Thread by @bmorecourtwatch

Bail reviews will start shortly. Here’s our thread from Friday while you wait:

https://twitter.com/bmorecourtwatch/status/1337393983585136642

Today in Baltimore City Circuit Court bail reviews: Judge Sampson is presiding. ASAs Lapolla and Ramirez will represent the state for most of the docket.

CASE 1: a teenager with asthma who has contracted COVID in jail. He adamantly denies the allegations against him. Pretrial recommends HWOB. ASA Lapolla recites allegations as facts. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Sampson orders HWOB.

CASE 2: a man with a baby at home. There is no evidence tying him to the charges, which he adamantly denies. Pretrial recommends HWOB. ASA Lapolla recites allegations as facts. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Sampson orders HWOB.

CASE 3: a woman with two children at home. She pled guilty, but her sentencing is pending the trial of a codefendant. She's been in jail for 18 months, which is more time than she would spend in jail under the agreement. She's asking for home detention until her sentencing.

ASA Seidel says the state opposes this, despite the sentence they are themselves asking for. The woman is present by videoconference from the jail and wants to speak. Sampson interrupts and says he wants to address everyone about something. Here we go.

He says he doesn't want to hear about anyone's children, because if they have a criminal record, they don't care about their kids, and telling him about children puts him in the position of "caring more about your children than you did."

This man is unfathomably disgusting.

The woman briefly addresses the court but it's hard to hear what she's saying. Sampson says this is another judge's case and he's not going to change anything, orders HWOB.

CASE 4: a teenager who was a passenger in a car being driven by an adult relative when cops stopped and searched it. Pretrial recommends ROR. ASA Boucher recites the cops' tale as fact. State is seeking HWOB but asks if judge releases him, to order 24/7 lockdown.

Judge Sampson orders ROR with pretrial services supervision.

CASE 5: a man with small children at home. The case sounds overcharged. Pretrial recommends HWOB. An ASA whose name we didn't catch (she is from another jurisdiction and has been specially assigned to this for some reason) recites allegations as facts. State is seeking HWOB.

(Someone calls in erroneously and Sampson gets mad at the interruption and starts yelling "KICK THEM OFF. NOW." at... someone...? Not clear who is supposed to do this or how.)

Judge Sampson orders private home detention/monitoring.

CASE 6: a young man who is in jail for allegedly violating his probation because he incurred a new charge. The new charge has been dismissed so only the VOP is holding him. Pretrial recommends private home detention/monitoring.

ASA Ramirez recites allegations as facts. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Sampson orders private home detention/monitoring.

CASE 7: a man who is in jail for allegedly violating probation bc he incurred a new charge in another jurisdiction. The complaining witness in the new charge recanted. A judge in the other jurisdiction ordered ROR for the new charge but he's still held in the city on the VOP.

He has medical conditions. Pretrial recommends private home detention/monitoring. ASA Ramirez recites allegations as facts. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Sampson orders private home detention/monitoring.

CASE 8: a young man who has been in jail for several months for allegedly violating his probation because he incurred a new charge. He has a defense-of-others defense for the new charge, which is supported by video evidence. He has asthma.

Pretrial recommends private home detention/monitoring. ASA Ramirez recites allegations as facts. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Sampson orders private home detention/monitoring.

CASE 9: a young man who has been wildly overcharged in a case where cops found him having a probable mental health crisis. Pretrial recommends private home detention/monitoring. ASA Lapolla says state will agree to this. Judge Sampson orders same.

CASE 10: a man with asthma who has been in jail for almost 15 months. He has children at home. He has asthma. Pretrial recommends private home detention/monitoring. ASA Boucher recites the cops' tale as fact. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Sampson orders HWOB.

CASE 11: a young man who has been in jail for more than 6 months for allegedly violating his probation bc he incurred a new charge in a case where the complaining witness is also charged. Pretrial recommends HWOB. ASA Ramirez recites allegations as facts. State is seeking HWOB.

Judge Sampson orders HWOB.

CASE 12: a young man who has been on private, paid home detention for 6 months. The fees are creating a significant financial strain for his family. He is asking to have his status modified to ROR with pretrial services supervision. Pretrial defers to the court.

ASA Ramirez recites allegations as facts. State opposes the modification. Judge Sampson orders ROR with pretrial services supervision.

CASE 13: a man with three children. He has been in jail most of 2020 on a case where several of his charges have been nolle pros'ed most of his codefendants have been given some type of pretrial release. It is possible his trial is a year or more away.

