Hubbard Suit

The Times reports in “Wife Faults Screening of Husband” (Sept. 30) that the wife of convicted rapist Henry Hubbard is pursuing a claim against the city of San Diego because the Police Department hired her husband, which allegedly “caused him to commit violent actions of his own.” In other words, Ms. Hubbard wants the taxpayers to compensate her because her husband committed a vicious series of sexual attacks and attempted murders.

As a member of the taxpaying public, I am outraged that litigants are permitted to clog our courts with such frivolous claims. What happened to the notion that the person responsible for violent, unprovoked, premeditated criminal conduct is the person who meticulously planned it and methodically committed it (not once, but eight times)? Why is the employer (the Police Department) of the confessed criminal responsible for uncovering his latent violent proclivities when his wife of eight years did not?

This claim represents a new and disgraceful milestone in the parody of justice that is known as our legal system. What kind of society permits its institutions to be abused in this manner? As a lawyer, I hang my head in shame.

MARK S. PULLIAM

San Diego