Since Christmas seems so long ago, it’s not much of a surprise that the case of the alleged harassment of Santa Claus dropped from t
he headlines. But, the Danbury News-Times provided this update over the long weekend:
A 33-year-old woman charged with allegedly groping a Santa Claus at the Danbury Fair mall in December applied for a special program that could erase her criminal record.
Sandrama Lamy, who was arrested Dec. 15, is facing charges of fourth-degree sexual assault and breach of peace for touching Santa inappropriately while sitting on his lap, according to police.
While in Superior Court with her lawyer, Lamy, who was in a wheelchair, applied for a program called accelerated rehabilitation that is made available to first-time offenders. If she is granted the program at a February hearing date, her record could be totally erased after a period of probation.
Lamy and her lawyer, Catherine Rivard, declined to comment after the hearing.
The article notes that a hearing on Ms. Lamy’s application is scheduled for February 27, 2008.
I’ll leave it to the criminal law bloggers to comment on the particulars, but no one should really be surprised by the result. Accelerated Rehabilitation is designed, in many ways, for cases like this where the arrest and charge appear to be an aberration on a person’s record. And unless there is something particularly strange in the application, I would expect the application to be granted.
In any event, the case of the alleged harassment of Santa Claus appears close to a resolution. We’ll see if any malls revise their policies and procedures for Santa Claus visits next holiday season.
And, if you’re wondering, Santa Claus was unavailable for comment up in the North Pole.
(H/T: ABA Journal)