Well, a headline like this will scare the shit out of a Radical at the top of the morning. You may not know, but my legal first name is “John” (as is my father’s, thus I went by the middle name “Russ” to avoid confusion), and I do spell “Belville” with three “l’s”, not four. But still, this woke me right up!
DES MOINES – An Iowa Appeals Court has upheld the 52-year sentence of John Bellville on nine drug-related offenses.
Bellville, 39, [dang, just a year older than me!] was arrested in October 2002 and pled guilty to drug charges after police found marijuana, methamphetamine and meth precursors in a vehicle parked near Round Lake in Mondamin.
He appeared before the Harrison County District court in December 2002 and entered guilty pleas to nine of the original 12 charges against him.
According to the appellate opinion, Bellville’s guilty pleas were part of an agreement to transfer him to drug court; and the district court informed him that if he successfully completed the drug court program, all of the charges against him would be dismissed.
He was also informed that if he did not successfully complete the program, he would be sentenced to consecutive prison terms, the opinion states. The court accepted Bellville’s pleas of guilty and ordered him into treatment as part of the drug court program.
On Aug. 2, 2003, Bellville violated the terms of his probation. Bellville admitted the violation, and on Aug. 28, 2003, the court sentenced him to consecutive terms of imprisonment totaling 52 years. In January 2004 the sentencing judge gave Bellville another chance. The court reconsidered Bellville’s sentence and returned him to probation under the drug court program.
Bellville violated his probation again in October 2004. He admitted the violation, and the court re-imposed consecutive prison terms totaling 52 years.
In case you’re wondering, yes, we are related. Tenuously, at least; there was only one surviving Belleville family who escaped the persecution of the French Huguenots by King Phillip the Fair of France in the sixteenth century. So, anyone named “Belleville” or its derivatives (“Bellville”, “Belville”, “Belveal”, “Bellevue”, etc.) is a distant cousin of the others.
So, my distant cousin will be locked up until he’s 91, because apparently he’s a meth cook and a drug addict who twice violated his probation. My guess is that probation included drug treatment and part of that was testing clean on a pee test. My guess is that he’s in the grips of a severe meth addiction and couldn’t stay clean.
Fifty-two years in prison for being desperately ill. Lock him up and throw away the key because he can’t keep his nose out of the crank. Meanwhile, your average violent felony offender serves 7 years in a state prison (not counting death or life sentences).
Some will complain, no doubt. “We gave him two chances! We offered him treatment! He has no one to blame but himself!” You’re absolutely right. So, then, the solution to that is to flush the rest of a 39-year-old man’s life down the toilet? There’s no possibility that he could have ever cleaned up and gone straight?
Fifty-two years for drug addiction. The draconian sentences have never stopped anyone from getting addicted and they’ve never cured an addict. But they sure make great stump speeches for “tough-on-crime” politicians and keep the money flowing in to the prison-industrial complex.
