Rankin-Madison District Attorney Michael Guest issued the following press release:
Career
Criminal Receives 45-Year Sentence for
Crimes
Committed Only Days After Being Released from Prison
Madison and Rankin Counties’ District Attorney Michael
Guest announced today that Thomas James Hooghe was sentenced to serve 45 years in
the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections after pleading guilty
to Motor Vehicle Theft and three counts of Grand Larceny.
On April 19, 2014, the Ridgeland Police Department responded
to The Club on Lake Harbour Drive and officers spoke to an individual who
reported that his Rolex watch had been stolen after someone had broken into his
locker. Police met with the manager of
The Club and were able to use video from the surveillance system to identify an
unknown older white male subject as a suspect in the theft.
Three
days later on April 22, 2014, the Madison Police Department was called to the Baptist
HealthPlex after it was discovered that several lockers had been broken into
and a 2010 Toyota SUV had been taken from the parking lot. The Madison Police Department was able to
review video surveillance from Baptist HealthPlex which showed the same
individual, previously identified by the Ridgeland Police Department, as being
involved in these thefts.
A
photograph of the subject was run on several local television station in an
attempt to seek out information regarding the suspect’s identify. An individual saw the photograph and called
both Crime Stoppers and the Madison Police Department. The caller was able to identify Thomas Hooghe
as the individual depicted in the surveillance video. Investigators were then able to determine
that Hooghe’s last known address was at the New Way Transitional Living Center
in Jackson. A warrant was issued for
Hooghe’s arrest.
On
April 24, 2014, the Madison Police Department was contacted by the Brandon
Police Department and informed that Hooghe had been detained in Brandon after
employees of The Club in Brandon became suspicious of Hooghe after he entered
the gym. The manager of The Club in
Brandon reported that Hooghe had entered the gym and had gone into and out of
the locker room on numerous occasions.
When the Brandon Police Department arrived on the scene they learned
through a records check that Hooghe was wanted by the Madison Police Department
for the crimes that had occurred at the HealthPlex. When officers of the Madison Police
Department arrived to transport Hooghe back to Madison County they noticed that
the clothes he was wearing at the time of his arrest were the same clothes that
he had worn at the time he committed his crimes in Madison County.
Guest
stated, “Hooghe is a habitual criminal who had just been released by the
Mississippi Department of Corrections to the New Way Transitional Living Center
on April 17. Hooghe had only been
released from prison for 2 days before he began once again to steal from the
hard working citizens of our community. Hooghe’s
actions clearly show that he can never be rehabilitated and that he should
spend the rest of his life behind bars.”
Guest
added, “Hooghe’s criminal record shows that he has previously been convicted of
felony offenses on at least five occasions in three different states. I hope that the forty five year sentenced
handed down in this case will keep Hooghe from ever again having the
opportunity to take what doesn’t belong to him.”
Guest concluded, “This case is another example of what
can be accomplished when law enforcement agencies work together. Because of the combined efforts of the
Madison, Ridgeland, and Brandon Police Departments Hooghe was back in custody
after only a week of having been released from prison. I cannot thank these officers enough for all
that they do to keep the citizens of Madison and Rankin County safe.”
Hooghe has previously been convicted of multiple counts
of burglary in Hamilton County Ohio, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle in
Harrison County Texas, and Motor Vehicle Theft in Desoto County
Mississippi.
District Attorney Michael Guest was sworn into office in
January 2008 and represents the Twentieth Judicial District, Madison and Rankin
Counties. For more information regarding
the District Attorney’s office, please visit www.daguest.com.
Defendant:
Name: Thomas
James Hooghe
Date of Birth: 7/19/57
Address: New Transitional Living
Center
916 Ingo Street, Jackson
21 comments:
I suppose we could conclude that Hooghe "can never be rehabilitated".
Or maybe we can conclude that whatever efforts were made to rehabilitate Hooghe were a comlete failure.
In any event, 45 years of incarceration seems like a high price for taxpayers to pay for petty theft, and glory seeking by ambitious D. A.'s
petty theft????
I guess that's what it's called when other people's property and vehicles are stolen, but what is it called when it is YOUR possessions and vehicles?
Call it barbaric, but in countries where the right hand is chopped off for theft, you don't see many people without a right hand, but they don't have much theft either.
Or we can conclude that our "correctional system" does not correct nor rehabilitate. All we want is for certain people to "go away."
Right now, I'm fed-up with the worsening demographics and lackluster management at my (big, established, Flowood) Gym.
But I haven't even shopped for a new one (I live in Madison), because I know they'll want to xerox my driver's license, if I buy a temporary membership, to see If I like the place. And they'll want my Social Security Number, if I join 'The Club' or whatever it is that Baptist has built (the advertizing makes me unsure whether it's a gym or a rehab facility).
I really don't want to risk my life, giving someone else my SSN. So, I'm still driving half-an-hour to work out, when there are newer - probably better gyms near my home. (I also refuse to move various accounts, because of the added exposure to Identity Theft... Sorry C-Spire: I know you're probably better, but AT&T's already got my information...)
