#PRETRIAL DETENTION

[faultfalha]

The state of Russian justice had long been opaque, its rulings like messages from a distant god. To the journalist from the Wall Street Journal, held in pretrial detention for months, the Telegram notification of the court's latest ruling was a sign of its intractable distance. 'Extended through November', it said, like a broken promise of imminent redemption. An eternity away, a caged bird promised release, an eternity to be served. The shallow waters of justice lapped back and forth and the court's decision brought no resolution, only a promise of prolonged torment. But as time passed, the reporter was left to contemplate the possibilities of freedom, and the incomprehensible power of a court that could sentence an eternity of waiting.

[qqueenofhades]

HAPPY (4TH) INDICTMENT DAY!

YOOOOO IT’S OFFICIAL

Also, there are some BIG co-defendants in this one, including Jeff Clark (the guy Trump wanted as Attorney General during the coup attempt period) AND THE HEAD OF THE GEORGIA REPUBLICAN PARTY.....

.... PLUS. PLUS. RUDY GIULIANI!!! AND MARK MEADOWS!!!!! AND JOHN EASTMAN!!! AND RICO CHARGES FOR TRUMP!!!!

HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

(oh damn, oh snap, a thing of beauty and a joy forever, etc)

Also, apparently this is technically his FIFTH indictment, as the superseding Mar-a-Lago charges added the other day count as another one. But wow this is a WHOPPER.)

[vague-humanoid]

@chrisdornerfanclub

When Percy Taylor was convicted for selling drugs in 2003, he was handed a lengthy sentence because he was a repeat offender. During these years in prison, he became a “jailhouse lawyer,” learning about his rights and teaching others.

So, in 2017 when prison officials told Percy his official release date was May 5, 2020, he knew something was not right. By his calculations, he was supposed to be released before 2018. Percy began a process of contesting his official release date. At first, he approached prison officials informally and let them know that their calculations did not include credit for the 602 days he spent in pretrial detention.

When this didn’t work, Percy filed a request through the prison’s administrative remedy procedure (ARP). On July 9, 2018, the prison denied Percy’s ARP, which Percy appealed directly to the head of the prison system, James LeBlanc. On August 20, 2018, LeBlanc also got it wrong by affirming the prison’s determination.

Percy then appealed LeBlanc’s decision to a state court in Louisiana, where a commissioner issued a recommendation stating that Percy’s 602-day credit was being improperly ignored and LeBlanc’s calculation was “manifestly erroneous.” The district court officially adopted the recommendation on January 13, 2020.

Percy hand-delivered the recommendation to his jailers as soon as it was issued, but they refused to abide by them. He then hand-delivered the district court order, again to no avail. Two weeks later, Percy filed another ARP. Only then, on February 18, 2020, was Percy finally released from custody.

[offender42085]

Post 1033

“You bragged about the guns being hidden in the walls of your home.” --Judge

Adam Montgomery, New Hampshire inmate 66018, born 1990, incarceration intake in August 2023 at age 33, scheduled for parole consideration December 2036, with conditional release scheduled for December 2051

Theft of Firearm, Receiving Stolen Property, Armed Career Criminal. Firearm Possession

On August 7, 2023, Adam Montgomery, 33, the father of long-missing and presumed dead 5-year-old New Hampshire girl Harmony Montgomery, insisted he did not murder his daughter during his sentencing hearing on several firearm-related offenses.

“I did not kill my daughter Harmony,” the defendant said when asked if he would like to address the court. “I’m looking forward to my upcoming trial so I can refute those offensive claims.”

New Hampshire Superior Court Justice Amy Messer, for her part, said the court was not going to consider the murder case – before handing the defendant a sentence in excess of 32 years – at the bare minimum.

In June 2023, Adam Montgomery was convicted on two counts of theft by unauthorized taking for stealing a rifle and a shotgun from a friend’s home in Manchester. He was also convicted on two counts of receiving stolen property for retaining the guns and a count each of being an armed career criminal, for possessing the rifle, and for possessing the shotgun. An armed career criminal is defined as having been convicted of three or more qualifying felonies.

