Alvin Greene case to proceed to trial
Washington (CNN) - Failed South Carolina Senate Democratic candidate Alvin Greene wants a jury to decide whether he is guilty of showing pornographic images to a college student. On Tuesday Greene's lawyer informed the prosecutor his client would not accept a plea deal previously offered, Assistant Solicitor Andrew Rogers told CNN.
Greene is facing a felony charge of disseminating obscene images and a misdemeanor count of communicating obscene messages from an incident last year in which he allegedly showed such images to a University of South Carolina student in a dorm's computer lab.
Prosecutors had anticipated Greene would accept the deal which would involve him pleading guilty to the misdemeanor charge, which can carry a sentence of 0-3 years, and the felony county would be dropped.
"I was informed today he had rejected the plea," Rogers told CNN. Regarding a hearing set for Tuesday, Rogers said Greene's attorney previously "had informed the court…we should treat this (hearing) as a plea." The change in circumstances is forcing prosecutors to change gears.
Because of some scheduling conflicts that arose, the formal court hearing scheduled for Tuesday was not held although Greene was in court. Instead the decision to proceed to trial was communicated to the court informally.
A trial will not be held before Jan. 17th, but an exact date has not been set.
Greene shocked the South Carolina political world when last summer he captured the Democratic nomination to run against incumbent Republican Sen. Jim DeMint. He immediately drew criticism from Democrats in the state because the unemployed former soldier did not have the apparent financial means to afford the filing fee, and many party veterans in the state questioned whether the political novice was qualified.
Right after capturing the nomination the existence of the criminal charges against him emerged prompting state party activists to press him to withdraw from the race. But he refused.
Also raising questions were his often meandering answers in several interviews and how he hardly campaigned during the election.
Throughout his candidacy Greene repeatedly refused to talk about the allegations.
"I'm innocent until proven guilty. And like I said, I'm concentrating on my campaign issues, jobs, education and justice," Greene told CNN in a June interview.
A message to Greene's attorney Tuesday seeking comment was not immediately returned.
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I'll bet $10 this guy serves a heck of a lot more time than Charlie Rangel!!! Gotta love these DemocRATS. The gift that just keeps on giving....
Keep it fair. Do not pretend that ONLY Democrat politicians have these sorts of issues. There's plenty on the Republican side that deserves the same sort of ridicule and criticism.
Saying these goofballs are just on one side would cause you to lose any credibility.
Alvin Greene was a republican plant. The primaries were fixed. No other time in history has someone won a primary by not raising funds and not advertising at all.
The 2010 legacy of Jim DeMint will read "DeMint won because he ran against a guy nobody knew other than he was waiting trail for porn". LOL
Sorry, but I really think you should have to take a simple civics test and pass it in order to be able to vote. That would weed out a lot of the electorate, but it may also prevent problems like this (or the reelection of Rangel)...where the voters simply voted for the name they knew, or just voted for whoever was in their party, rather than researching the candidates.
Of course, it would also help if we didn't have extremists from both parties running against each other. If more moderates ran for office, then more people would have to research the voters in order to decide who to elect, preventing problems like this.
Why aren't the feds looking into how Greene got on the ballot in the first place.
The 2010 legacy for DeMint is that he won because he was the people's choice, whether you like it or not...A Republican plant, yes a conspiracy of the worst sort, yes I can see it now, yes Micheal Steele in late night closed door meetings with DeMint and of course GW and Cheney were in on it too...and that is why Obama is now a one term wonder, la la land anyone?
Democrat? I would think this type of behavior would be more in line with the 'family values' Republicans.
Monster Zero, why is it that when the rethugliban are on the losing side they become sniveling little whiners with nothing to say, and; when their side wins they're sniveling little whiners with nothing to say? Why DON'T the rethugliban majority in SC investigate? If there's nothing to see, they could use the outcome of the investigation to make the dems look bad. However, the rethugs know that an investigation would lead right back to them, so everybody just needs to move along.
"I'll bet $10 this guy serves a heck of a lot more time than Charlie Rangel!!!"
Rangel was not indicted for nor convicted of any crimes by a jury of his peers, moron.
"Why aren't the feds looking into how Greene got on the ballot in the first place."
Because the GOP would go even more batsh-t crazy over it. Everyone knows something stinks about this, particularly sine SC has OPEN PRIMARIES, meaning you don't have to be a Dem to vote i the their Dem primaries, so you'd simply have to get sufficiently organized to vote for your opponent to be an obviously sick individual like Greene. What's most disturbing isn't the political underhandedness that may or may not have taken place though...we'll probably never know and, besides, it's SC...they voted for DeMint, who is clearly a sociopath in the first place...6 and 1/2 dozen of the other with these two on the ballot. No, the disturbing thing is that Greene clearly has real mental health issues and both parties and the media still see fit to exploit his antics for their own personal gain when they should jsut leave it alone.
Annie in Atlanta........................ The Feds are not looking into how Greene got on the ballot because it was not a Federal case plus Greene paid his fee to have his name placed on the Democratic ballot for the primary.
Green's definitely a RepubliCAN'T Plant
Gave him WORDs that he should – continuously CHANT!
He's NOT like "the RENT is too HIGH" guy
Who got REAL signatures when he wanted to rally his cry
So now Al Green will always be in the NEWS
Unable to get away – Unable to lose
The media that would always haunt his dream
A journey to him that was REAL and had a THEME………….
….DeMint started the Recession!!!!!
That’s not all duhMint started and it will all surface soon!!
Greene – hang in there!
Politicians – STAY out of Campaign MODE and N2 Moving America Forward with our leader, President Obama!!
I still say that this imbecile was a paid Republican plant! Anyone with a pulse knows that was the only way DeMint could win was by putting this dyslexic knuckle-dragger out there as his opponent............Seriously, you people can't be that far out of touch........It's not humanly possible!!!!!!