Thread by @bmorecourtwatch

Good morning, we’ll be with you shortly with this morning’s bail reviews. Here’s yesterday’s thread while you wait:

https://twitter.com/bmorecourtwatch/status/1384855007808327682

A content note for Thursdays: these hearings are for children the state is prosecuting as adults. These threads document the abusive and neglectful conditions all our threads document, but people often understandably find Thursday threads even more disturbing.

Today in Baltimore City Circuit Court bail reviews: Judge Jackson is presiding. ASA Varda will represent the state for most of the docket.

CASE 1: a child who has a hearing scheduled for next month on a motion to transfer his case to juvenile. Bail review is postponed until after that hearing.

CASE 2: a child whose case we've heard several times. The state is also holding his only parent in a cage, so he has nowhere to go if he is released. Case is again withdrawn until after mom's bail review.

CASE 3: a child who has been in jail for 5 months. Defense atty mentions the COVID outbreaks in the jail. There are wraparound services in place for him if he is released. ASA Driggins recites cops' tales as facts. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Jackson orders HWOB.

(Note: pretrial doesn't participate in hearings for children charged as adults.)

CASE 4: a child who has been in jail for 6 months. By the time he has a trial, he'll have been in for almost a year. The jail is handling COVID outbreaks by holding the children in solitary. ASA Varda recites cops' tales as facts. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Jackson orders HWOB.

CASE 5: a child who has been in jail for 5 months. His trial is a long way off. There are services available to him if he is released that aren't available in jail. ASA Varda recites cops' tales as facts. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Jackson orders HWOB.

CASE 6: postponed by defense request

CASE 7: a child who is in a jail that is on 23-hour lockdown due to COVID. He'll be waiting a very long time for a trial. There are services available to him if he is released.

ASA Varda recites cops' tales as facts, talks about old drug cases, which is yet again weird coming from an SAO that purports not to be participating in the criminalization of drugs. State is seeking HWOB and Judge Jackson gives it to them bc these judges hate children.

CASE 8: a child whose motion for transfer to juvenile was recently denied. Prior to his arrest his family was attempting to get an IEP for him. We've heard over and over that educational services are being denied to children in the jails. He's endured several recent traumas.

He's not receiving any services in jail to address the aftermath of the traumatic experiences. @MayorBMScott says he's focusing on trauma and this means he MUST treat the neglect of children in the jails in this city as the ongoing emergency that it is.

This child has contracted COVID in jail. ASA Varda recites cops' tales as facts. She mentions suspected marijuana, and we are frankly getting extremely tired of the state's bullshit on this topic. State is seeking HWOB. Judge Jackson orders HWOB.

CASE 9: a habeas petition for a child who alleges unfit conditions in the jail. ASA Varda says the SAO isn't prepared to handle a motion related to jail conditions so they want the child to sit in those conditions some more while they refer it to the AG's office.

Defense atty says we've done these before and he's not sure why this is the state's position now. Case is peculiar - defense atty explains the weird procedural history. All parties had agreed to home detention at one point but a juvenile judge denied it anyway.

Judge Jackson asks why the state would object now to him just ordering home detention. Varda claims not to know anything about this, because the state takes children's live so seriously that they don't bother to make sure they have ASAs prepared for bail reviews.

Varda offers to call the juvenile ASA and have her call in. Hearing on pause while that happens.

The other ASA is on now. Judge Jackson says if the parties had already agreed, why not just have a bail review hearing now and he can make an independent assessment about whether to release the child.

Varda interrupts to repeat that the juvenile judge didn't release him, which Judge Jackson had JUST mentioned. She says the state isn't prepared to make a bail review argument at a habeas hearing (nonsense). Defense atty says there was an agmt at the adult level too.

She says "all the parties have been in agreement this entire time," and Varda again says "except for Judge Brown." She really wants this child to sleep another night in a cage in an unsafe jail.

Some back and forth about the current posture of the case. Varda says he has a review in juvenile court later this month and now says they want to just let that happen instead of it being heard now.

Defense atty says the reason to do it now is so that he won't sit in solitary in the jail anymore. Varda asserts he wasn't erroneously detained for purposes of a habeas, defense atty explains in detail why the detention was erroneous.

Judge Jackson clarifies that defense position is that the juvenile judge abused his discretion. Defense atty says yes, all parties including DJS agreed on home detention. More procedural discussion.

Judge Jackson says he hasn't dealt with the juvenile system since the 80s and his recollection is antiquated. Asks Varda again why he shouldn't just hear it today. Varda says he'd be "circumventing" the other judge; Jackson replies "that happens all the time."

He says a review of the legatlity of detention isn't circumvention. Varda pivots to complaining that she wasn't prepared and is "handicapped" in making this argument. Defense atty says she doesn't understand this, there was a prior agreement.

Judge Jackson says maybe Varda isn't herself prepared but the juvenile ASA is on the phone and is familiar with the prior agreement. The juvenile ASA jumps in and takes us back to "the AG should handle this."

Judge Jackson says he's scratching his head because there was an agreement among all the parties that the child should be released. There's an allegation that the conditions in the jail are bad, and an allegation that the juvenile judge didn't properly weigh required factors.

Everyone agrees that yes, that is what's going on. Judge Jackson asks the juvenile ASA (whose name is Thames) to confirm she was at the hearing in front of Judge Brown. She was. He asks if Brown made an assessment on the record. Thames says he did not.

Judge Jackson says if there's no dispute about that, then there is grounds for him to hear the habeas petition. He says he appreciates Varda isn't prepared to argue the facts, but all parties agree Brown didn't follow the assessment, so there is no reason to delay this hearing.

Judge Jackson hasn't had a chance to review the allegations in the case. Defense atty asks if the state can send the judge the police report. ASA Thames now wants a continuance because the state isn't perpared to proceed. Defense atty says the state already agreed to release.

State knew the facts of the case when they agreed to the release in the first place. Judge Jackson asks if Thames is familiar with the allegations, she says she is. Attys are going to email the judge. 10-minute recess.

Recess is over. Defense again reminds the court that the state has repeatedly agreed to releasing this child. Varda says during the recess, she emailed the statement of charges about this CHILD to the wrong person because someone else has a name similar to the judge's. GREAT.

ASA Thames says the state did agree to release, and the state's current position is that procedurally this hearing is incorrect, but if it were a bail review their position would be that they agree to home detention.

Good lord.

Judge Jackson orders private home detention.

CASE 10: withdrawn

That's the end of the docket. Please show some love to Baltimore's children in any way you can today and every day.