The state does not have separate, more flexible criminal laws governing the actions of the wealthy, a judge in Brooklyn, N.Y., has ruled.
During an altercation in a taxi between defendant John Madsen's girlfriend and their friend Alex Kranjec, Madsen repeatedly punched Kranjec in the face, according to a criminal complaint.
Prosecutors charged Madsen with assault, attempted assault and harassment.
Madsen, a vice president at a financial-brokerage firm, moved to dismiss. His central argument, according to Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr., is that a conviction would "seriously harm his career in finance."
The judge discounted the significance of that harm.
"Even if the defendant had provided the court with evidence of the probability of such negative impact, a dismissal on this basis would say to the community that its most successful members deserve greater consideration by the court than their more modest neighbors," he wrote in People v. Madsen, 2005KN060402.
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