The judge gave the defendant 15-30 year sentences for each armed career criminal offense – and ordered that those sentences will run consecutively, or, one after another. The court also imposed lesser sentences of 7 1/2 to 15 years for each of the two theft charges – which will run concurrently to one another, or, at the same time, but consecutively to the armed career criminal offenses.

In sum, Adam Montgomery could spend just shy of 90 years in prison, altogether, for gun crimes.

Two lone bright spots for the defendant were noted by Justice Messer. He will be credited 580 days in prison for the time he spent in pretrial detention, and five years of his theft sentences could be suspended if he maintains good behavior in prison.

The state did not seek prison time for the receiving stolen goods charges.

The defendant originally faced eight gun-related offenses in an April 2022 indictment that stem from the theft of the two guns in question.

Defense attorney Caroline L. Smith implored the court to impose mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years for the armed career criminal offenses.

“Here the crime as presented by the state was a crime of opportunity, it did not involve violence, although anyone would say theft is a level of violence, but we don’t have an assault of anybody, we don’t have physical harm to anybody,” the defendant’s attorney argued. “This is a crime of opportunity based on an addiction and to fuel that addiction.”

Smith went on to say that her client did not commit a crime that involved an attempt to steal guns and fire them on someone else but, rather, in order to sell them for “money for drugs or for drugs themselves.”

Those efforts, in the end, did not pan out.

Adam Montgomery’s defense attorney also took note of the murder trial looming in the background.

“It plays a major role and it shouldn’t,” she said – arguing that even the basic fact that her client was facing gun charges was because law enforcement may have been looking for “leverage” against the defendant and/or his estranged wife.

Justice Messer sought to ease those fears before issuing her formal ruling.

“The state is not requesting that the court consider your other pending charges here,” she said, addressing the defendant directly. “I want to tell you that the court is not.”

“But the court notes that there are a significant number of aggravating factors here,” the judge went on. “These predicate offenses are particularly egregious. The guns were stolen, there was a child in the house, the guns were maintained while you yourself had children in the home.”

There was buying and selling back and forth of guns, the court added, including to a convicted sex offender.

“You bragged about the guns being hidden in the walls of your home,” Messer continued – rejecting the defense’s contention that this was just a case of drug addict gone bad. “The gun violence has taken a toll on our community, particularly the young people here.”

Adam Montgomery was also ordered to have no contact with the people he stole the guns from.

Before the sentence was issued, a prosecutor chimed in to say that the state also looks forward to Adam Montgomery’s upcoming murder trial.

3g

[humanrightsupdates]

This week, a court in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, convicted the prominent journalist Stanis Bujakera and sentenced him to six months in prison for sharing an article on social media alleging that Congolese military intelligence had killed a senior opposition official.

On the basis that he had already spent six months in pretrial detention, Bujakera was released on March 19.

Bujakera, 34, Congo’s most-followed journalist on social media, had been detained since September 8. The authorities had arrested and charged him with fabricating and distributing a fake intelligence memo saying that Congolese military intelligence had killed Chérubin Okende, a member of parliament and spokesman for the opposition party Ensemble pour la République. Bujakera was not the author of the memo, which was published in Jeune Afrique.

Okende disappeared in Kinshasa on July 12, 2023, and was found dead in his car with gunshot wounds the next day. The government had publicly denounced Okende’s murder and set up a commission of enquiry. But the public prosecutor handling the case concluded that Okende had committed suicide, and in a March 2 memo he instructed his office to question anyone “gossiping” about the investigation’s conclusions.

Investigations carried out by Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the Congo Hold-Up media consortium determined that the memo was authentic and highlighted serious inconsistencies in the prosecution's claims that Bujakera had received the memo through a Telegram account and was the first person to share it. (Human Rights Watch)

[coochiequeens]

This guy was destroying the home he shared with his sister, planning to shoot up schools and was trying to build a bomb. But sure therapy before transitioning is delaying healthcare.

By Genevieve Gluck December 1, 2023

A trans-identified male has pleaded guilty to Second-Degree Assault for threatening to target three schools in Colorado Springs, Colorado. William Whitworth, 19, accepted an arrangement and entered a plea of “guilty” to a class 4 felony offense on November 6.

