On Point Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, writes his On Point column most weekdays. He is also an author and freelance writer. Reach Vincent Carroll at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.

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Molly and Alex Midyette should get on their knees every night and thank whatever providential power they might believe in for having the good fortune to live in Boulder County. In almost any other jurisdiction, at least one of them would very possibly be in jail.

Rather than traipsing about the Erie community while being monitored by an ankle bracelet, the suspect would be counting stale hours from the confines of a cell.

But the Midyettes are lucky. They live in a county where the district attorney is the feckless Mary Lacy, engineer of last year’s fiasco involving John Mark Karr as well as other assorted public travesties. And so, when a grand jury under the care and feeding of her office finally got around this week to indicting the two with child abuse for the death early last year of their infant son, Jason, the most serious charge was a Class 2 felony.

Now maybe you think that eight to 24 years, the normal range for a Class 2 conviction, minus “good time” of course, is a punishment fit for the crime. If so, you should read the grand jury’s indictment.

There you will discover that at his death, 10-week-old Jason had more than 20 broken bones “in various stages of healing,” including breaks in his arms, legs, ribs, hands and feet. His skull had been fractured, too, with a “complete loss of gray-white interface involving the cerebrum,” which is as bad as it sounds. And he had “contusions on the right and left temporal lobes of his brain” that were “older than other hemorrhages found in Jason’s brain.”

You will learn, too, from the testimony of an expert at The Children’s Hospital, that while many such injuries are fairly common in serious child abuse because of “abusive squeezing,” “violent shaking” or “twisting or pulling forces applied near the end of a bone,” the “hand and foot fractures are very uncommon, and are likely the result of a direct blow.”

Only one conclusion fits this sickening set of allegations: Jason was not dropped or bumped and thus bruised and broken by accident, or even in a single violent fit of quickly regretted rage. He was roughed up repeatedly, brutally, and without anyone reporting a single incident either to a doctor or a cop.

The only question is, by whom?

The grand jury thinks it knows. It indicted Alex Midyette, among other things, on a charge of knowingly or recklessly causing injury to his son. Molly Midyette was indicted essentially for standing by and failing to act. So why isn’t the father facing a count of first-degree murder, for which bail could easily be denied?

Perhaps only the prosecutors from Lacy’s office who presented evidence to the grand jury know for sure, but here’s what Colorado law says: “When a person knowingly causes the death of a child who has not yet attained 12 years of age and the person committing the offense is one in a position of trust with respect to the child, such person commits the crime of murder in the first degree.”

Former Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman, who’s provided first-rate commentary on this case for KHOW radio’s Caplis & Silverman Show as well as other venues, tells me that “knowingly” in legal parlance does not mean intentionally, let alone after deliberation. It’s a lower standard. Which makes the failure to recommend the more serious charge even more mysterious.

Meanwhile, in Denver, prosecutors waited only four days this week to file first-degree murder charges against a couple who allegedly starved a boy confined to a closet. The final torment of 7-year-old Chandler Grafner must have been indescribable.

But then, so was Jason Midyette’s.

Reach Vincent Carroll at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.

READER COMMENTS

Great article.
Corruption is the name of the game, from the Denver Police being told to "lay-off" of illegals to this Boulder fiasco. Maybe it's a three teired justice system.

If you are rich and can get away with it, there's one, if you are illegal there is another, then the huge segment in the middle, that don't vote possibly, working hard, raising a family and not paying attention.

"Who needs the stress of being worried what your "officials" are doing? I can't do anything about it anyway. I complain and no one does anything."

I would hope that the Rocky and the Post will one day come back to being Newpapers without the agenda. It would help Colorado tremendously.

You column is a breath of fresh air, thank you.

Father O'Malley

Just to clarify - they face 48 years maximum, not 24.

Boulder's DA is a TWIT. What else is new?

Thanks Vince Carroll for having the integrity and courage to say it like it should be said. There's no one at the cowardly Daily Camera who will stand up for what's right.

What do you expect from the planet Boulder and their mouthpiece the Daily Comrade.

..
Thank you, Vince. Cause for pause, and reasonable actions.

Jason Midyette, born perfect and innocent, rests in Peace -- as with Jon Benet Ramsey.

The many elders in this interrelated mess may include some that are less innocent.

What we seem to have here are numerous, powerful adults who wear "the appearance of Impropriety," where some seem to be 'above the law.' This includes suspects as well as highly-placed authorities.

Suspicions have eroded the public trust. What is the Truth here ? First-degree murder seems the obvious conclusion. Does money buy a “different” justice ?

Due to messy politics, there is nobody in Colorado who can bring a believable "second opinion" and recommendation. The electorate is skeptical, for cause.

The Colorado Attorney General has cause to immediately seek and obtain impartial, arms-length assistance from the U.S. Department of Justice -- to verify or eliminate the possible presence of malfeasance and/or "miscarriage of justice."

The CO-AG has the power to ask the U.S. Justice Department to take 120 days to audit the many skewed cases and evidence, the many personal and business relationships (to include ALL spouses and grand-parents, specifically) – deliver the “findings,” and recommend action, which can include things like disbarment, incarceration and statewide procedural policy changes.

Jon Benet Ramsey and Jason Midyette deserve nothing less than an impartial, independent "second opinion" by a world-class Team; independent CSI, financial (follow-the-money) auditors, forensic detectives, and sharp prosecutors -- to include the FBI-Quantico behavioral geniuses.

The best time to issue the request— is now.
..

Why is it that only Vince Carroll takes on these issues whilst the peace-loving wobblies over at the Denver Post (yes, Diane Carman et al) can only focus on all things Republican?

Bill O'Reilly and his producer lit a fire under Mary Lacy's lazy rear end.After she was confronted almost a year after the MURDER then she called a Grand Jury. Not one Newspaper columnist took up the call for justice until the Midyettes were charged, There was a small article when Mary Lacy convened a Grand Jury,but that was the extent of the coverage.

I have been writing letters to the editor of both snooze papers about the horrible murder of this little baby. Then I wrote to Bill O'Reilly and he is the one who got this case moving.

Baby Midyette is still not recieving the justice owed to him. !st Dgree murder charges should have been the charge. There should have been NO BAIL!

Mary Lacy is a buffoon and a disgrace to the legal profession and this state.While the murder of baby Midyette was left in a file somewhere and not being prosecuted,Mary Lacy was asking for $40,000 to keep investigating the Jon-Benet case.

The baby's murder was a slam dunk. No one was around the child that could have caused his murder but the parents. They lawyered up the minute the left the hospital.Mary Lacy would still to this day not moved on this case if Bill O'Reilly had not brought it to national attention and confronted her.

Now the parents get charged with lesser charges.The only justice baby Midyette will get is if these monsters are charged with 1st Degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no parole.

I grew up in boulder and knew Alex. I am not surprised one bit... but I sure am disgusted.

This kid was a danger to everyone in that town and his parents had the money to keep him out of jail. He'd get pulled over while driving drunk and the cops wouldn't arrest him... they just follow him home. He beat the crap out of anyone that looked at him wrong.

And now he's murdered his son... and he is not in jail?
His parents must have more pull the Paris Hilton's .

little Chandler will remain in my heart forever, that is a promise. Whatever sentence these people recieve, I will always try and keep up with them and remind everyone of Chandler and the horrible, lonely way he died.

He was and is an angel and we as sane adults must try and keep this from happening.

My heart is aching.

Were they not supposed to go to court on July 11 ? Is there any news on this case. ?

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