A 73% Failure to Appear at Arraingment Hearings, PTR = Soft on Crime

 

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IN THIS ISSUE:          Click Here For Previous Newsletter Archives  Click Here to Sign Up for the Sooner Tea Party Email List  Forward this email to a friend Click on the link below to donateand tell us what you want your donation used for in the comment section  Sooner Tea Party Donations     November 25th 2018 Newsletter Defendants or Meal Tickets? And a 73% Failure to Appear Rate on the Arraignment Docket The criminal justice system is a mess in Oklahoma, no doubt about that. Crime is up, we have more career criminals than at any time in our history, and more and more private and non profit companies have their snout in the trough and are making money off both the taxpayer and the criminals. It used to be that breaking the law cost you money. After arrest you had to come up with bond money, 10% of what your bond was set at by the judge. The bread and butter of the bail industry was the $5000.00 appearance bond, costing the defendant $500.00 with the bondsman risking $5000.00 that he could keep track of the defendant and see him appear in court. Then the lawyer wanted a retainer of course and generally you are looking at several thousand dollars for a minor offense on up to tens of thousands of dollars for serious charges that might lead to an actual trial. Then after the conviction there are hundreds if not thousands of dollars in fines and fees paid to the court system. The majority of criminals down at the local jail are being held for trial and are unable to pay a bond. Not a lot of people in the lower class and working class will have bail money sitting in a bank somewhere so the majority have co signers with a house or other assets as collateral. It sounds harsh for grandma to put up her home as security but it does ensure that the rest of the family is looking out for her interests and are working to make sure the defendant goes to court hearings. The same goes for lawyers, many are taking payment plans as few have that kind of money sitting in the bank. No doubt, crime is big business. We spend about a half billion per year incarcerating prisoners, between a few thousand for someone out on parole or a deferred sentence up to $78,000 per year for the worst of the worst in a maximum security prison. There has been a movement on the last five or ten years, or at least it has accelerated in the last five or ten years, to eliminate private bail bondsmen and private attorneys through the use of OR bonds, Own Recognizance bonds and pre trial release programs. OR bonds are simply where a defendant promises to show up in court. If he skips town, no one is looking for them, no one has any skin in the game. Eventually they might get picked up on another crime and be returned to face judgment. This sort bond makes sense for a person with deep roots in the community, someone sure to appear, then again if they run society isn't sure of getting them back to face judgment. Pre trial release programs are generally private or non profit programs that the court gives permission for them to watch over a defendant, provide services, and attempt to get the defendant back to court dates. These are rarely if ever free, it can cost a defendant as much as $300.00 per month to be out on pre trial release. Some pre trial release conditions make sense, constant drug testing, counseling, anger management programs, but all cost the defendant and sometimes the bills pile up. It is not unusual for a defendant to be in debt to the pre trial release program to the tune of thousands of dollars and when the do not pay the PTR notifies the court and a warrant is issued to revoke the defendant's bail. Then there are the economics of the deal, paying $500.00 in private bail up front versus paying $100.00 per month for months on end while waiting for trail. It is not unusual for defendants to have to waive the speedy trial rules and wait over a year while waiting for a trial. Worse, many of these PTR programs impose community service as part of their requirements. You are basically “hired” out to a private business or government program to do labor. And it isn't just defendants awaiting trial, many of the suspended sentences or deferred sentences come with the requirement to participate in these post conviction programs that monitor your life. The PTR program benefits handsomely hiring out labor or charging the “client” $10.00 per hour for each hour of public service not performed. Generally 100 hours of community service are added as a condition of a suspended or deferred sentence, a $1000.00 bonus for the PTR company. Many of the suspended or deferred sentences come with the requirement of two, even three years monitoring by one of these PTR companies. It adds to the burden of paying the court fines and fees, which can be set as low as $10.00 per month but are generally around $40.00 to $50.00 per month. The PTR companies can be private businesses like the Oklahoma Court Services company or “non profits” like the TEEM program ran by former Speaker Kris Steele. And the non profits can generate hundreds of thousands in additional funding through donations and grants from various government program. But the profit motive and the desire to build their empire means that the cost of these programs are ever increasing. Look at the TEEM data below showing the amount coming from the defendants. IT went from a modest $55,000 per year average take from the defendants in 2012 and 2013, dropping to ony $30,000 per year in 2014, then skyrocketed to ten to fifteen times that amount in 2015, and up to 16 to 28 times that amount in 2016. What you are seeing is being sold as making it easier for ex cons to re enter society or defendants avoiding losing everything while awaiting trial. It comes at a huge cost though, indentured service to a non profit or private company and thousands of dollars in fees over the cost had the defendant simply paid private bond. But what is the impact on failure to appear rates and the number of crimes committed while awaiting trail? We all know of the huge rate of failure to appear on immigration charges, upwards of 70% of the released illegal immigrants never show up for their court hearings. There are around one million deportation orders already unfilled and we are adding around 25,000 new cases every year thanks to the lack of bail for immigration cases. By comparison, state court felonies average around 30%, three out of ten do no appear in court both those out on bail and out through OR or pre trial release. When you consider just the OR and PTR the rates skyrocket. One experiment in eliminating cash or private bail resulted in a 71% increase in failure to appear cases. Granted these were largely misdemeanor crimes but it does show the loss of respect for the court and justice system. Oklahoma City failure to appear rates from the PTR and OR programs are more than that. Looking at one arraignment sheet from ONE judge for one day, October 24d, we have four PTR defendants and all four refused to appear in court at their arraignment. Keep in mind that everyone that walks in off the street at arraignment is going to walk right back out again as it is just a reading of the charges. The day before on October 23rd three our of four PTR defendants refused to show up. Skipping a few weeks forward we have November the 16th where 4 or the 7 PTR defendants showed up. Those three days averaged 11 out of 15 PTR defendants not showing up for court or a 73% failure to appear rate. Looking at the link a few paragraphs above this is not out of the ordinary for Pre Trial Release programs. And what is the cost to the criminal justice system for each failure to appear? Studies put the cost between $1200.00 and $1700.00 per failure to appear as court time is wasted, costs are incurred for issuing new arrest warrants, and defendants are charged with additional criminal charges for failing to appear. The problem is more than just this one issue, PTR defendants refusing to show up for court. Another huge problem are the massive numbers of arrests that have no charges filed, and indication of either sloppy police work or the District Attorney turning loose hundreds of criminals each month. We will cover that in another upcoming story.