Whitworth was arrested on March 31 on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder after a concerned family member called the Elbert County Sheriff’s Office. At the time, he admitted to planning to commit shootings at local schools and deputies dispatched to Whitworth’s residence discovered a labeled floor plan of a school. Whitworth was born male but uses “she/her” pronouns and refers to himself as “Lilly” or “Lily.”

Police were sent to Whitworth’s address after his sister called and claimed that he was punching holes in the wall and had made references to school shootings. According to the affidavit, Whitworth’s sister used “she/her” pronouns to refer to her brother. Police also referred to Whitworth using feminine pronouns in their affidavit, though recorded his sex as “male.”

When police arrived, they found Whitworth drunk in his room, which was littered with filth. The house was in extreme disrepair, and deputies noted that “there was trash piled up all around the house to where it made it hard to walk inside.”

During a search of the premises, authorities discovered a “manifesto” which included the names of several school shooters, as well as additional drawings and floor plans of schools. There were also photos describing a make-shift bomb and detonation device. While speaking to police, Whitworth stated he had gone onto YouTube to learn how to make a detonator for a bomb.

Contained within Whitworth’s notebook was also a list of firearms with 3D printing instructions, and a list of political personalities, including commentator Lauren Southern, with comments.

According to records, there were three schools Whitworth had intended to target, including Timberview Middle School, Prairie Hills Elementary, and Pine Creek High School. While Whitworth confirmed that Timberview was the main target, he also stated he had a desire to attack churches as well.

Initially Whitworth was booked and held on a $75,000 bond. But, while in jail, Whitworth reportedly told a prison official that he still wanted to carry out his plans if bonded out. As a result, his bond was increased to $750,000 in order to make it more difficult for him to leave pretrial detention.

In the press release detailing the plea agreement from the Office of the 18th Judicial District Attorney, Whitworth was referred to by “they/them” pronouns.

Whitworth faces a maximum prison term of 16 years. Sentencing is scheduled for January 19, 2024. His case is part of a worrying trend that has seen an escalation in threats of violence, or actual violence, carried out in US school systems this year.

In November, a trans-identified male was indicted on 14 felony counts following sinister threats to commit a school shooting and murder children “on behalf” of the transgender community. Alexia Willie, born Jason Lee Willie, also promised to rape young girls in public restrooms in retaliation for transphobia.

Court records reveal that Willie threatened to rape young girls in bathroom facilities, in addition to stating his intention to carry out a copy-cat killing of a horrific March shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. During that incident, a trans-identified female left 6 dead, 3 of whom were children aged 9, in an act of brutality that left the nation stunned.

[collapsedsquid]

The Air National Guardsman accused of accessing classified information and posting it in an online forum filed a new motion in court on Monday, asking the judge in his case to treat him like former President Donald Trump and not require he remain in jail until trial. Attorneys for Jack Teixeira, are arguing in the new filing that federal prosecutors made a “reasoned decision not to seek pretrial detention in other espionage cases, including most recently for either former President Donald Trump or his personal aid, Waltine Nauta,” who are also charged under the Espionage Act.

Haven't been keeping up with the man, ballsy (He just revealed he will plead guilty yesterday)

[amberlide]

Post Azkaban Seb canon (kind of, advice appreciated)

The time has come... damn it!

I'm not a Sallow fan, I don't like him for... personal reasons. But! I need to add him in my work, I have no idea how to write him, I'm trying to read something but I'm mostly confused XD So, I made my canons for a post Azkaban Seb.

Do these make sense? Anything to add or consider?

Please, help me >.<" 1 - Having killed his abusive uncle, Seb was sent to Azkaban in pretrial detention for few months.

2- He was acquitted for self-defence.

3- He spent those months in the lowest level of the prison, the one where the less dangerous criminals are held.

4- The lowest level is the most humid; he could hear the raging waves of the sea against the mossy and moldy walls. As a result, he suffers from PTSD and cannot not stand humid, isolated places.

5- In order to survive his detention and not lose his mind, he constantly repeated everything he had learnt during his fifth year. When he went back to Hogwarts, he passed his O.W.L.s with flying colours.

