On September 12 I posted an article titled "No time to be nonchalant", and today a reader sent this comment to that article. The comment is too good to be missed.
"Well today...a career criminal, 2 time felon who should have been put in prison last year...arrested on close to 30 charges in 3 years. Go to the County Public case Access site and look up case 10CM002397, and for further info look at the perps name and do a check on his history on the same site. Amazing. The whole neighborhood is once again let down by the office! This last time he should have been revoked for the last set of conditions they placed on his 3rd felony charge 2 years back. He was set to go to trial tomorrow on 5 counts. 3 assault and 2 resisiting arrest where the police suffered the punches. The states \Attorney let this guy plead out...again! And guess what he got? he gets 24 days jail to be served on 12 weekens. And a $250.00 fine! Now, they DID place more conditions...however conditions have been set in several of this mans cases prior and he has broken them all pretty much. So what do they do in spite of the promises that this time they would make no deals and allow no pleas? They make a deal and allow more conditions. And each time this guy gets away with something, he escalates into a more agressive and dangerous stance. So, I agree. This should have gone to tril tomorrow ( the victims by the way ahd NO say at all ) and were told they had no clue of the legal system or law when they emailed to complain! They still have a slight chance to revoke his last parole...but I highly doubbt it. My opinion is...that maybe this was part of the back room deal? Only time will tell... "
Case No. 10CM002397 was filed October 9, 2010, with a Charge Date of October 8, 2010, by the Oakwood Hills Police Department. The defendant was Charles E. Braun, now 49. Braun was originally appointed a Public Defender, and the case meandered along with the usual continuances and jury trial demands, and then in February 2012 Braun retained a private attorney, David A. Ullrick.
A jury trial was scheduled for today and, as often happened, everything ground to a halt with a plea deal.
The rest of the story will be available tomorrow, after the Circuit Court online records are updated.
The charges in the court record do not reflect assault on a peace officer. There are two counts of resisting arrest and three charges of assault.
When are the court's going to put a stop to this nonsense? Why should two years of continuances pass and preparation for a jury trial, and then a deal is made at the 11th hour? Almost every defendant demands a jury trial, which clogs the court calendars. Then they deal on the day a trial is to start.
Judges should say, "Decide if you want a jury trial. If you ask for one, then you are going to get one. Period." And then no deals at the last minute.
You never know who is interested…
3 months ago
7 comments:
Yawn. Great idea Gus! There is just no way that idea can't work. Wish you were the Chief Judge so we could try it.
With all the hanging around the court, I would have guessed that you would figure it out, but I would be wrong.
(Just a hint: the "problem" is in the Constitution, where a defendant gets rights to a speedy trial, jury and subpoena power. Those pesky rights always gum up the works of smooth running state trials)
No problem with rights, Ray. Rights can be protected.
My problem is with the deals that are struck at the 11th hour. The defendant (and his lawyer) hold out for a trial to the last minute, then swing a deal to avoid the unknown trial result.
Guess it's risky both ways. The State is anxious to avoid a trial; they might lose. Once at trial, it's all or nothing for the State, unless they play "Let's Make a Deal" before the jury comes back with a verdict.
No judge anywhere ever has been able to successfully "unclog" a trial call by forcing disposable cases (even at the 11th hour) to trial. Probably because spending 2-3 days on a jury trial clogs things up a lot more than a 5 minute negotiated plea. Other counties have been able to alleviate "last second" pleas by use of constructive pretrial dates. McHenry County seems less interested in efficiency and saving money, though.
When a judge schedules time for a 2-3 day trial that doesn't happen due to a last-minute "deal", what does the judge do with that 'free" time?
Judges rarely block off entire days for trials. You see that mostly on major felony cases, where the parties indicate to the judge that there is a less-than-normal chance of a plea. So, when a typical misdemeanor case resolves itself on the trial date, the judge will spend the next 2-3 days dealing with the things that had already been normally scheduled.
The system gets clogged when something actually does go to trial. Then all of the other matters that judge had scheduled over the next few days end up in another courtroom where, typically, nothing gets done and everything is continued out for another month. The most unproductive days at that courthouse are when multiple trials are happening in multiple rooms... not when people take a deal at the 11th hour.
Like I said, though, McHenry County has about the most inefficient system possible. Other counties have figured it out.
MjH, McHenry doesn't have the most inefficient system possible, that actually belongs to Boone County where a misdemeanor trial can actually override a felony trial because the same judge hears both kinds of cases on the same docket.
I certainly agree with you that 11th hour deals are not a problem of the system, they are actually the solution.
Please don't miss the fact that GUS would like to have all of the defendants that he doesn't like promptly plead guilty on Tuesday to be sentenced on Wednesday ... claiming that it is all for the sake of judicial economy. As it turns out, he is just another crank who with little to do follows around people in the judicial system and critiques everything that he doesn't like ...
When he likes the defendant, careful deliberation over vast periods of time is o.k. because it is.
In his dreams GUS is a lawyer, a sheriff, a cowboy, and a judge ... in reality I think he does something with aroma therapy ...
When you follow his posts, he will never address his own error after screwing the pooch, he will insult the victims of crime, or those mourning loss, and he will interject himself endlessly everywhere...he will propose solutions (as new) that have been tried and abandoned long ago
In short he's Nancy Grace.
Ray, how dare you insult Nancy Grace like that!
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