Welcome to the Friday Roundup. This is our chance to share things we heard that did not fit into the daily docket twitter threads. We know from what we observe that the entire system is based on cruelty and dehumanization.
This thread is a little window into how badly the criminal punishment system treats Baltimoreans, and especially Black Baltimoreans.
A little change in bail docket schedules started this week. Bail reviews will only be 3 days a week instead of 5 days. Babies will still be heard on Thursdays.
The schedule change happens as we see more dysfunction in the courts. There are multiple cases waiting for time served plea deals, but those hearings have all been pushed back to December.
This delay in hearing plea deals means that people in power are jailing our neighbors even when all sides agree they should be home.
One person was held for MONTHS after being granted post conviction relief for a new trial. But all of their paperwork is stuck in judicial purgatory.
This human being is being kept in a cage because people on the outside with power decided that getting paperwork in order is more important than someone’s life and freedom.
Although we believe that no one should be in jail, to have the reason be inefficiency and bureaucracy of the court is shameful.
We also had a judge who was issued a new laptop with no CD reader. This meant he was unable to view attachments to motions or key evidence. In another case, the evidence link sent was not working for the judge. The two ways to get evidence before judges do not work.
These technical issues can be easily solved. There are people whose jobs it is to deliver evidence to judges. THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT DOING THEIR JOBS, and as a result, many people are being traumatized and dehumanized. It must be nice to not have consequences for your actions.
Meanwhile, people are being disappeared from their homes and families,and the courts are keeping them caged because of “technical difficulties” in the year 2021. These people know how to send evidence. They know how to send an email. They are making the intentional choice not to.
In other court nonsense, there was a loved one who one judge agreed to release, but part of his paperwork to allow that to happen did not follow him to the bail review, resulting in him continuing to be caged.
In trying to straighten out that oversight, 2 judges agreed to have it reentered into a bail review so the release order could be attached to the correct paperwork. But a third judge overseeing that process made the choice to keep this person jailed.
There was also a bail review motion that was lost in the courthouse for over three months. Good thing our taxes are paying for these inefficiencies.
Judge Taylor, who has apparently earned a medical degree overnight, decides that COVID is not a concern to this person being held in a cage because they have not received a vaccine. Congratulations, Judge Taylor!
Defense also points out that the city's Dept of Public Safety has stopped updating their COVID numbers for jails online anymore, something they should be doing weekly.
In other medical news, no lawyers or family members are able to go into facilities to find out what their loved ones medical conditions are. This leads to people in cages not only not getting medical care, but their families are not even told what is going on.
It is not just the judges that are sadistic. The State Attorney’s Office has its own special flavor of chaos happening. There continues to be staff jumping from a sinking ship.
This has led to lots of confusion and increased violence on our loved ones. As we see, actions do have consequences- just not for the ASAs who get to go home to their families at night.
Ways we saw this violence include discovery not getting to defense attorneys, no ASAs assigned to a case; supervisors not knowing cases even exist. As one defense attorney stated, our loved ones should not suffer because of the SAO mess.
A whole new form of rage-inducing violence is the release this week of Mosby’s “Do Not Call” List- a list that is just a Google search return of bad BPD cops and is missing HUNDREDS of promised names.
At least one person’s case from this week involved a cop on the list, and no one knows what this means for this person being caged.
ASAs individually were particularly horrible this week. They continued their regular horrible practices of mentioning dropped cases and asking for HWOB for drug only cases.
One ASA just read the cops’ story and even the judge stated that the SOC was not sensible. This is what we mean when we says ASA repeats cops tales as fact. They are just that- tales.
This week an ASA claimed that having a gun on you in daylight hours is ridiculous, that being in Baltimore at night with a gun is ridiculous.
One ASA claimed a child is “manifestly a danger to the community.” This baby is part of the community. And someone please, remind SAO what a cop carries no matter daylight or nighttime.
There is a new type of abuse this week from SAO. They took the cops’ word that the reason for a stop was due to an outstanding warrant, arguing the outstanding warrant was the reason to HWOB, but no one can find the warrant of evidence that it existed.
Apparently, once you are sworn in as an ASA, you can say anything to keep people in cages away from their families, no matter whether or not it’s true.
The same superpower is also granted to cops, who are allowed to lie without consequences. We heard a lot of cops' stories not matching the CCTV video or the BWC, yet being used as reasons to lock people up.
In one case heard, after being informed the BWC and CCTV footage does not match their story, the cops were given the chance to change their story when questioned by the ASA, and the ASA tried to sell the new story. How many liars does it take to find a shred of truth?
The Baltimore Police continue to harass our loved ones. Reasons we heard for stops included: sitting on steps, being a gunshot victim, walking with someone cops stalked on IG.
Speaking of IG, the BPD continues to spend our money looking at kids on IG. This tweeter is not certain how something seen on IG can be proven to be real or a prop. But then again, I do not possess the ASA/Cop super power of being able to fabricate reality with no accountability.
Cops also charged people with gun possession when no gun was found; found guns somewhere in the neighborhood and charged people who walked in the opposite direction of them; charged people with gun charges for guns found in places with no connection to the people charged.
Cops also claim to know the wardrobes of everyone they ever arrested and can recognize one Under Armour piece of clothing from another simply by looking at grainy CCTV footage.We see the cop superpower striking again,and don’t worry-their lies are completely nonsensical to us too
All this leads to more people being caged for MONTHS only to have the cases dropped when it is discovered that, who would have fucking thought, cops really do not have superpowers- just power legitimized by the state to commit violence with zero accountability.
While they wait in cages, our loved ones are being denied medical treatments, not getting prescribed medicines, and being violently assaulted.
Those being held in one facility are never available for bail hearings. And those facilities that are made available via video cannot hear what is happening or what the judge’s ruling and instructions were.
Then they are penalized and often re-arrested for not following the judge’s orders, WHICH THEY COULD NOT HEAR DUE TO THE COURT’S LACK OF ACCESS. It is very clear what this city is prioritizing, and it’s sure as shit not the people who live here.
This is especially difficult for our kids. Even if they do hear the information, the grown ups responsible for carrying through with those orders are often not present and do not know the court’s orders.
If you missed the hell that is bail review of kids charged as adults, here is the docket from yesterday:
https://twitter.com/bmorecourtwatch/status/1456238492485308417?s=20
A quick recap of the violence inflicted on our babies while caged: they are not getting medical treatment; whole classes of drugs commonly used by teens are not allowed to be given in baby jails; not receiving needed psych care; IEPs not being followed.
More horrors are a judge refusing to allow a child to speak; not being a allowed to go to grandmother's funeral; being interrogated without parent or lawyer present;
The horrors for our babies continue - they are being intimately searched without a parent present; being stalked by BPD on IG; being held so long they turn 18 and moved into adult populations.
The hardest day of the week is always Thursday when we hear the kids. Our observers have had their hearts broken weekly. But one case has nearly destroyed them.
The ongoing caging of a homeless child when everyone but the ASA claims to want him in a safe, non-carceral environment. We have been hearing this case for months.
These people can say all the platitudes and sympathies they want, but at the end of the day, hell at the end of the YEAR at this point, THIS CHILD IS STILL IN A CAGE.
We have watched multiple systems work to keep this child jailed. When we say the systems are not broken, but working as they are designed, this is what we mean.
There will be no child docket next week as it is a state holiday. Next week, please work to keep our children safe and loved. We will cover the other dockets of violence throughout next week.
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