We managed to find time at work today to tune in to the Rocky D show on 1340 am. While we consider Rocky a friend of the blog, we must express disappointment in his softball interview of Scarlett Wilson, the duly elected 9th Circuit Solicitor. Not a single hard question was asked. In fact, excuse after excuse was provided. We have to ask - was that interview someone's idea of an April Fool's joke?
We are pretty sure Rocky was referring to this post when he expressed his ire that anyone could possibly blame the "pretty" Scarlett Wilson (his words) for the fact that Mark Blake, Jr. has been freely roaming the streets and repeatedly committing crimes. We think our pal Rocky is overly smitten.
We have spent the past year pointing out the deficiencies in the 9th Circuit Solicitor's Office as well as those in the bond hearing and sentencing arenas. According to Scarlett Wilson, those of us who criticize the performance of her office are irrational. To paraphrase Wilson, "Rational people understand..." the reasons why all of these cases are dismissed or pled down. The reasons she gave include - officers making crappy cases, officers screwing up search warrants, officers using criminals as witnesses against criminals, those criminal witnesses committing crimes of their own while waiting two or three years for a case to go to trial, defendants turned into informants by the police, and police requesting charges against defendants be dropped because their snitches would be exposed.
Maybe Scarlett Wilson, in the interest of transparency, can have a secretary gather up information regarding the total number of cases in the last five years and the number dismissed or pled down for the reasons she outlined above. We would love to see the percentages to back up her assertions. We are pretty confident some cases are dismissed because the officer made a mistake, but we don't think that circumstance is anywhere near as common as she wants us to believe.
Wilson also said she couldn't comment on the past cases of Mark Blake, Jr. because she "hadn't received the files from the warehouse" yet. Does the 9th Circuit Solicitor not have a computerized case tracking system? We will be anxiously awaiting the disclosure of the information from those files she has requested from the warehouse.
The Solicitor told us in the interview she would call in to the show and fess up whenever her office drops the ball. She spent a considerable amount of time telling the public their local police officers sometimes make mistakes. Maybe the case of Glendell Gladden (aka Glendale Gladden, Glen Dale Gladden) was one of those. The word we received is this murder charge was dismissed and the 9th Circuit Solicitor failed to consult with any of those who actually investigated it. Did that witness go bad, disappear or did the investigators ask for the case to be dismissed so they wouldn't burn their witness?
We received this from an anonymous person claiming to be a local police officer:
"I have been a police officer for four years and have made at least thirty general sessions cases in the 9th Circuit. Not once in four years have I been notified of a trial date in any of those cases nor have I been summoned to any pre-trial meetings. I will be researching those cases to see what happened to them. I know they can't all still be pending. If any of those cases were dismissed or pled down to a lesser charge by the solicitor it was done without consulting me. Not so much as a phone call."
So, to sum that up, in four years of making arrests this officer has NEVER been called to testify in general sessions court. Given an average of two years for a case to make it to trial, we find this amazing. To follow Wilson's reasoning, this officer either makes crappy cases, uses unfavorable witnesses or is irrational.
We have repeatedly pointed out the failures in our system are the combined fault of solicitors, bond judges and trial judges. Earlier today we published a response from a reader whose comments led us to believe he or she was intimately involved in the criminal justice system. That reader appears to concur with our assessment of who bears responsibility for the broken system.
Scarlett Wilson also told us she has been pushing for reforms in the bond system. Paraphrasing her again, "How many times does someone have to get arrested before he is deemed to be dangerous?" How many times indeed. Maybe she and her number two should get together before giving interviews.
As we were typing this, Channel 5 News aired a comment from Wilson's assistant, Bruce Durant. Paraphrasing again, Durant said, "Blake isn't a choirboy, but the fact is he wasn't a violent offender." Hmmmm......repeated drug and firearm offenses don't give you a clue, Bruce? The public isn't buying that anymore.
WCSC, as well as every other "news" outlet in the area, point to the fact that Blake is out on bond for offenses from 2012. They all fail to mention he is also out on bond for charges from February of this year when he was arrested with his girlfriend, Domonique Jeter, on number of drug charges including Trafficking Heroin. Five serious drug charges for which Blake was only given bonds totaling $55,000, even though he was already out on bond in the amount of $50,000 from 2012. So he was out of jail on a total of $105,000 worth of bonds when he shot Ptl. Goldstein. Trust us, folks, it isn't hard for a drug trafficker to come up with ten percent of $50,000. For those folks like us who didn't go to "math school" that comes to $5,000.
