Speck Mellencamp Allowed To Avoid Overnight Jail Time For 4-Day Sentence

The original felony battery charges brought against Speck Mellencamp, the 20-year old son of John Mellencamp for beating and injuring a 19-year old Bloomington, got dropped to a misdemeanor charge as part of a plea agreement reached between his attorney and the Monroe County Prosecutor's Office. The judge sentenced Speck to four days in the county jail in addition to the two days he spent locked up following his arrest, but he won't be spending any overnights at the jail. That's because he suffers from panic disorder, and his attorney feared he might have a panic attack during the overnight hours when medical staff wasn't available to care for jail inmates. The judge will allow Speck to serve his sentence in 12-hour stents over an 8-day period instead from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Does anyone believe if he had been an average joe off the street he would have received such a favorable plea agreement or been allowed to serve a jail sentence without spending a single night there because of a medical condition? Compare the handling of Speck's sentence to that of Timothy Strayer, a nearly 70-year old man with serious chronic health problems, who was sentenced to one year in the Dearborn County jail for relatively minor marijuana-related charges and how he was not provided adequate care at the jail or hospitalized until he was on his death bed after serving barely 30 days of his one-year sentence. Incidentally, health care for Monroe County jail inmates is provided by ACH, the same health care provider Dearborn County has under contract while neglected to provide adequate care to Strayer. Speck's older brother, Hud, was also given a plea agreement for his participation in the same assault that reduced his felony battery charge to a misdemeanor. He is credited with 2 days time served and is required to perform 50 hours of community service.