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Crime Rate Dropping?

November 18^th, 2018 Newsletter

Too Many in Prison?

Try Selling that When the Crime Rate Drops in Oklahoma

Oklahoma #1 in incarceration we are told by articles like this one. To get there these liberal activist groups compute everyone in some sort of confinement including the juvenile facilities, U.S. Marshall detainees, ICE, sex offenders living in the compounds set aside for them after serving a prison sentence, psychiatric hospitals, and all city and county jails in addition to the state prisons and private prisons. Many of the inmates are not Oklahoma cases but are being held for other jurisdictions. The claim is that over 1% of all Oklahomans are incarcerated is more than a bit inflated.

The real number is around three quarters of one percent of the population. We have around 28,000 prison beds. Around 1700 of these are maximum security prisons. Another 13,000 are medium security prisoners, and around 8700 are minimum security prisoners. Around 3000 are in county jails.

About 17,000 of these prisoners are in state run prisons, 6000 are in private prisons, and the rest are community ran centers or halfway houses.

FBI Probing Brian Maughan?

FBI Probing Brian Maughan?

Or so they say... Maughan is the Oklahoma County Commissioner that has ran the SHINE program, a non profit group that uses low level offenders to do local community work. Maughan was sued in April by a former employee/consultant that alleged that checks were being funneled into Maughan's personal checking account. SHINE stands for Start Helping Impacted Neighborhoods Everywhere which is ran by a board as a non profit geared to fix up declining neighborhoods.

The lawsuit focuses on rent paid for office space at the non profit's building, allegedly rented out to other businesses with the rent checks going into Brian Maughan's checking account. One story mentions the benefit concerts that Maughan was said to been promoting.

Comrade Kannady In the Dog House?

Comrade Kannady in the Dog House?

The Oklahoman Editorial staff cranked a blistering rebuke against State Representative Chris Kannady last week. The editorial took Kannady to task for double talk and basically called him a hypocrite for attacking other Republicans over policy disputes while loudly crying they were a cancer in the caucus. The editorial also rightly pointed out that words were twisted, claiming that some of the Republicans being attacked had supported Obama Care and in fact three of the bills listed in the attack mailers were widely supported with in once case the only dissenting vote being a Democrat.

This is not news to readers of the Sooner Tea Party newsletter. Kannaday did indeed funnel nearly three quarters of a million dollars into attacking the conservative state reps. To accomplish his goal he flat out lied about their voting records, calling them liberal in some cases. Kannady lied about the military service record of one state rep.

