Good morning. Bail reviews for children charged as adults are held on Thursdays. Pretrial doesn’t participate in these hearings. We remind you that these threads can be extra upsetting. The hearing should be starting in a few minutes.
Today in Baltimore City Circuit Court: Judge Jones is presiding. She reads the usual statement about remote proceedings, prohibition on recording.
CASE 1: a child who has been transferred among several jails and whose attorney is having a very difficult time meeting with him or even talking with him by phone. He and the other children in the jail he’s in now are in solitary confinement 23.5 hours a day.
ASA Stock recites cops’ tales as facts. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Jones orders HWOB.
CASE 2: a child who was doing well in school prior to his arrest. His atty reads a letter from one of his teachers asking the judge to give him a chance. She says she has other letters from teachers and from his boss, who is holding his job for him.
He was working two jobs in addition to attending school. ASA Lambert recites cops’ tales as facts. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Jones orders private home detention.
CASE 3: a child who was in solitary for the first 16 days he was in jail, ostensibly as a pre-emptive measure against the spread of COVID. After a brief period of less restrictive conditions, the whole jail was locked down and he was back in solitary for over a month.
He’s now been moved to another jail and is being quarantined in solitary again. He has asthma. His atty and social worker have prepared a comprehensive release plan that includes therapy for pre-existing trauma and the trauma he’s experienced in jail.
He would also be enrolled in a program that provides a stipend he could use to help his mom pay the fees for private home detention. ASA Lambert recites cops’ tales as facts. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Jones orders HWOB.
CASE 4: a young man with numerous neurological and mental health conditions. He needs therapy and medication that he isn’t receiving in jail. The jail has refused (as mentioned in many previous hearings) to administer his meds.
He has an IEP that isn’t being implemented in the jail. The jail isn’t holding school because of the pandemic. He has been given one packet of worksheets and when he asked the COs for help with it, they told him to get help from other children through the vents in his cell.
Defense atty reads a letter from the child about how hard schoolwork is without help and how he isn’t getting his meds. The letter also details the poor conditions of the jail. Kids have to drink water straight from the faucet with no cups, nothing is being cleaned.
He’s been in solitary for a month. He has to choose between showering and calling his mom. ASA Lambert recites cops’ tales as facts. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Jones orders HWOB.
CASE 5: a child who was arrested almost a year ago and has been in jail since. His trial is still months away. He has asthma and other serious underlying conditions, and he has contracted COVID in jail. While he’s been in jail, he has lost a grandparent to COVID.
Defense atty reads a letter from the child asking the judge to let him go home to his family and telling her how important it is to him to graduate from high school.
ASA Lambert recites cops’ tales as facts. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Jones orders HWOB.
CASE 6: a child who is on home detention. He left the house to attend a vigil for his best friend, who was murdered. The home detention company issued a violation letter, and there is now a warrant out for his re-arrest.
He has a serious medical condition that requires medication and close monitoring, as well as developmental and intellectual disabilities, and mental illnesses that require medication. He is seeking to have the warrant quashed and to stay on home detention.
His mom is on the line and Judge Jones lectures her that a vigil for a murder victim is one of the most dangerous places a person can go. Good lord, this child lost his best friend. Should people who loved that kid not get together to grieve?
Mom says her son is extremely upset that he made the mistake of leaving the house and it won’t happen again. ASA Boucher says the state will defer to the court, which Jones says is “very generous” of him. Come on. Judge Jones quashes the warrant and he’ll stay on home detention.
Judge Jones explains to the child that he can go to medical appointments and that he has to otherwise stay home and stay consistent so his atty can try to ask for a modification later to get some of the conditions changed.
That’s the end of the morning docket. Please be safe and please love and look out for the children in our city. And please, please never call the cops on them (or on anyone).
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