Pre Trial Release Program Employees Forging a Judges' Signature?
"Bullshit, this is bullshit, I didn't sign this! This is my signature but I didn't sign it"
was heard during an outburst from Special Judge Kevin McCray in Oklahoma County during the arraignment docket. The McCray was referring to a release on a defendant on criminal charges in Oklahoma County bearing his name.
Then McCray went on to accuse county pre trial release employees of some plot to issue illegal releases with his signature and stated from the bench "Someone is going to jail for a very long time."
Title 22 of Oklahoma statute allows for establishing and funding a pretrial release program. Further stating persons accused of or detained for any of the following offenses shall not be eligible for pretrial release by any pretrial program unless signed by an order of a District Judge or Associate District Judge. Special Judges are NOT listed and the Office of Attorney General has offered an opinion concerning a Special Judges ability to legally sign a release on these charges.
Excluded offenses from Pre Trial Release programs:
1105.3
1. Aggravated driving under the influence of an intoxicating substance;
2. Any felony driving under the influence of an intoxicating substance;
3. Any offense prohibited by the Trafficking In Illegal Drugs Act;
4. Any person having a violent felony conviction within the past ten (10) years;
5. Appeal bond;
6. Arson in the first degree, including attempts to commit arson in the first degree;
7. Assault and battery on a police officer;
8. Bail jumping;
9. Bribery of a public official;
10. Burglary in the first or second degree;
11. Civil contempt proceedings;
12. Distribution of a controlled dangerous substance, including the sale or possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute or conspiracy to distribute;
13. Domestic abuse, domestic assault or domestic assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, or domestic assault and battery with a deadly weapon;
14. Driving under the influence of intoxicating substance where property damage or personal injury occurs;
15. Felony discharging a firearm from a vehicle;
16. Felony sex offenses;
17. Fugitive bond or a governor's fugitive warrant;
18. Immigration charges;
19. Kidnapping;
20. Juvenile or youthful offender detention;
21. Manslaughter;
22. Manufacture of a controlled dangerous substance;
23. Murder in the first degree, including attempts or conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree;
24. Murder in the second degree, including attempts or conspiracy to commit murder in the second degree;
25. Negligent homicide;
26. Out-of-county holds;
27. Persons currently on pretrial release who are arrested on a new felony offense;
28. Possession, manufacture, use, sale or delivery of an explosive device;
29. Possession of a controlled dangerous substance on Schedule I or II of the Controlled Dangerous Substances Act;
30. Possession of a firearm or other offensive weapon during the commission of a felony;
31. Possession of a stolen vehicle;
32. Rape in the first degree, including attempts to commit rape in the first degree;
33. Rape in the second degree, including attempts to commit rape in the second degree;
34. Robbery by force or fear;
35. Robbery with a firearm or dangerous weapon, including attempts to commit robbery with a firearm or dangerous weapon;
36. Sexual assault or violent offenses against children;
37. Shooting with intent to kill;
38. Stalking or violation of a Victim Protection Order;
39. Two or more prior felony convictions; or
40. Unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
Oklahoma County Commissioners decided that this list of offenses didn't fit their needs and decided to write their own list in March of 2008, titled "Mandatory Exclusionary Crime List for OR and Conditional Bond" with a subsection titled "Discretionary Crimes List". The Commissioners did add that only a District Judge or Associate District Judge can sign these releases. Ten years later and the Oklahoma County Commissioners, Bob Ravitz the head public defender, David Prater Oklahoma County District Attorney and many of the Oklahoma County Judges are still insisting that this way of doing business is A OK.
How about we all write up a list of laws we don't want to follow?
What about the charges on the state law and not on the made up list by the Oklahoma County Commissioners? Are these offenses left out of the Oklahoma County list just given a get out of jail free card?
The list of felonies left out of the exclusionary list by Oklahoma County Commissioners:
- Any person having a violent felony conviction within the past ten (10) years
- Convicted Felons appealing their conviction and needing an Appeal bond;
- Civil contempt proceedings where a litigant is refusing to respect the judge and comply;
- Driving under the influence of intoxicating substance where property damage or personal injury occurs
- Felony sex offenses;
- Fugitive bond or a governor's fugitive warrant;
- Manslaughter;
- Manufacture of a controlled dangerous substance;
- Negligent homicide;
- Possession, manufacture, use, sale or delivery of an explosive device;
- Possession of a controlled dangerous substance on Schedule I or II of the Controlled Dangerous Substances Act
- Possession of a stolen vehicle;
- Robbery by force or fear
- Stalking or violation of a Victim Protection Order;
- Two or more prior felony convictions;
- Unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
Some offenses are egregious enough to have a different statute, one would assume to set it aside from the pretrial rules that allow persons to be released from jail without being required to post a bond. Examples of this are the charges of Human trafficking and anyone who would aid, abet, or participate in the doing of any of the acts involved in human trafficking are prohibited from being released on Own Recognizance or OR.
Bail, by sufficient sureties, may be admitted upon all arrests for violations of Sections
Titles 21
1028 Prostitution - Maintaining House - Transporting Person
1029 Engaging in or Soliciting Prostitution - Residing or Remaining in Place for Prohibited Purpose - Aiding, Abetting, or Participating in Prohibited Acts - Child Prostitution - Human Trafficking
1030 Definitions of these specific offenses of prostitution
1081 Pandering Offense Defined – Penalty
We decided to take a look at what is going on with these releases and what this Special Judge may be concerned with. What we found is disturbing.
Shaquan Shananae Miles CF-16-6379
Court records show Miles was arraigned in custody on August 8, 2016 on a charge of Human Trafficking and the bond was set at $200,000. Miles is already a convicted felon. Texas DOC records show a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on April 17, 2012. She was sentenced on August 16, 2012.