Republican Speaker Pro Temp Funnels Money To Democrat Campaign

Harold Wright, House GOP Pro Tem

Funds Attempt to Turn Republican Senate District Blue

Amazingly this yoyo was reelected pro tem of the House of Representatives AFTER the bulk of the new legislators learned of Wright's donations to the Democrat opponent in the old Mike Shulz Senate District. Now Shultz was the Senate Pro Tem, why would House Leadership allow Wright to attack the Republican trying to replace Shultz?

Wright earned an 8 on the 2018 Oklahoma Platform Index. His bad votes can be found at the House District 57 page on Okhd.org. He got 17.5 votes out of 20 votes wrong. Harold Wright actually helped fund the Democrat opponent of incoming Republican Senator Brent Howard with his personal donation of $1000 along with other family members that contributed to the Democrat in that race.

Lying Tom's Head On A Stick

Lying Tom's Head on a Stick

  The HD 2 race down in Sequoyah County was close but the conservative Republican made it with 500 votes to spare. Stites lost mainly because of the stolen valor issue according to the locals, more than enough had had it with the lies and crossed party lines to support Jim Olson the Republican.

  The fight was bitter and several felons were caught voting, Tom Stites' supporters. No doubt the scene will be repeated in 2020 as Stites seems to have an obsession with winning that seat no matter the cost or consequences.

The Fate Of The State Questions

The State Questions

One out of five made it, the one called Marsy's law, passing by 78%. We weren't supportive of it, giving criminals equal rights is bad and much of the expanded rights for victims has already been around a while. It was well financed and packaged so the public bought it.

SQ793 was a surprise. The opponents, mostly eye doctors, put a lot of money and misdirection into the ads opposing the issue. Yes, it would have allowed eye exams to run in two veins, one full service exam and one just the basic without the medical part. Still, most people just want a prescription so they can order contacts or eye glasses online and one would think that choice is a good thing.

SQ 798 was the one that allowed two clowns to run as a ticket, Governor and Lt. Governor. No loss there.

SQ 800 was another good call by the voters, another pork barrel plan pushed by the Chamber of Commerce to siphon off GPT money into a slush fund.

SQ 801 was complicated. It allowed local school districts to basically fund more of the load of public education. That would have taken pressure off the state taxes and allowed localities to tax themselves into poverty, something that the voters were probably more afraid of than higher state taxes.

Steve Russell: The Biggest Loser In Oklahoma

Steve Russell, The Biggest Loser in Oklahoma

The biggest loser in the election Tuesday night was incumbent GOP Steve Russell. Russell didn't have a lot of support other than the crazy Charlie Meadows crowd. He had offended many with his votes, a lackluster support of Trump offended even more, and Russell had always been known for his arrogance and his condescending attitude. Few other than the Charlie Meadow religious bigots really liked the man.

But it was a surprise that Russell lost to Kendra Horn, the Democrat candidate for Congressional District 5. The other incumbents won easily, Russell narrowly lost to an avowed socialist.

Worse, Russell was one of the many Congressional GOP losses that handed the House to the Democrats who will use that power to attempt to strangle Trump's agenda. In that, the biggest loser is going to be the average American.

The Election, the Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

 

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IN THIS ISSUE:          Click Here For Previous Newsletter Archives  Click Here to Sign Up for the Sooner Tea Party Email List  Forward this email to a friend Click on the link below to donateand tell us what you want your donation used for in the comment section  Sooner Tea Party Donations November 11th 2018 Newsletter Just How Many Teachers Were Elected and How Much Power do the Teachers Wield? I don't think anyone can agree on that. The OEA claims 65 educators ran for office and sixteen were elected plus another nine that won in the primary or ran unopposed. They claim there are 25 education caucus members this session. Other organizations like the Frontier.com believes the numbers are more modest, 38 teachers ran and 10 were elected but that Stitt beat Edmondson handily with 143,000 votes. Edmondson was the teacher's favorites and Stitt said he would have vetoed the teacher raise had he been governor. The four state representatives that voted against the tax increases and that were still in the race after the primary all won on Tuesday night all survived easily. Eight conservatives had been taken out in the primaries by Comrade Kannady and that many more had been term limited out or chose not to run for re election. In all the Republicans picked up a few seats in the House and lost about the same number in the Senate.

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Cornett's True Colors

CORNETT'S TRUE COLORS

From a guest columnist

Mick Cornett didn't take long to show his true liberal colors following the Republican run-off for governor where tried to convince voters he is a conservative. Cornett has endorsed a left-wing Democrat candidate known as "Nikki Nice", who is running against a true conservative candidate Kirk Pankratz for Ward 7 Oklahoma City Council.