But none of this WOULD EVEN BE AN ISSUE if not for people like this Hooghe creature. If you ask me, he's getting off way too easy.
I travel a lot, and used to go to gyms in various cities. But that's becoming problematic, because of people like him. The gyms don't trust ME, because they have to worry, now, about locker thieves like this 'Hooghe'. And I don't trust the kids working the desks at gyms with xeroxes of my Driver's License.
People like this guy are gumming-up the mechanisms that hold our society together. Personally, I think they should treat guys like this the way Chiang Kai-Shek did opium addicts (kneel them down, and blow their brains out).
There are two problems with the mandatory sentence, 3 strike laws: 1) It removes all discretion from Judges to use their judgment, which can lead to absurd results like someone going away for ever for stealing a pizza; and 2) DA's use the fear and risk the law generates to extort plea bargains when a trial might exonerate the defendant, possibly sending an innocent person to jail. Makes great headlines for the DA; but any law that takes away the discretion of judges is bad.
@ October 2, 2014 at 12:16 PM
Petty theft? I guess it's been awhile since you priced rolexes. The value of a Rolex watch is many times greater than the $1,000 minimum for grand larceny
Video surveillance?? ... whoa- as in (gasp) locker rooms!?! No wonder the "Clubs" didn't want to be named.
Maybe if Jackson could attract manufacturing jobs pressing license plates life could be easier for its residents returning to life in the private sector.
The fellow just wanted to get back to "three hots and a cot", free medical care, never have to think for himself. Some find life on the inside preferable to life on the outside.
"I suppose we could conclude that Hooghe "can never be rehabilitated".
Or maybe we can conclude that whatever efforts were made to rehabilitate Hooghe were a comlete failure. "
Definition of a liberal: Someone who believes it is possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
Will the Revrunt Frank Spencer have a presser? Are there plans to close down the flop house where Hooghe was staying? Did he carry bolt cutters when he sauntered through the gym? How does Guest know these were 'hard working citizens'? Will Hooghe become a locker consultant? Did the Madison cops stop at Penn's on Fannin Road en route to Rankin County? Did Dale Danks set bail?
Wrong @ 2:12 PM...The problem is jurges like Thommie Green don't have enough sense to understand what the right thing is much less implement it through appropriate sentences...Load up on Karen Irby and release a child molester for time served? sure thing....
Just put a bullet in people like this and be done with it. Sympathy and apathy is what go us where we are today.
@ Franklin Oct 2 12:16 PM:
Petty theft? Er, within just one week of his release from custody the dude was stealing Rolexes and car keys.
And maybe the insurance company that would have been required to cough up replacement value for the 2010 SUV he snagged had it not been recovered would have been only too happy to agree with you it was worth an inconsequential pittance, but try telling the bank who probably still held the note on the vehicle that the amount still owed on it was only "petty" cash.
Goodness, inflation must really be getting out of hand if a daily haul like the one this guy was pulling in is what passes for "petty theft" now.
12:16 PM, You consider a Rolex petty theft! What planet have you been living on?
3:13 PM You are probably close with your observation but, you left our that he probably was missing his "boody buddy" back home in the prison.
OMG ROLEX's are so EXPENSUUHV!!
Peasants.
Can I just point out that those focusing on whether stealing a Rolex--and maybe an SUV, but let's just say that too--is "petty theft" are missing the point.
45 years in jail for a property crime---not murder, rape, or armed robbery--is ridiculous. Guest should be ashamed, not issuing silly. Press releases
As to 3:19--Hooghe is a human being who committed a crime not a "turd".
"As to 3:19--Hooghe is a human being who committed a crime not a "turd". "
That's your opinion.
Here's a quarter - buy yourself a clue. He's not doing 45 years for one crime. He's doing 45 years for a lifetime of crime, having demonstrated he is beyond rehabilitation and will be a consistent and constant threat to society the say he is released.
agree 45 years for a property crime is ridiculous...imagine the cost to the state for that sentence...HOWEVER, you have to wonder about the security at those health clubs...how did the thief get past the front desks to enter the locker rooms multiple times to commit his crime....seems that The Club and the MADISON Healthplex have some explaining to do
9:51---Dang boy!
You just keep being wrong all around.
Fact v. Opinion. And you cannot buy a clue, even for a quarter---see, that expression relates to coffee, and does not apply here. .
And here's a kicker, you get convicted for the crime you committed--not a "lifetime of crime". Innocent until proven guilty and such.
Yea, it's nice to see peoples comments when they don't know the person. This "creature" who is getting 45 years for stealing something a 15 year old steals is my father. My brother and I are both upstanding citizens. Both served a total of three tours in Iraq for this country. My dad needs to be treated as a patient not a prisoner. He is not violent and has never hurt anyone physically in his life. Yet he is now beyond "rehabilitation" because the system is broken. Thank the lord our watches are safe but our tax dollars might not be.
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