A Judge’s Leniency Goes to Waste

The hanging judge gave her a chance, and she blew it.

That’s what it’ll say on paper, even as they’re leading Lori Fischer to state prison to do her five years.

She had a second chance, and she blew it.

Now, whether she’s fully aware of just what exactly it is she blew, it’s hard to say. The only thing everybody seems to agree on is that Fischer, 24, is a psychologically troubled young woman who, left to her own devices, is a threat to society.

She’s the Mission Viejo woman who in the spring of 2002 created a mini-reign of fear in South County by planting razorblades, nails and other sharp objects in various parks and playgrounds.

For a rational, calculating person, that’s a heinous crime worthy of a stretch behind bars. However, for someone with a troubled mind that veers off in unpredictable directions, it’s a crime that demands treatment.

That’s the intersection where Fischer found herself this week.

In April 2003, Judge Robert Fitzgerald, known as a tough sentencer, gave her a break. He put her on probation, possibly swayed by sympathetic comments from psychologists, neighbors and a sheriff’s investigator.

All realized Fischer wasn’t a criminal in the classic sense; in fact, she was the person who had tipped off officers to some of her impending crimes. On those occasions, records showed, she used the name “Dani.” Her more malevolent side was embodied in someone she called “Chris.”

None of this puzzled anyone, except, possibly, prosecutors who wanted her to do significant prison time. Fitzgerald went the other direction, saying in so many words that the crime warranted prison time but that Fischer did not.

“Because of the illness that you have, the court will give you a chance to get help,” Fitzgerald said in ordering five years’ probation.

You couldn’t ask any more of the judge. This week, Fitzgerald backtracked, revoking her probation and giving Fischer a five-year prison sentence after she apparently had plans last September to resume her bad behavior. A sheriff’s deputy had pulled her over with a pound of nails in her car -- an obvious violation of her probation.

The kicker: Authorities were tracking Fischer because she’d called to tip them off again. When arrested, she reportedly told the deputy that she hadn’t been taking her medication.

We’re supposed to be relieved when people go to prison. We like it when the bad guys get their just deserts.

I don’t know how anyone could have that feeling about Fischer. The only source of happiness is that she’ll be unable to carry out the dark side of her divided psyche. That’s not a small thing, and I’ll try and keep telling myself that as this tortured woman vegetates in a prison cell and probably sinks deeper into mental illness before being readmitted into society.

It would have been a tough call, but Fitzgerald could have reinstated Fischer’s probation and re-ordered her to get help. True, that didn’t work the first time around, but I doubt the judge thinks Fischer is any less well now than in 2003.

This week, a prosecutor described Fischer as a “grave danger” to the community, specifically to children.

No argument on that, but that doesn’t mean we have to applaud when she is sent to prison. Luckily, none of her criminal episodes resulted in any injuries, but we can’t argue that that makes her less threatening.

But let’s not pretend that she’ll emerge from prison a healed woman. She most likely won’t get the help in prison a hospital would provide.

“If Lori wasn’t sick, she wouldn’t have done what she did,” her attorney, deputy public defender Lisa Kopelman, says. “It was because of her very severe mental illness that she did what she did. Prison and jail are not the places for sick people.”

Dana Parsons can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana .parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.