CRIME / COURTS

Public defenders seek release of 14 jail inmates

Matthew Glowicki

@MattGlo

With the Louisville jail hundreds overcapacity, the local public defender's office filed petitions Tuesday seeking the release of 14 inmates being held on low bonds who it asserts were detained unlawfully.

The petitions allege that Jefferson District Court judges are violating defendants' state and federal constitutional rights by not considering a defendant's financial status when setting bail, “a central feature in the bail process,” wrote the public defenders.

A public defender's office review of a week's worth of district court arraignments in September showed virtually no discussion of a defendant's ability to post bond, representing a "standard practice" in district court that amounts to an abuse of discretion and a violation of due process rights, the attorneys argued.

It's further alleged that district court judges virtually ignore a state law giving eligible defendants $100 a day bail credit for each day served in jail, a law that in part was created to cut inmate populations.

According to data from the state Administrative Office of the Courts provided in the petition, only 77 people were reported as having received bail credit by a judge in the last 12 months. Yet nearly 9,500 defendants were eligible to receive bail credit, the suit noted, adding that “…it may be reasonably inferred that no defendants … are receiving genuine consideration for bail credit.”

District Court Judge Sean Delahanty said he believe he alone has issued bail credits in more than 77 cases and noted that judges often will set bonds when a defendant has a history of failing to appear in court.

Fellow District Court Judge David Holton, who declined to comment specifically on the habeas corpus petitions citing judicial ethics rules, said many factors of a case and a defendant's history are taken into consideration during the bond setting process.

"I believe our judges set what they deem to be good and reasonable bonds based on the charges they have before them and what they perceive to be in the best interest of safety in the community and a bond that will more likely ensure the defendant’s reappearance in court," he said.

Bail credit was part of a series of 2011 criminal justice reforms passed in the General Assembly under House Bill 463. Under the law, defendants are able to receive the credit, provided they aren’t deemed a flight risk, a violent offender, a danger to others and aren’t charged with certain sex offenses.

The reform was meant to help defendants unable to pay a low bond, freeing up jail space and cutting costs while maintaining public safety.

“When a given defendant has a 99.19% chance of being denied bail credit, the court has abandoned any exercise of discretion," the petition reads. "As a practical matter, the court knows exactly what it is going to do in a given case, literally before it looks at the file and it does so in the face of a bill that creates a presumption in favor of bail credit."

According to the public defenders’ affidavit, judges are making bail-setting decisions in some cases based solely on “judicial discretion,” with no apparent written rationale for their decision.

If judges are to deny bail credit, they need to document why, the public defenders argue.

The 14 habeas corpus petitions seeking the release of the inmates, who were assessed as low to moderate risk, were filed Tuesday in Jefferson Circuit Court by Jay Lambert, Amy Hannah and Adam Braunbeck of the public defender's office. The matter is set for a Wednesday morning hearing before Circuit Judge Brian Edwards.

The mass filing comes as Metro Corrections nears 2,200 inmates, about 450 more inmates than the same point last year, said jail director Mark Bolton. He declined comment on the new court filings as they are pending.

The county attorney's office is conducting an expedited review of the petitions since learning about them late Tuesday morning, said office spokesman Josh Abner.

“Even just at a cursory glance, we’re seeing some defendants who could be a serious public safety risk and we want to make sure we have the appropriate amount of time to look over these cases,” Abner said.

He pointed to a few of the 14 cases that raised concerns, including one in which it is alleged a man intoxicated on spice drove erratically on a downtown road in the middle of the afternoon and another in which a man is accused of slamming the mother of his children's head into a wall, court records show. In another case, a man is alleged to have violated a domestic violence order by going to his ex-wife's home and yelling. One of the 14 defendants is accused of driving a vehicle that had been reported stolen.

Public defenders note that many of these defendants have lost or risk losing their jobs while in jail. Some, they note, were in treatment or are willing to seek treatment for substance abuse. Most have cash bonds of less than $5,000 that they are unable to pay, the petitions note.

Public defenders seek release of 14 jail inmates

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