Pretrial recommends HWOB. ASA Cardin recites allegations as facts. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Sampson says "the court does not believe any change is necessary" and orders HWOB.

CASE 14: a young woman who is alleged to have violated the conditions of her release - she is on home detention and had to leave the house due to an emergency with her child. Defense atty asks judge to quash the warrant. Pretrial defers to the court.

Judge Sampson says she has to turn herself in on the warrant before he will hear it, and that "chances are excellent" he will release her, but he won't quash the warrant. So she has to go to jail before he will consider letting her out of jail.

Ridiculous.

CASE 15: a teenager who is alleged to have violated the conditions of her home detention. Defense atty asks judge to quash the warrant. Sampson says the same thing as in the last case. She has to turn herself in and "chances are I'll probably release her."

Sampson is requiring that people expose themselves and others to a deadly virus when he is planning to release them anyway. This is so deeply irresponsible.

CASE 16: a young man with a small child at home. His atty takes note of Sampson's statement about mentioning children, but wants court to know the child is very ill and has been hospitalized. He also has a baby on the way.

His partner can't take any more time off work to take care of the child, and doesn't make enough money at work to pay for childcare. Defense atty asks the court to "give this young family unit an opportunity to survive." Pretrial recommends HWOB.

ASA Ramirez recites allegations as facts. State is seeking HWOB. The man is present by videoconference. Before he can speak, Sampson tells him that if people have criminal records, "there is a question in my mind whether they care about their children at all."

He says the court will not consider his desire to go home to be with his child. The man makes a short statement but it is difficult to hear it. Sampson orders HWOB.

The man's fiance is on the phone and wants to speak on his behalf. Before she can say anything, Sampson tells her that people who commit crimes "don't do anything" for their kids and that he thinks they're "using their children" to get out of jail.

She explains to him that their child is extremely sick and she needs help caring for him. Sampson tells her that her fiance knew these things "when he decided to go out and do these things." HE HAS NOT BEEN TRIED FOR THESE THINGS.

Sampson reiterates that his order is HWOB and tells a crying mother of a sick child to have a good day.

CASE 17: a young man with mental illness whose attorney has presented the court with letters from community members supportive of his release. Atty says he has been active in efforts to make the city a better place. Pretrial recommends HWOB.

ASA Lapolla recites allegations as facts and cites his mental illness as a reason he shouldn't be released. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Sampson orders HWOB.

CASE 18: a man with 2 children who was arrested when a car he was a passenger in was stopped for alleged dark tint and searched. The search has 4th amendment problems. Pretrial recommends private home detention/monitoring.

ASA Lapolla recites the cops' tale as fact. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Sampson orders HWOB.

CASE 19: a young man who was a passenger in a car that was stopped because cops had been stalking its driver on social media. Defense atty says there's no presumption that a passenger in a vehicle knows what's in the vehicle. Pretrial recommends HWOB.

ASA Lapolla recites allegations as facts. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Sampson orders private home detention/monitoring.

CASE 20: a young man who was granted a large money bail, but his family can't afford it. They are able to pay for private home detention if the court will grant it.

Even if his trial were held the day jury trials resume, he'll have been in jail over 400 days by then. More likely his trial will not take place much later than that, by which time he'll have been in jail for 2 years. He has a very young child at home.

Pretrial recommends private home detention/monitoring. ASA Ramirez recites allegations as facts. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Sampson orders private home detention/monitoring.

CASE 21: a teenager who has been in jail for 10 months and will have been in jail over a year by the time he gets to trial. He has asthma, and 7 people in his dorm at the jail just tested positive for COVID. There is no way to maintain physical distance in the facility.

He requires services he can't access in an adult facility and is seeking to be released to DJS custody. Pretrial recommends release to DJS. ASA Morrison recites the cops' tale as fact, including a description of an instagram music video cops claim to have watched.

State is seeking HWOB. Defense atty reiterates her client has spent nearly a year in an adult jail, and says DJS recommends and has expressed intention to provide services he needs. Judge Sampson orders private home detention/monitoring, defense atty will follow up w/DJS.

CASE 22: a young man who is in jail for allegedly violating his probation bc he incurred a new charge for which he has an alibi. Another judge released him on home detention on that new charge, defense atty is asking court to release him on the VOP as well.

Defense atty says the assigned ASA told her the state would agree to this. Pretrial recommends private home detention/monitoring. ASA Ramirez says state will agree to ROR. Judge Sampson orders ROR with probation supervision.

That's the end of the docket.