Wednesday, September 30, 2009

AL Judge's Drug Dealing Son, Alex Rochester, Walks Free

Last year I brought my readers the story of John Alexander Rochester who is the son of hanging Judge John Rochester of Alabama's 41st Circuit Court.

To refresh everyone's memory young Mr. Alex Rochester was busted in the Ashland City Park on March 1, 2008 and charged with trafficking drugs. The drugs he was charged with trafficking are as follows; Cocaine, crack cocaine, marijuana, ecstacy, meth and xanax.

The last we heard Alex Rochester had been ferried away, under his mothers skirts, to a posh treatment center called The Arbor where he was to remain for a year. Young Rochester's MySpace page states that he is currently in college. His Facebook page doesn't contain much but you can see a picture of him there.

Yesterday I was able to come by John Alexander Rochester's case file and, I hate to tell you, but what I predicted would happen has happened. No surprise really. Regular working folks kids go to prison for years and years on charges like this. The Judge's son gets off scot free.

John Alexander Rochester was allowed to plea all of the trafficking charges down to simple possession charges and he received five years probation. He is walking around free. The arrest report states that he and his friend were passed out at the Ashland City Park at 12:56 a.m. The arresting officer smelled marijuana and conducted a search. While Alex Rochester was attempting to pull his passport out of his pocket a pipe fell out. After the massive amounts of drugs were found Alex Rochester stated according to the police report that "He had bought the drugs in Atlanta and that he would give up the name of the supplier if the fed's would take considerable time off his sentence." Alex Rochester already had two warrants out for his arrest at the time of this arrest. Apparently Daddy never taught him to keep his mouth shut when the cops show up because Alex Rochester squealed like a little pig.

Here is what the case file says about the amount of drugs he was arrested with. You better sit down.

1. Two baggies, envelope, one vial, crack cocaine, powder cocaine Total: 32 grams (1 ounce give or take)
2. 1 gallon bag containing marijuana
3. 5 sandwich baggies containing marijuana. 4 were corners of bags packaged for resale.
4. 1100 Extacy pills in 11 baggies
5. 2 straws, 2 rolled up dollar bills and two pipes.
6. 26 Xanax pills


I'd bet my right arm that NEVER in the history of Alabama has anyone caught with that amount of drugs been allowed to plea down trafficking charges (clearly he was trafficking) to simple possession. And remember...all of those charges carried an additional 3 year mandatory minimum because the arrest occurred withing three miles of a school, church, day care center and public housing facilities. Hell, it happened in the Ashland City Park where all the little children play on the mini-monster trucks and monkey bars. I also wonder how many people are in jail or prison because they bought drugs from Alex Rochester and got caught?

Anyone else would have had bonds in the millions of dollars, had their face plastered all over the front page of the newspaper and would be serving decades in an Alabama prison. In this case, because Alex Rochester's daddy is a judge, he is treated like the fortunate son, given a slap on the wrist and set free. The Clay Times Journal printed only the police blotter when he was arrested and there has to date been absolutely no additional coverage of this major story in the paper.

The court system and the media have failed the citizens of those counties and really all the citizens of the State of Alabama. We expect fairness in our judicial system. Clearly our system has been subverted and the rules thrown out the window because it was a judge's son caught red handed TRAFFICKING HUGE AMOUNTS OF DRUGS.

However, I have a plan to make sure the majority of the citizens of Clay County and Coosa County are made aware of what has happened. I won't say what that plan is because I want it to be a really nasty surprise for the Rochester family. Don't want to spoil the anticipation for them.

Do stay tuned and please DIGG THIS



9 comments:

sixstring said...

32 grams = 2 ounces?
Does Alabama have any sentencing statistics that would show how out of line this is? I know there are anecdotal examples such as Bruce Shoop getting 3 years for 1 plant.
Same old story, rich and powerful live by different rules.

Loretta Nall said...

Whoops...I hate math. Fixed it :)

Sure we have statistics but the Sentencing Commission won't come off them. I am about to file an FOIA for other court records to show how out of line the sentence is. Also to show how often Judge Rochester sent others to prison for far lesser offenses.

Unknown said...

Our take-home lesson is:

If you wanna deal drugs in Alabama, make sure your daddy's a judge.

Christie O'Brien said...

Isn't that the truth?!?! This is absurd. Any of us would be under the jail for this one.

Anonymous said...

As someone has spend 11 months on house arrest, 2 years calling color code every single day and more years to go just for selling a small sack of weed to a friend, this makes me want to scream. i wish my dad was a judge.

Anonymous said...

im about to go to prison for 3 years cuz when i was 18(Im 24 now) i got busted with a gram of coke and this guy gets away with all that!!!! I HATE LIVING IN ALABAMA!!!!

Anonymous said...

I want to know why I keep hearing horror stories about corrupt judges who basically can play God with the populace? When are our so called politicians going to bring some accountability to these thugs in black? If there was any justice in this country, this judge would be permanently disbarred, banned from serving any judicial position for life and sentenced to chop rocks in an Alabama state penitentiary for five years so he can get up close and personal to some of the people he sent away for lesser offenses.

I'm tired of judges ruining people's lives because they aren't accountable.

-An Alabama State Citizen

Anonymous said...

I noticed they didnt say how much of the cocaine was rock and how much was powder. 5 grams or more of rock if i remember right is enough to turn the charges over to the fed's.If it was someone else they probably would have . I would also be interested in knowing how many people in alabama correctional facility's are doing time for mere possession of a crack pipe let alone 2 oz's of actual product. also does alabama have any of those mandatory minimum sentancing laws if it does then this is certainly a case for doing away with them unless the law is applied equally it means nothing.you know like when a banker steals millions and gets a promotion and a hunry man steals a loaf of bread and gets 3 yrs.

Anonymous said...

No one should be surprised at this,, if they are they live on another planet or are in law inforcement. We see this all the time here as well. Power corrupts. This Judge should now ve Judged by us the community.