This is very sad, where non-students caused $10 million in damage to facilities at the University of Northern Iowa. When I was a student at UNI in the mid-70s, the cost to build the UNI-Dome was $6 million. I guess it is a lot easier to be destructive than constructive.
Tough punishment in cases like this is a necessity to discourage future incidents.
3 consecutive 10 year terms seems pretty harsh to me, especially since they’re required to pay back the University’s out of pocket costs of the damage ($2.0M). I didn’t see where anyone died from the fires. Were there any casualties/injuries?
They should also be required to reimburse the Insurance companies for their settlements… so that everyone is made whole, not just the University.
I wish the people who caused the damage had to pay back the insurance co as well.
Too often I see restitution only cover the deductible. Why should I have to pay and charge higher rates because of idiots who should know better! In this case the amount is pretty high but I would be ok w/a percent of their lifetime income.
24 year olds are not children and have no excuse for their irresponsible behavior and gross negligence in drinking too much and setting fires. At least they had the backbone to admit it. While the judge may have ordered restitution for the uninsured amounts, I hope the property carrier gets a judgment and subrogates to recover what it had to pay. They should garnish the wages of these two imbeciles until it’s paid in full. That’s the only way you get peoples attention. Of course they’ll never pay it off, but they’ll never forget it either.
What lifetime income? 30 years for a prank. I think the punishment needs to be reasonably harsh but there doesn’t seem to be any malace. As long as no one was hurt I think it was too stiff. Compare this to the grandmother who stole her dead soldier’s sons life ins. money from her grandbaby and she doesn’t get any time.
The grandmother’s actions took what? $100,000? This is $10 million. No malice? How do you figure? These knotheads were just lucky that someone wasn’t killed, whether it be a firefighter or someone in the bldg.
What this article doesn’t say is that one of the four who started it agreed to testify against the others and didn’t get any time in jail. That seemed strange.
You’re right, $10 million to the university who has insurance and endowment funds. $250,000 from the life insurance payments from the grandbaby who lost her dad. And we are lucky that no one, firefighter, paramedic, or student were hurt. Not lucky, Blessed!
Yes, both are despicable acts in different ways.
In the fire instance, the Board of Regents keeps the deductibles very high ($2 million) on most bldgs in the state. Now that there has been a fire above that limit, I’m sure the taxpayers will end up footing the bill.
Dateline 2010: The two idiots who torched campus buildings to the tune of $10MM in 2007 were released from prison today after serving only 3 years of their 3-ten year consecutive sentences. While incarcerated they lost weight, improved their diet, had quality medical and dental care, received their law degrees from the University of Phoenix Law School, and passed their bar exams to practice in Iowa……..all on the taxpayers nickel. They immediately appealed resitution order as being unreasonable and punitive and had it over-turned by a federal court. The men are vacationing in Aruba for 3 months while they put togehter a business plan for their personl injury law practice.
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This is very sad, where non-students caused $10 million in damage to facilities at the University of Northern Iowa. When I was a student at UNI in the mid-70s, the cost to build the UNI-Dome was $6 million. I guess it is a lot easier to be destructive than constructive.
Tough punishment in cases like this is a necessity to discourage future incidents.
A $2mm deductible? That’s pretty significant for a public institution. They have that kind of money lying around to cover claims up to $2mm?
Something sounds odd here.
3 consecutive 10 year terms seems pretty harsh to me, especially since they’re required to pay back the University’s out of pocket costs of the damage ($2.0M). I didn’t see where anyone died from the fires. Were there any casualties/injuries?
They should also be required to reimburse the Insurance companies for their settlements… so that everyone is made whole, not just the University.
I wish the people who caused the damage had to pay back the insurance co as well.
Too often I see restitution only cover the deductible. Why should I have to pay and charge higher rates because of idiots who should know better! In this case the amount is pretty high but I would be ok w/a percent of their lifetime income.
24 year olds are not children and have no excuse for their irresponsible behavior and gross negligence in drinking too much and setting fires. At least they had the backbone to admit it. While the judge may have ordered restitution for the uninsured amounts, I hope the property carrier gets a judgment and subrogates to recover what it had to pay. They should garnish the wages of these two imbeciles until it’s paid in full. That’s the only way you get peoples attention. Of course they’ll never pay it off, but they’ll never forget it either.
What lifetime income? 30 years for a prank. I think the punishment needs to be reasonably harsh but there doesn’t seem to be any malace. As long as no one was hurt I think it was too stiff. Compare this to the grandmother who stole her dead soldier’s sons life ins. money from her grandbaby and she doesn’t get any time.
The grandmother’s actions took what? $100,000? This is $10 million. No malice? How do you figure? These knotheads were just lucky that someone wasn’t killed, whether it be a firefighter or someone in the bldg.
What this article doesn’t say is that one of the four who started it agreed to testify against the others and didn’t get any time in jail. That seemed strange.
You’re right, $10 million to the university who has insurance and endowment funds. $250,000 from the life insurance payments from the grandbaby who lost her dad. And we are lucky that no one, firefighter, paramedic, or student were hurt. Not lucky, Blessed!
Yes, both are despicable acts in different ways.
In the fire instance, the Board of Regents keeps the deductibles very high ($2 million) on most bldgs in the state. Now that there has been a fire above that limit, I’m sure the taxpayers will end up footing the bill.
Dateline 2010: The two idiots who torched campus buildings to the tune of $10MM in 2007 were released from prison today after serving only 3 years of their 3-ten year consecutive sentences. While incarcerated they lost weight, improved their diet, had quality medical and dental care, received their law degrees from the University of Phoenix Law School, and passed their bar exams to practice in Iowa……..all on the taxpayers nickel. They immediately appealed resitution order as being unreasonable and punitive and had it over-turned by a federal court. The men are vacationing in Aruba for 3 months while they put togehter a business plan for their personl injury law practice.