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Judge defends ending Crain's probationBy JEFFREY GETTLEMAN © St. Petersburg Times, published November 10, 1998 "Whatever decision I made at the time, it was the right decision," said Allen, who has been on the bench since 1991. "If I worried about hindsight, I wouldn't be able to do my job at all." Allen's comments were a response to a move by The Crusader, an anti-crime newsletter that recently folded and then re-emerged, to impeach her for the way she handled the case. Crain, a convicted child molester, was supposed to be on probation for the rest of his life. But in 1997, Allen ended his supervision and the restrictions on his being around children. Last month, Crain was charged with kidnapping and murdering a missing 7-year-old girl, Amanda Brown. The Crusader says Crain's case was one of many Allen bungled, and on Thursday the newsletter's small staff and a few others plan to rally on the courthouse steps to ask the state Supreme Court to impeach Allen. Corrections officials also have criticized Allen, saying she had information in probation reports that Crain was dangerous. Judges are allowed to use their discretion when deciding whether to end someone's probation. Supervisors at the Tampa office of the Department of Corrections put together a list of additional cases in which Allen ended probation early and faxed the list to the Times and other local news organizations. Allen is not surprised. "DOC hasn't liked me since I got here because I don't rubber stamp them," she said. "And I'm not supposed to rubber stamp them or be swayed by public opinion." The chief judge in Hillsborough County, Circuit Judge Dennis Alvarez, said he didn't know about any friction between Allen and probation officials. But judges are often faulted by the agencies that appear before them, he said. "You rule against a department and they get mad at you," Alvarez said. "Sometimes DOC (Department of Children and Families) and other agencies think that they are judge, jury, sentencer, executioner, the whole works." Alvarez said he is confident that Allen will not be impeached. The law says that to remove a judge there must be evidence that the judge has committed a crime. If there is such evidence, either the Judicial Qualification Commission or the state House can launch an impeachment inquiry. Ken Donovan, publisher of The Crusader, says the rally at 10 a.m. Thursday will pressure state lawmakers to investigate Allen. He will help by committing the resources of his eight-page monthly newsletter, which folded last summer and was resurrected by advertising dollars a few months later. "When a judge can throw out 54 years of probation on a predator, everybody should be outraged," Donovan said. Crain, who has maintained his innocence in Amanda's disappearance, was convicted in 1985 of raping five young girls in Tampa and was sentenced to 20 years in prison followed by 60 years probation. Because of prison overcrowding, he was released in 1991. In May 1997, Crain asked to be taken off probation, and Allen agreed. On Oct. 1, Crain was charged with killing Amanda, who has been missing from her Seffner mobile home since mid-September. Detectives said they found traces of the girl's blood on Crain's underwear.
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AMPA -- Not for a moment does Hillsborough Circuit Judge Diana Allen second-guess her decision to end Willie Crain's probation 54 years early.