Detectives wrote this note on the bottom of the probable cause affidavit :
"During the course of this investigation your affiant has learned that Carey Holt and Shaquan Miles are willing to travel to out of state for the purposes of prostitution and recruiting. Due to the fact that the victim has traveled from Iowa to Texas and then to Oklahoma for prostitution shows the ability for the suspects involved to flee. On Carey Holt's Facebook page he has pictures of himself in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. Shaquan Miles states on her Facebook that she lives in Texas. Due to the severity of the crime it is believed that these suspects will likely flee the jurisdiction of the court once they realize they are being investigated."
After numerous court appearances the charge was reduced to Accessory to pandering by the Oklahoma County DA office, by law still not eligible for an OR yet was released on OR signed by Special Judge Larry Shaw on December 12, 2016. Miles did not even make one appearance in court after the release failing to appear on January 18, 2017 and not seen in court again until arraigned on December 20, 2017. Judge Troung released her this time with another pinky promise to appear and a steep cash bond of $100. Miles did come court on January 30, 2018.
CF-2017-6601 Rachel Ghezelayagh is already a convicted felon with charges of unauthorized use of a vehicle in 1998, possession of controlled dangerous substance in the presence of a child under 12 in 2006 and possession of controlled dangerous substance and DUI in 2010. On October 11, 2017 she was arrested for Possession of controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute HEROIN and possession of proceeds a violation of the drug act. On October 17, 2017 Special Judge Kevin McCray signed her release on conditional bond even though by law he cannot, he is not a District Judge. Rachel violated her conditional bond at least five times before she failed to appear in court on December 14, 2017. She might have had a good reason for fleeing though as she was the victim in a home invasion and was sent to the hospital with multiple gun shot wounds around September 8th. The criminal had multiple open felony cases on her OSCN.net search record. A warrant was issued for her arrest on December 15th but of course there is no bondsman to chase her down.
Phillip Michael Warren CF-17-5132
Arrested for Felon in possession of a firearm. OCPD officers were working an accident and heard gun shots coming from the apartment complex at 6101 S Klein, During the interview Warren admitted he took the gun and hid it in his apartment. The weapon was hidden in the ceiling of the bathroom. Warrens prior convictions include possession of contraband in a penal institution, copper stealing and burglary II. He was released at the request of the pretrial release program and approved by Special Judge Mark McCormick on August 11, 2017. Court records show Warren failed to comply with the conditions of his release and a violation report was sent to District Judge Henderson who issued a warrant for his arrest on August 24, 2017. Warren failed to appear for his scheduled court date of August 31, 2017 and is still on the run at this time.
Destiny Yeingst was charged with Burglary II in CF-2017-5100 and was released without any conditions on September 8, 2017 by Special Judge Hall. Yeingst failed to appear in court on October 6, 2017.
He was arrested the very next day, October 7, 2017 for possession of a stolen vehicle in CF-17-6560.
A release was issued on both cases November 2, 2017 to the supervision of the TEEM pretrial release initiative program by Special Judge Mark McCormick.
District Judge Troung issued a warrant for Yeingst arrest for failing to comply with TEEM on November 22, 2017. December 8, 2017 Yeingst was arrested by OCPD for unauthorized use of a vehicle. Yeingst is currently in the Oklahoma County Jail and will be back in court on February 12, 2018.
Deshawn Moore was arrested when Edmond Police were dispatched to the 7-Eleven in regards to strong armed robbery. Oklahoma County case number CF-17-7168 shows a charge of robbery by two or more persons. Moore was released from the jail on OR for obstructing an officer. On January 25, 2018 Judge Troung issued a court minute stating the defendant was released in error and set a bond of $10,000. A bondsman posted a bond for Moore and he was released from the jail.
We have obtained information about the releases from August, September and October of 2017. Very close to half have already failed to appear and many are being provided with a public defender.
We also wondered what happens when these folks fail to appear in court. Is anyone out there looking for them or are they just running around committing other offenses on the OR list?
We found statute that requires the District Court Clerk to maintain the records of all of the releases as an obligation to pay the amount forfeited. Guess we better find out if the court clerks are keeping track.
1108.1
A. Own recognizance bonds set in a penal amount shall be posted by executing an own recognizance indenture contract which shall be executed and maintained by the district court clerk. The indenture shall constitute an inchoate obligation to pay in the event forfeiture proceedings are commenced and result in a final order of forfeiture by the authorizing and issuing judge of the district court.
B. Setting aside of forfeitures shall be governed by the same rules and procedures applicable to cash, property or surety bonds, provided that if the forfeiture is set aside, the district court shall exempt from forfeiture set aside all reasonable costs of recovery to return the defendant to custody, and an administrative fee to be retained by the court fund in a sum not to exceed ten percent (10%) of the total penal bond amount plus all costs incurred in processing the forfeiture proceeding to include costs of notices, warrants, service and execution.
C. The final judgment of forfeiture shall constitute a judgment enforceable through all procedures available for the collection of a civil judgment, provided that the judgment shall be considered a debt in the nature of defalcation as defined by the United States Bankruptcy Code, and shall not be subject to other forms of debtor relief. The judgment shall be subject to collection as costs in the underlying action regardless of final disposition or determination of guilt.
D. The district attorney or the Administrator of the District Court Cost Collection Division as determined by administration order in each judicial district shall initiate the forfeiture action and collection of forfeitures and shall receive one-third (1/3) of all sums collected from the ten percent (10%) premium, not to include costs as defined in subsection B of this section, to offset the costs of administering the program.
