Introduction

This case study entitled How Kristine died by George Lardner Jr. is a true
story/ true issue published in 1993 on Washington whereby Kristine Lardner,
daughter of the writer George was been murdered by her boyfriend Michael Cartier.
This is an example of an incident whereby certain problem needed to be solved
involving people behind the criminal justice system, law makers, psychologists or
mental counselor and different agency in a country and even in small unit of society.
How families interacts in societies issue and how they involve in particular problems
dealing certain criminal acts or offenses. What can we do as a member of society to
stop an existing illegal acts or abuse of people with habitual actions? With these
paper we can analyzed, understand, and knew the reasons behind. Kristine who is
an art student was murdered by such bouncer known as Cartier. His boyfriend who
are willing to do everything to make her girlfriend stay with him even violence,
threats and physical injury was been inflicted. His being habitual offender that made
Kristine got threatened.

Fats of the case

On or about 7:30 pm of Saturday in the 30 th of May 1992, Kristine Lardner,

21 yrs. Old, youngest of five children, born in Washington D.C., educated in the
citys public schools as an art student was murdered by her boyfriend named
Michael Cartier, a 22 yrs. old, a bouncer and stalker of her who committed murder,
burglary, physical injury, domestic violence, malicious destruction, cruelty to
animals, attempted arson assaulted battery and violating probation. On April 16,
1992 Michael Cartier beat up Kristine a few blocks from her apartment. They
become involved in an argument and he knocked her to the ground and started
kicking her, intimidated and inflicted physical injury. Kristine suffered hematomas
to her legs and recurring headaches from the kicks. In spite of this authority will
give probation and a warning for him not to go to Kristine and prohibiting him to be
near with her.

From an early age Cartier displayed the symptoms of a conduct disorder:

cruelty to animals, cruelty to people and attempted destruction of property
(Conduct Disorder). At age 7 he was sent by his mother to live in a treatment
home for troubled children. Cartier remained in various state-supported treatment
centers until he was released into the care of his father at the age of 16. After
dropping out of high school, Cartier joined a skinhead gang and compiled multiple
criminal charges throughout the state of Massachusetts. His relationship with
women would mirror the deviant and violent behavior he displayed towards society.
An incident of cruelty to animal happened when he was 5 yrs old or 6 according to
the published, he dismembered a pet rabbit. When he was 21, he tortured and killed
a kitten. At the same incident on Oct 4, 1990, Cartier began drinking with two
friends and went on a rampage. He took a sledgehammer and smashed through his
bedroom wall into a neighbor apartment. He killed the kitten by hurling it out a
fourth floor.

In Bizzare 1989 incident happened at Andover restaurant whereby he

injected a syringe of blood into ketchup bottle, and sentenced 59 days in Essex
Country jail. 6 month suspended sentence to him was wiped off the books.

On April 2, 1991, Cartier admitted for Section 12 for talking about killing
Rose Ryan. On April 21, 1991, Michael Cartier inflicted physical injury to earlier
girlfriend who is Rose Ryan by punching her mouth. Also, threatened to kill her. On
April 29, his probation was violated, report noted that Cartier was being treated by
Tri-City Mental Health Center in Boston for the committed Section 12. A law
providing for emergency restraint of dangerous person, because of suicidal
ideation and overdose. He was also sent to jail in Deer Island. On November 5,
1991, he was released early for being good prisoner after serving 29-59 days.

Analysis

In bureaucratic response the States like Massachusetts have initiated state

wide data bases for domestic abuse crimes and require that Judges consult it as
part of the court process. Currently more than half of the states have begun such
data bases. Intervention in domestic cases should be a priority because the
consequences are so high, but intervention presents challenges for law
enforcement. Nevertheless, many times domestic abuse is not taken seriously.
Women are afraid to testify. Past intervention failures reinforce this fear. Cultural
barriers that infantilize women sometimes are present in law enforcement, the
judicial system, Social patterns that prevent women from taking action,
Coordination between agencies is difficult because of time constraints on agency
workers, Lack of clear rights for a worker to coordinate or call another agency and
Jurisdictional disputes.

The case note for How Kristin Died details several key decisions made by
public administrators and street-level bureaucrats. There were several examples of
Cartier being arrested for violating his probation, but receiving lenient sentences.
Lack of communication among various county offices allowed Cartier to manipulate
the system and evade harsher sentences. In particular, the failure of the Boston
Municipal Court to check the status of Cartier with the Brighton Probation
department allowed. him to evade further psychological evaluation. When Cartier
was eventually imprisoned, the criminal justice system sent him back on the streets
because of prison overcrowding problems. In many ways the criminal justice system
failed in their mission and goals. I will approach this case from an advisory role and
prescribe several recommendations to the agency head of the Massachusetts Court
System regarding collaboration between district and county courthouses
specifically, Suffolk County.

Conclusion

I therefore conclude that the family is important. Michael Cartier will not be
able to be habitual offender if he has a good parenting experience by his mother.
Also his father is very important in imparting values for being a father to him. As I
have read, he feel that her mother is unfair to him by abandoning him at an early
stage. I can say that being a good parent will result to have a peaceful community.
It will start by the home itself and the child must be mold and be to be taken care of
until they become an independent one and surely they will be a good person.
Society needs to be resposnsible in everyone because this will be the key to a
successful government. Unity within the government and the people is essential
especially in implementing laws. Without this, without due process of laws, right
implementing laws and right persons behind that justices with the cooperation of
the community, this case will be repeated. Victimizations will emerged if neglect as
like what Kristine had experienced.

Recommendation

I therefore recommend that the increase communication within the criminal

justice system is needed. Poor communication within bureaucratic agencies can
have a greater impact than loss of efficiency. Lack of communication can cost
someone his or her life. I think that meetings be setup between the chief justices of
the major courts to discuss issues such as probation monitoring, court-ordered
psychiatric counseling, and probate and family court issues. This meeting would
allow agency heads to talk with one another about the effectiveness a various
programs they have ordered and discuss new techniques they have implemented
for monitoring offenders. Intra-departmental meetings would serve as a symbolic
approach towards greater communication and collaboration within agencies.
Moreover, these meetings will assist in the push for greater cross-agency
communication between various departments. Also, Separate task forces should be
established to identify repeat offenders. One of the failures witnessed in the case
study was a lack of communication between the probation departments of the
greater Boston Municipal Court Department and the Brighton division. Both
departments were following their individual standard operating procedures. With a
minimal amount of effort the Boston Municipal Department could have identified
Michael Cartier as a repeat offender and ordered a full psychological evaluation.
Along with bi-monthly meetings, I would recommend that agency heads ask their
probation departments to create a task force to assemble data regarding incoming
and existing offenders. The data should be compiled in an easily viewed
spreadsheet format and distributed to probation departments. When offenders are
ordered to attend psychological counselingor entered into the systemprobation
officers should cross-reference the offenders name in the spreadsheet to identify
their past activities and determine their threat level. And Collaboration with
nonprofit organizations, state mental health centers, and the criminal justice system
should be increased. It would be unrealistic to ask the nonprofits organizations or
state mental health centers to compile data for probation departments. However,
probation-department head scan meet with the directors of various nonprofit
organizations that counsel abusers and those suffering from abuse. Increased
communication between these organizations may facilitate reports of abuse to
probation departments. Furthermore, meeting with state mental health centers
would further the external network of probation departments.