6- He lost one year at Hogwarts.

7- Now he can't sleep in the Slytherin dorm anymore, partly because his roommates don't want to be around him, partly because he cannot stand the cold, the dampness and the sound of the waves of the Black Lake in the common room.

8- He sleeps in the kitchens, where it's warmer, he has plenty of food and there is always someone to keep him company (house elves)

9- He cannot stand the cold anymore; he needs constant light and warmth, always. Even an unexpected splash of water can cause severe PTSD.

10- He has a scar on his wrist since he was marked as prisoner.

If anyone has suggestions, please let me know! :)

[mariacallous]

Meduza: 80 years after deportation for Crimean Tatars

Journalists at iStories spoke to the wife of a jailed Crimean Tatar political activist and a lawyer who defends such activists in Russian court. The article’s publication coincides with the 80th anniversary of the Soviet government’s decision to deport the ethnic group from the peninsula for supposed cooperation with the Nazis. iStories describes how Crimean Tatars struggled to survive the mass expulsion, preserve their culture in exile, and fight for decades to return home. Since annexing the peninsula in 2014, Crimean Tatars have had to rely on their group solidarity again in the face of police raids, the designation of the Noman Çelebicihan volunteer battalion as a terrorist group, and the opening of a second pretrial detention prison in Crimea to accommodate arrested Crimean Tatars and other Ukrainians abducted in other occupied parts of the country.

iStories’ sources say that many in the community fled Crimea during Russia’s wave of “partial mobilization” but later returned. As men among the Crimean Tatar have been jailed for political activism on “terrorism” charges, many of their wives have taken up their work while maintaining a support network and trying to draw public attention to their prosecutions.

[booty-uprooter]

there ya go kiddo that should get you started

[gatheringbones]

[“One afternoon in August 1913, Big Cliff Trondle was hanging out in the back of a café on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, having a smoke, wearing one of his nattiest outfits: a blue serge suit, silk hose, tan oxford shoes, and a newsboy cap. For some unspecified reason, he came to the attention of a passing police detective, who realized he was transgender and arrested him for “masquerading in men’s clothes.”

Prison records are full of “mannish” or “masculine” women, who may have considered themselves “normal,” butch, lesbian, trans, invert, intersex, or something else entirely, but Cliff was the rare early twentieth-century transmasculine person who had the chance to articulate his gender more specifically to the world.

Cliff caused a spectacle in court when he repeatedly refused to give his birth name or change into a dress. On the steps of the courthouse, Cliff told the press, “I’ve always been more boy than girl,” and he sent a letter to President Woodrow Wilson asking for permission to dress that way, though the president doesn’t seem to have ever responded. The first judge to hear Cliff’s case threw out the arrest, accurately noting that it was legal for Cliff to dress however he wanted. Although many people would be arrested for cross-dressing over the course of the twentieth century, the actual 1845 New York State law criminalized “masquerading” only if it was done as a disguise while committing another offense.

Unfortunately, the legality of Cliff’s clothes made no difference. While he was in pretrial detention, a court-appointed probation officer discovered Cliff’s birth name. With that, she found that Cliff was seventeen (not twenty-four as he claimed). He had been thrown out by his well-off family and had passed through a number of institutions for “wayward girls.” The probation officer took it upon herself to ensure that Cliff would be incarcerated and thus, in her eyes, fixed. When the judge threw out his original case, she immediately had Cliff rearrested, this time under a charge of “associating with idle and vicious persons”—aka smoking with men in a café.”]

hugh ryan, the women’s house of detention: a queer history of a forgotten prison, 2022

[faultfalha]

Investigators working for the Russian government have decided to extend the pretrial detention of the Wall Street Journal reporter through November. This comes as no surprise to those familiar with the Kafkaesque nature of the Russian legal system. Sadly, it is clear that the reporter will not be able to return to his home country any time soon.

