MARION—In one of those intriguing things that make you go “hmm,” while we were looking into the bank robbery yesterday in Marion, our sources got this tidbit of information for us.
From Leah Mach’s Facebook page
And the fact that there’s been little to no mainstream coverage on it not only makes the story, but it makes the other stories we’re working on out of Marion and Harrisburg even more suspect….because why is it that stuff like this goes overlooked? Is it because it has to do with a bank, and banks are advertisers in the local media outlets?
Or is there something else going on?
The long and short of it is that this girl, Leah Mach, 24 and originally of Energy in Williamson County, was charged earlier this year in Williamson County circuit court with Theft of money more than $500 but less than $10,000. But it wasn’t just any theft of money dating back to October 2012 that was charged….it was theft of money from SouthPorte Bank in Marion, where she was employed.
SouthPorte is a relatively new bank in Marion opened by Thomas Throgmorton, who originally chartered South Pointe Bank, which later became MidCountry, a branch of which was robbed at gunpoint late yesterday morning, and through which investigation we stumbled onto the current matter with Ms. Mach.
Ms. Mach’s thieving was settled just a couple of weeks ago (August 19), when she was offered an amended, lesser charge, and she entered a plea to it in an apparent agreement with the prosecutor. The amended charge was to “Theft less than $500.” So which is it? Did she steal less than $500, or did she steal THOUSANDS, as we were told by sources straight from that bank? We may never know, as it’s over and done with.
But she isn’t sitting behind bars. She’s only on two years conditional discharge, part of those conditions being that she make restitution, and of course, not get into any trouble. And then, she’ll go along in life, granted, with a felony on her record, and likely never able to work in a bank or around money again…but she has her freedom. Unlike whoever the person was who robbed the bank at gunpoint yesterday, if he or she is ever caught. They’re toast.
Don’t get us wrong. We don’t for a second think that armed robbery should in some way be tolerated, or that the authorities should go more lenient on whoever the robber is just because we’re contrasting Ms. Leah with him or her. But folks….theft is theft. It’s always up to the discretion of the prosecutor (and oftentimes, to the law enforcement officer when he’s filling out a report) as to how “easy” they’re going to go on a person. If it’s a cute, chubby lil gal with no criminal history except a traffic ticket…even though she swiped large sums of money from her employer…she’s going to be told, in effect, “don’t do it again; be good, now.” If it’s a person who used a gun (or pretended to, as we’ve seen in past cases) and in one quick instant scares a teller enough to force her to hand over money, they’re going to the slam for a long, long time. Different methods, true…but I’ll just bet that the armed robber got away with a lot less than Ms. Mach did.
The disparity is the point. We’re supposed to be a nation adhering to the rule of law. But “law” is so subjective; it depends on who you are, how you steal, sometimes even why you did it (we’re working on a case about a public official right now who lied, deceives and stole because he and his family were “so poor”). This little article shows how subjective it all is. There are some cases where it’s warranted. But we’d like to see a little more “across-the-board” application of the law. How about you; what do you think? Is this state doing a good job handling its lawbreakers….or is Illinois leading the way in making a mockery of the justice system, and this is but a very small example of how they’re doing it?