____ had spent more than a year in the Yakima County Jail when he filed an Alford plea — not admitting the crime but conceding he likely would be convicted — on a second-degree attempted kidnapping charge.
“I was told that I was going to be released the day I was processed,” he said.
Instead, he spent the next nine years at the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island, without ever having a civil commitment trial or being convicted of a violent sexual offense. Full Article
Three points of wisdom. 1) Pay attention to what the charges are. 2) Get a good a lawyer and 3) Stay away from all gatherings where children are involved, if you bare RC mark.
Just looked him up on the county sex offender web site. As a level 1, he should not be on the web site, however he now is designated a level 3. The article said he was a level 1, which would have been determined by the End of Sentencing Review Committee (ESRC), part of the state DOC. Unfortunately in Washington State, your county sheriff can override that at will. A friend of mine is fighting the county on being moved up to a level 2 right now in the Court of Appeals. Does not seem right. King County detective Santos is doing this on her own, but she will have to answer in court shortly for he bias.
I recently became aware of a man who sat in jail for 4 years without a trial. It wasn’t until a group of citizens got together and protested FOR his release that he was able to get his day in court, but it was fast paced and full of problems. The circumstances surrounding the case are very strange and borderline criminal. The investigating officer is also the sex offender registration officer and has a long history of not abiding by the law. I had trouble with this particular officer in the past. Somehow, without a shred of evidence other than hearsay, a Jury ultimately found him guilty. We have witnesses from the courtroom who watched the trial unfold, legally minded individuals who say this case full have glaring problems. They are now working to expose the problems of the justice system and the key players and the reasons why they believe this man needed to be convicted. It’s a very small town and the girl in question, was seeing a 40 year old man, yet they won’t’ investigate that. It was even admitted in the courtroom she was seeing him, her own words. Everyone i’ve talked to about this case who was present at trial are fuming that the justice system refuses to look at this accusation. After all, it only took an accusation to send a man away for life in prison.
I suspect the number of people being held indefinitely, without a trial is far higher than we know. A high bail was also recently considered unconstitutional. I wonder why this isn’t being dealt with? Why are the jails still allowed to hold people if they cannot afford the high bails?
Hell, even the thought that a jail can profit from the accused, in itself is a very bad idea. Why pay money to walk away from jail? That system seems ripe for greedy corruption.