned to Lorenzini, below at right, who did not preside over the trial and had no direct knowledge of what convinced the jury to find Ponce guilty. Was her assignment to this case, as a judge with just four months of experience, an attempt to build her resume as she faced voters to win a 15-year term?
Conviction of Torres upheld on Appeal
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