[zvaigzdelasas]

16 Dec 22

[tieflingkisser]

10 years post-Ferguson, advocates seek prosecutor accountability

Advocates say there’s been little effort by prosecutors to free wrongfully convicted St. Louisans

A coalition of racial justice advocacy groups in St. Louis has quietly issued the first in a series of “Prosecutor Watch” reports on the role and powers of the prosecutor and its function in the local criminal legal system. Prosecutors, the coalition contends, have staggering authority to enact violence on communities. The groups say prosecutors’ offices are structured to prize convictions over truth, and in their pursuit of convictions, “prosecutors regularly abuse their power.” The introductory report gleans insights from more than three years of collective focus by the Prosecutor Organizing Table, which is made up of local decarceration leaders who spend the bulk of their working lives trying to free Black and poor people from the clutches of the carceral state: Action St. Louis, ArchCity Defenders, Forward through Ferguson, Freedom Community Center, MacArthur Justice Center, and Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty. Advocates told Prism there’s been little prosecutorial fervor to free wrongfully convicted St. Louisans, even innocence cases. Children, however, continue to be charged as adults, and poor people are still landing in jail for 200 days or more because they can’t afford cash bail. This human misery has been happening under the watch of “progressive prosecutors” carried to office with a reform mandate on the national wave after the 2014 uprising in Ferguson, Missouri.  To better understand these dynamics, reports evaluating the individual prosecutors’ offices are slated to follow. The next report will focus on Wesley Bell’s office in St. Louis County and the office of St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabriel Gore. Specially appointed by Missouri’s governor, Gore assumed office on May 30, 2023, replacing Kim Gardner, who’d resigned under extreme pressure from state Republicans. Assessments of Bell’s and Gore’s offices will be based on five key metrics fleshed out in the report: transparency, charging decisions, pretrial detention, conviction and sentencing, and commitment to community-based alternatives.  Mike Milton leads Freedom Community Center, which advocates for transformative justice shaped, in part, by survivors of the criminal legal system like himself.  He told Prism convening the Prosecutor Organizing Table in 2020 and publishing the reports in 2024 are fruits of a long-term strategy born in the period between Gardner’s election as St. Louis circuit attorney in 2016 and Bell’s as St. Louis county prosecutor in 2018. “It was a long strategy of ‘how do we fight mass incarceration’ as we came out of the hopes of Ferguson. Ferguson told us there has to be a different way of dealing with incarceration,” Milton said. By the time the Prosecutor Organizing Table began convening, it was clear to Milton that regime changes alone would not move the needle. “We were trying to reach out to him several times. [Bell] just would not respond to us,” Milton said. “He was taking credit for the jail population decrease, but it was actually The Bail Project, my [former] organization, that was posting bail and dropping the jail population, like 200 people a month.” Milton became concerned his work was being undermined. “Bell was still recommending cash bail at that time, and he knew better,” he said. Michelle Smith, the co-director of Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty (MADP), said her organization has barely recovered from the emotional upheaval of the April 9 execution of Brian Dorsey, and the state is already set to kill another Missouri man, David Hosier, on June 11.  Smith rejects any notion of disposable people.  “Right now, I know several people who are wrongfully convicted, not necessarily on death row, but who have strong innocence cases out of St. Louis County,” Smith said. But when family members ask about progress, they’re given pat answers: “‘We’re looking into that, we’ll let you know,’” she said, parroting them.

[keep reading]

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Ann Telnaes, Washington Post :: [h/t Robert Scott Horton]

* * * *

Standing up to Trump's political terrorism.

August 18, 2023

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

          Trump knows that a jury of his peers will convict him in a fair trial. He has therefore resorted to extra-judicial efforts to intimidate and prejudice the jury pool. His efforts are not only extra-judicial, they are undemocratic, thuggish, and illegal. Like a crime lord with feral instincts, Trump knows how to threaten without threatening and brutalize without leaving fingerprints at the scene of the crime. Instead, he grants permission to his followers to violate laws and norms, encouraging them to do the dirty work necessary to defend the indefensible.

          Over the last several days, the breadth and viciousness of Trump’s assault on the legal system became manifest as MAGA extremists attacked the judge and jurors in Trump's various criminal proceedings. Before reviewing the latest insults to the rule of law, let’s skip to the end to discuss the solution: We must recognize that Trump is engaged in political terrorism designed to frighten good people who are the backbone of democracy. We cannot let that happen. The solution is not to shrink in fear, but to swell in numbers, strengthen our resolve, and dispel the exaggerated fears created by a skulk of cowards who hide in internet shadows.

