Reader discouraged by plea bargain

To the Editor:

"It troubles me."

The story off the record the judge gave reason to accept a plea bargain.

My husband was arrested a year ago for a stabbing at a bar. The bar was quiet that night and he had been hoping to play a game of pool without the usual mob around.

He was having a conversation about his head injury where his head had been split open by a machete. He'd only had a few drinks and so had the other fellow, when the other suddenly landed a fist to his jaw and busted his lip, calling him a (slang term) as he ran to the front of the bar. Using his phone to call for help, he mis-dialed and a friend's phone recorded this message as he went back for his coat, "I don't want to fight you man. I don't want to fight you."

Apparently, he had drawn his knife for protection in case the guy decided to hit him again, which did indeed reoccur, about five times to the skull right where his machete injury was located.

For the people who know him, and know his reasons for reacting the way he did, no one is surprised that he wound up stabbing at the guy who was hitting him.

For the people who gave statements and omitted that this other man initiated the attack both times while implying that my husband was a child molester as an excuse, and the newspaper for printing it, you failed to see this as an act of self defense and allowed politics to obliterate the truth.

Both parties should have been charged with criminal recklessness, but only one was held accountable and the other was a state cop's son.

Nichol Johnson,

Brazil