Nikki Nice's legal name is Alberta Nicole Swanegan Owens. Nice/Owens has been an on-air radio personality and says she has heard from citizens regarding the needs in Ward 7. She is 38 years old and lives with her mother. Her website shows her focus will be on strengthening relationships with community agencies that provide services to citizens.

The State Questions For Tuesday

The State Questions for Tuesday

We in the Tea Party are not fans of State Questions for the most part. They give the legislators an out, a way of avoiding doing what should be done, and frankly few voters know enough about the topics to cast a reasonably informed vote especially with the propaganda thrown their way. But they are on the ballot and we need to talk about them so that our readers are informed if needed.

SQ 793 the Ballot Language:
 

This measure adds a new Section 3 to Article 20 of the Oklahoma Constitution. Under the new Section, no law shall infringe on optometrists' or opticians' ability to practice within a retail mercantile establishment, discriminate against optometrists or opticians based on the location of their practice, or require external entrances for optometric offices within retail mercantile establishments. No law shall infringe on retail mercantile establishments' ability to sell prescription optical goods and services.

Democrat Politician Sees A Lot of 'Hitlers'

HD 2 Candidate Compares Those Against Him to Hitler and Goebbels

Ah, that point in every argument or debate when someone pulls out the Hitler bomb, comparing your side as bad as Adolf Hitler, as sure sign that they have lost the debate and are grasping at anything. It is called Godwin's Law, the likelihood that if any discussion goes on long enough someone will trot out Hitler.

And so it was last week in response to a Facebook ad campaign against Lying Tom Stites, the Democrat running for the old John Bennett House seat. Lying Tom had gotten caught elaborating and embellishing his brief military career, consisting of a few years at the Air Force Academy and one year at a private prep school on the grounds of the Academy to get his grades up high enough for entry. Stites embellished a mock POW training event that lasted around 36 hours in the field, one that didn't allow hitting or striking of the cadets, and was run by other cadets. Stites morphed that into days and days, into the next week he claimed, of punishment in a 3 x 3 x 4 "box" and being "slightly" slapped around, even mentioning John McCain in his Facebook post.

Edmondson's Ruthless, Cold, Calculating, & Paranoid Mind

Drew Edmondson, Ruthless, Cold, Calculating, and Paranoid

We have already told you some of the many ugly stories associated with Drew Edmondson in the last week's newsletter. Now for another story right from a man that worked closely with Edmondson in the A.G. Office.

A website called Hate Trackers published a story stating that they were in possession of a document from a Walter Jenny Jr., who worked for Edmondson at the A.G. Office and served as the secretary of the Democrat Party at that time. Jenny was said to have written that Edmondson was:

"…a cold, calculating, and ruthless political operative who saw conspiracies and enemies where none existed."

This document was dated June 12^th, 2010, right before the primary for the Governor's race. Edmondson was up against then Lt. Gov. Jari Askins. Fallin won the general but it was clear what Jenny thought of his former boss. Below is what the document is reported as stating:

Kannady Sees Conservatism As A Cancer

November 4^th 2018 Newsletter

Rep. Chris Kannady Trashing American on Russian TV

Conservative Values a "Cancer to be Cut Out" According to Comrade Chris Kannady

The fact that Representative Chris Kannaday, AKA Comrade Kannaday for his work on Russian TV attacking the U.S., was responsible for the funding of the take down of many of the conservative Republicans has been exposed since right after the run off elections. The Associated Press did a story after their Capitol reporter Sean Murphy had read one of our articles on the dark money attacks funneled by Kannaday with the support of House leadership. Shortly after that we had heard of a New York Times reporter that was contacting many of the conservative and working on a second story.

That story came out last week and for the New York Times it was a good story that told pretty much what went down. There were some misrepresentations. George Faught, billed as a "hard line" republican, attacked by a RINO Republican in the primary as "working to expand Obama Care" and "not being a true conservative" is actually a fairly moderate Republican. Part of this is by necessity, representing a district that had always been Democrat, asking Faught to be the poster child of the Republican Party would have been a short lived affair. Faught did what he could, no doubt he was as conservative as he could be.

Capitol Sex Harassment

Sexual Predators Don't Always Look Like This, Some Wear Suits

And Speaking of Dirt Bags

What is Going On With the

Sexual Harassment Case?

We are in a quandary on that story as one of the victims has been intimidated and is fearful of retaliation and retribution.  The quandary is do we run the story when the witness is afraid of retaliation and leave two dirt bags free to sexually harass even more women or do we burn the victim by reporting the crimes and by extension burning a source.

The victim that is nervous about coming forward isn't powerless and has a responsibility to report these crimes and stop these two dirt bags.