          In America, there is an ever-present risk of violence that cannot be entirely dismissed. Law enforcement and prosecutors should, therefore, vigorously pursue and prosecute the small, frightened, impotent cultists who threaten jurors, judges, and prosecutors. But we must recognize that the business model of political terrorism is for a few individuals to instill outsized and unwarranted fear in the masses. Recognizing that truth should allow us to keep in perspective the fact that a few thousand online pseudo-terrorists vanish to nothingness compared to 335 million Americans.  

          America is bigger than Trump and his minions. We should not cower in fear but should pursue justice with confidence and righteousness. We are protecting the Constitution and our system of laws. We cannot fail in that task—and there is nothing that cowards with keyboards can do to deter us.

          Against that background, let’s look at the events on the ground.

          Abigail Jo Shry of Alvin, Texas, threatened Judge Tanya Chutkan in a voicemail message that began with racial slurs and ended with threats of violence. Shry was quickly questioned, arrested, and charged in federal court. The magistrate ordered that she remain in pretrial detention for at least 30 days pending a determination of her danger to the community. That is type of federal response that will deter future threats.

          At Shry’s detention hearing, her father provided background on Abigail Shry’s threats:

Her father, Mark Shry, testified at her detention hearing and said his daughter is a “non-violent alcoholic,” according to the court filing. [Her father] testified, “that she sits on her couch daily watching the news while drinking too many beers. She then becomes agitated by the news and starts calling people and threatening them.” Her father said, “his daughter never leaves her residence and therefore would not act upon her threats.”

          There have also been threats against members of the Fulton County grand jury that indicted Trump and eighteen other defendants on RICO charges. See NYTimes, Officials Investigate Threats Against Trump Grand Jurors in Georgia (accessible to all). The Fulton County sheriff issued an anodyne statement acknowledging the threats and stating that the sheriff was investigating. (The statement said the sheriff was “aware of online threats against grand jurors and was working with other agencies to track down their origin.”)

          A stronger statement from the sheriff and the quick arrest of several perpetrators would go some distance to damping the false bravado of other beer-fueled couch terrorists. A stronger reaction is necessary because the online threats are directed not only against the grand jurors, but future jurors who will preside over Trump’s criminal trials.

          But there is more.

          Trump released a video in which he attacked special prosecutor Jack Smith as a “deranged lowlife” for obtaining Trump's Twitter feed. See Forbes, Trump Attacks Jack Smith For Gaining Access To His Old Twitter Account. This is the type of statement that should cause Judge Tanya Chutkan to remand Trump into custody. At the very least, the statement should be added to the list of offenses that will finally cause Trump to be detained pending trial.

          Detaining Trump before tria is not only inevitable but also necessary. Trump's continued attacks are having a corrosive effect that seeps into the nooks and crannies of the justice system everywhere. Many readers have commented on the raid on a Kansas newspaper because of efforts by the newspaper to report on the failure of local police to enforce DUI laws against a local businessman. Based on a questionable search warrant issued by a local magistrate, police seized computers, cell phones, and files—a gross violation of federal protections granted to members of the news media.

          The public outcry and obvious illegality of the seizure forced the police to return the seized items and the local prosecutor to withdraw the questionable warrant due to 'insufficient evidence’. But the question remains, “How could this happen? How is it that local police and magistrate could ignore constitutional and statutory protections for the press?” Some of the sordid answers are detailed in this investigative piece by The Wichita Eagle, Judge Laura Viar, who approved newspaper raid, has DUI arrests.  

          Apart from the local magistrate’s questionable potential bias due to her own history of DUI troubles, another answer is that the police and magistrate are modeling themselves after a national GOP in which the rule of law is an impediment to power. In short, they thought they could get away with trampling the Constitution. Fortunately, they were wrong—and will likely be charged with crimes and serve time in jail. As should Trump.

          If Americans see that Trump is punished for his attacks on the justice system pending trial, others will realize that they, too, must respect the justice system. We owe the Constitution nothing less.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]