I want to say something to the parents watching this case.
Whether you are here in Providence, watching on YouTube or reading the journal tomorrow, please teach your children that everyone deserves respect.
Teach them that police officers are people doing a difficult job.
Teach them that money and status don’t make you better than anyone else.
Because if you don’t teach them these lessons, if you let them grow up thinking they are above it all, you are failing them.
You are setting them up for a very hard fall.
And when that fall comes, when they are standing in a courtroom like this one facing a judge like me, it is going to be too late to undo years of bad lessons.
I don’t know what kind of parenting led to Madison’s behavior.
And I am not here to judge Robert and Patricia Thornton’s parenting.
But I will say this, if my child had behaved the way this defendant did, if they had spoken to officer Martinez that way, I would be ashamed.
I would be heartbroken.
And I would absolutely support any consequence that might help them become a better person.
Before I close, I want to say something to Madison.
You are 23 years old.
You are young.
You have your whole life ahead of you.
