Exhausted! Time for a serious essay about the inside of court. This morning heard a return of a Rule 20 on a violent felony case. This means defense attorney had asked court for a mental exam because he questioned the defendant’s competency, e.g. because of mental illness he would not understand court proceedings, couldn’t effectively communicate w/counsel etc. PhD examined defendant and agreed he was incompetent. I read the report and it was full of references to attempted suicides and violence against others—one of the most scary ones I have read lately. Prosecutor say she is referring him to the mental commitment screening and lawyers in her office and wants him held for a week so they could start commitment proceedings. Defense attorney wants him released saying examiner had concluded he was not a danger to himself and/or others. That was true except the goofy psychologist had said because he is now on meds, is under hospital watch including suicide watch he was not presently a danger to himself/others. How about if I turn him loose Doctor? I made prosecutor get out the rule of criminal procedure. Rule says once I find him incompetent I must “suspend” the criminal proceeding. What does that mean? Finally after some research prosecutor concedes that suspend means that I cannot hold him or put bail on him so must release him. So I did. Minnesota has a pre-commitment screening process where every suggested commitment goes to Social Services for screening and then the county prosecutor’s office decides whether to proceed. This is actually a good procedure because a lot need to be screened out. However, these young prosecutors were thinking like government bureaucrats thinking the process has to be followed in every single case. Within the prosecutor’s office a supervisor should have been consulted and told something like, “this guy is really nuts and dangerous and we should skip the normal process and serve the commitment papers on him immediately after Bearse finds him incompetent.” Then the judge would have authority to hold him. Instead, I let a guy out this morning that very well could kill himself or someone else tonight. I don’t know if he will but if he does it will be six o’clock news stuff. See what a great day I had!
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 02:10:20 +0000
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