(This e-mail has been edited to withhold the name at the writer's request.)

Mr. Spencer,

Thank you for supporting Nicholas' grandfather against our senseless
government officials. My sister-in-law was bludgeoned to death in
Delaware County (last year) and there have been no
charges filed against anyone in her violent murder. They should be
using their resources to track down true criminals, murderers, instead
of contributing more pain and suffering to what appears to be a decent,
law-abiding family. We live in Montgomery County but everyone I speak
to is appalled by the situation. There are way too many intentional
crimes being committed to waste time punishing a decent citizen for an
accident... one that he will never forget nor forgive himself for, as
you noted in your column. Please continue to use you column to speak
out for this family.

Regards,


Thanks, I will.

Then there was this:

Hey Gil,

I have never in my 62 years written to a publication to express my opinion.
However as a grandfather of seven, having made numerous trips to various day care facilities, I feel compelled to comment on your column of 6/25/08.
Count me among those with a boggled mind. Unless Grandpa was suffering from Alzheimer's or some other memory altering disease( in which case , shame on his parents for entrusting their son with him) , I can not imagine how this man strapped this innocent child in his car seat and then promptly forgot about him.
No matter how you try to rationalize this, the bottom line is, Nicolas is dead as a result of Grandpa's forgetfulness.
Giving Grandpa the benefit of the doubt, you might even say that he involuntarily killed Nicolas. So involuntary manslaughter makes perfect sense to me.
I believe that he should now be a man and own up to that fact. He should take responsibility for his actions; plead guilty and throw himself upon the mercy of the court.

Dennis J Hugues

As I said, reasonable people can disagree on this.