Wilson tells listeners it is extremely difficult to get a judge to revoke a bond. Remember, most judges are also former defense attorneys. We are still researching our upcoming post about bonds. Look for it in the near future.
We are pretty sure Rocky was referring to this post when he expressed his ire that anyone could possibly blame the "pretty" Scarlett Wilson (his words) for the fact that Mark Blake, Jr. has been freely roaming the streets and repeatedly committing crimes. We think our pal Rocky is overly smitten.
We have spent the past year pointing out the deficiencies in the 9th Circuit Solicitor's Office as well as those in the bond hearing and sentencing arenas. According to Scarlett Wilson, those of us who criticize the performance of her office are irrational. To paraphrase Wilson, "Rational people understand..." the reasons why all of these cases are dismissed or pled down. The reasons she gave include - officers making crappy cases, officers screwing up search warrants, officers using criminals as witnesses against criminals, those criminal witnesses committing crimes of their own while waiting two or three years for a case to go to trial, defendants turned into informants by the police, and police requesting charges against defendants be dropped because their snitches would be exposed.
Maybe Scarlett Wilson, in the interest of transparency, can have a secretary gather up information regarding the total number of cases in the last five years and the number dismissed or pled down for the reasons she outlined above. We would love to see the percentages to back up her assertions. We are pretty confident some cases are dismissed because the officer made a mistake, but we don't think that circumstance is anywhere near as common as she wants us to believe.
Wilson also said she couldn't comment on the past cases of Mark Blake, Jr. because she "hadn't received the files from the warehouse" yet. Does the 9th Circuit Solicitor not have a computerized case tracking system? We will be anxiously awaiting the disclosure of the information from those files she has requested from the warehouse.
The Solicitor told us in the interview she would call in to the show and fess up whenever her office drops the ball. She spent a considerable amount of time telling the public their local police officers sometimes make mistakes. Maybe the case of Glendell Gladden (aka Glendale Gladden, Glen Dale Gladden) was one of those. The word we received is this murder charge was dismissed and the 9th Circuit Solicitor failed to consult with any of those who actually investigated it. Did that witness go bad, disappear or did the investigators ask for the case to be dismissed so they wouldn't burn their witness?
We received this from an anonymous person claiming to be a local police officer:
"I have been a police officer for four years and have made at least thirty general sessions cases in the 9th Circuit. Not once in four years have I been notified of a trial date in any of those cases nor have I been summoned to any pre-trial meetings. I will be researching those cases to see what happened to them. I know they can't all still be pending. If any of those cases were dismissed or pled down to a lesser charge by the solicitor it was done without consulting me. Not so much as a phone call."
So, to sum that up, in four years of making arrests this officer has NEVER been called to testify in general sessions court. Given an average of two years for a case to make it to trial, we find this amazing. To follow Wilson's reasoning, this officer either makes crappy cases, uses unfavorable witnesses or is irrational.
We have repeatedly pointed out the failures in our system are the combined fault of solicitors, bond judges and trial judges. Earlier today we published a response from a reader whose comments led us to believe he or she was intimately involved in the criminal justice system. That reader appears to concur with our assessment of who bears responsibility for the broken system.
Scarlett Wilson also told us she has been pushing for reforms in the bond system. Paraphrasing her again, "How many times does someone have to get arrested before he is deemed to be dangerous?" How many times indeed. Maybe she and her number two should get together before giving interviews.
As we were typing this, Channel 5 News aired a comment from Wilson's assistant, Bruce Durant. Paraphrasing again, Durant said, "Blake isn't a choirboy, but the fact is he wasn't a violent offender." Hmmmm......repeated drug and firearm offenses don't give you a clue, Bruce? The public isn't buying that anymore.
WCSC, as well as every other "news" outlet in the area, point to the fact that Blake is out on bond for offenses from 2012. They all fail to mention he is also out on bond for charges from February of this year when he was arrested with his girlfriend, Domonique Jeter, on number of drug charges including Trafficking Heroin. Five serious drug charges for which Blake was only given bonds totaling $55,000, even though he was already out on bond in the amount of $50,000 from 2012. So he was out of jail on a total of $105,000 worth of bonds when he shot Ptl. Goldstein. Trust us, folks, it isn't hard for a drug trafficker to come up with ten percent of $50,000. For those folks like us who didn't go to "math school" that comes to $5,000.
Wilson tells listeners it is extremely difficult to get a judge to revoke a bond. Remember, most judges are also former defense attorneys. We are still researching our upcoming post about bonds. Look for it in the near future.