The issue of criminal bonds isn’t going away any time soon. That much was clear after Thursday’s meeting of the Vance County Coalition Against Violence.
The coalition’s official representative in the Vance Organization to Implement Community Enhancement, Loree Adams, and Henderson City Manager Eric Williams reported to the coalition about Wednesday’s VOICE meeting.
One of Vance County’s magistrates, Ron Roberts, appeared at the VOICE meeting at the request of the chief magistrate, Betty Smith, to answer the group’s questions about how bonds are set for people charged with crimes.
Coalition members, particularly Team Vance head Marolyn Rasheed, have complained about defendants being granted bonds that are too low to keep them in jail until trial. Those defendants, coalition members say, are able to terrorize the neighborhood and any witnesses, and the fear spreads to potential witnesses in other cases, who choose silence and stymie police investigations.
Judges have increased bonds in at least two cases of violence in recent months: the shootings on Johnson Street in February that threatened Troy and Ruth Dunston, for which Jameel Bullock and Quinton Mitchell were charged; and last month’s abduction of two of the Rev. John Miles’ sons, for which E-40 leader Ernest Augustus Hawkins and two others were charged.
“I don’t think the magistrates and judges realize the fear in our community from repeat offenders,” Rogers said Thursday night. “It’s up to us to convey that fear to the judge or judges.”
For now, however, VOICE and the coalition are in the learning stages.
“We can’t comment until we know what’s going on,” Williams said Wednesday.
As part of the educational effort, Williams said, he has talked to Chief District Judge Charles Wilkinson, who oversees the magistrates with the senior resident Superior Court judge for the 9th Judicial District, Robert Hobgood; Smith; and District Attorney Sam Currin III and one of his top assistants, Susan Thompson.
On Wednesday, Roberts answered a series of general VOICE questions about the bond process.
He also asked one of his own: What sparked VOICE’s concern with bonds?
Dollie Burwell, who runs Congressman G.K. Butterfield’s district office in Weldon, said the issue is the discretion magistrates have in setting bonds. She said bonds seem not only too low, but inconsistent.
Roberts said the magistrates follow a grid of suggested bonds for particular charges. They take into account the arresting officer’s comments on the crime and the suspect, as well as the suspect’s record. If the person is from out of town, the bond will be higher. If law enforcement hopes to turn the suspect to catch other criminals, such as higher-ups in a drug operation, the bond might be lower.
The magistrates handle all suspects except in capital cases, Roberts said.
Wilkinson and Hobgood are responsible for the bond guideline grid in Vance, Granville, Warren and Franklin counties. The judges are elected officials, Roberts noted, so they are answerable to the voters for those guidelines. Adams said Thursday that state statutes provide the basis for the guidelines, so state legislators also share a responsibility for the bond process.
Rogers said the process puts the responsibility on the arresting officers to let the magistrates know “when they know they have a creep.”
By state law, the “preferred finding” is an unsecured bond or no bond at all, and some judicial districts require a magistrate to justify in writing any decision to set a secured bond, Roberts said. “We don’t have that here.”
The magistrates’ decisions don’t last long anyway, Roberts said. Every defendant with a bond gets a hearing in District Court within 96 hours, and “on average our bonds are cut in half.”
Increases are rare enough that Roberts could cite specific cases.
“You can’t punish someone with a bond,” Assistant District Attorney Quon Bridges said. Bonds are set for two reasons: to ensure that a defendant returns to court as ordered, and to protect the community when the defendant poses a danger. The second reason is the source of the debate over whether bonds are high enough.
Bridges said that to protect the justice system from abuse, judges can’t just lock people up and throw away the key until trial. Regardless of a suspect’s record, that person has the presumption of innocence for any untried charges.
“You need a process that’s fair,” Bridges said.
Roberts said the process is constantly tested because this area is the worst in the state for per-capita violent crime.
“Violence has less to do with bonds than what we do with children,” Bridges said, adding that he sees the same people in criminal court now whom he saw in juvenile court 15 years ago. “We have a deeper problem than keeping people locked up under high bonds.”
Still, Rogers said Thursday that one of the founding purposes of the coalition is to argue for changes the community needs, and low bonds for repeat offenders fall into that category.
Once the coalition and VOICE understand the bond rules and make their case to the judges for tougher bond rules, Williams said, “I can’t imagine a scenario where they wouldn’t respond favorably, and I think they will.”
The next step, Williams and Rogers said, is likely to be a subcommittee of coalition and VOICE members that will study the bond issue in a search for proposals that can address the community’s concerns and fears.
Update: Williams, as noted in his comment below, today sent out copies of the guidelines the magistrates use in setting bonds. The guidelines are just that — guides, not absolute rules. “The most important determinant for setting a bond in any case is to learn all you can about the case and then use some common sense,” reads a note atop the guidelines, which Judges Hobgood and Wilkinson adopted in late December 2002.
Also, domestic violence cases, including the charge of assault on a female, fall under a rule requiring a 48-hour stay in jail before bond is considered.
That said, here are the secured-bond suggestions the magistrates work with:
* Class 3 misdemeanors, maximum punishment of 20 days in jail — minimum $300 if secured bond is given.
* Class 2 misdemeanors, maximum 60 days in jail — minimum $300 if secured bond is given.
* Class 1 misdemeanors, maximum 60 days in jail — minimum $300, and a secured bond generally should be given.
* Class A1 misdemeanors, maximum 150 days in jail — minimum $500, and a secured bond usually should be given.
* Class I felonies, maximum 15 months in prison — minimum $5,000.
* Class H felonies, maximum 30 months in prison — minimum $10,000.
* Class G felonies, maximum 44 months in prison — minimum $20,000.
* Class F felonies, maximum 59 months in prison — minimum $25,000.
* Class E felonies, maximum 98 months in prison — minimum $30,000.
* Class D felonies, maximum 229 months in prison — minimum $50,000.
* Class C felonies, maximum 261 months in prison — minimum $75,000.
* Class B2 felonies, maximum 479 months in prison — minimum $100,000.
* Class B1 felonies, possible life in prison without parole — minimum $100,000.
* Class A felonies, possible death penalty or life without parole — no bond.