watchpaul: Meeting on Jail Release Policies

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Meeting on Jail Release Policies

John Chiv kicked off the coverage:

◼ Chinn, Damiano, Crandall also panelists on Public Safety Forum
◼ Community versus public safety? Basic gist of public safety forum

The title summed up in 1 sentence the dilemma presented by most panelists, mainly law enforcement, court and DHHS. Betty Chinn provided her unique perspective and I was really glad to see her as a part of the panel.

The audience was wonderful and diverse. There were community members, people from various faith organizations, business owners and elected officials. My 3 favorite comments of the night were from the audience were from Kathleen Bryson, Estelle Fenell and Sylvia Scott....

◼ Highlights of public safety forum panelists

Sheriff Downey, the first panelist to speak gave some statistics, kinds of crimes people were booked for in 2013. Average hold time for a person 51/2 hours. He explained the current policy and spoke about night-time releases. 647 (f) is the code he referred to and mentioned, "subject is placed in detention state to protect the public and because they are unable care of themselves." He elaborated on what that meant....

This procedure was countered by some audience members who spoke and they also addressed the practical difficulties of family members or friends coming to pick people up, money being one issue, mental illness for some.

I applaud the Interfaith group that put this forum together. I thank all who came. Many took notes and did not speak.

◼ Our loved ones should not be a statistic

The most poignant moment for me was to look around the room. I had friends there, some who are family. There is a bond we share because we have lost loved ones, some very recently. It was hard to sit there and remember the events of this New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and listen to statistics....

This forum was educational but the healing we seek as a community is to be listened to without excuses being offered and to see some action being taken that make us feel safe in our homes and on our streets again.

◼ Virginia Bass

Great turnout at the Public Safety forum today. Thank you to all who spoke and the panelists. This was a wonderful idea and I applaud the organizers for their hard work on this event.

◼ Arnie Klein

I attended the public meeting in #Eureka yesterday regarding jail release policies. The community came together to try and identify and solve problems of early release. It becomes apparent that it's a question of resources and working together to solve the myriad of issues facing us.

◼ Law Enforcement Responds to Jail Policy Concerns - Grant Scott-Goforth/North Coast Journal

In a meeting organized by local interfaith church leaders, a panel of Humboldt County’s top law enforcement officers addressed concerns this afternoon about the Humboldt County jail’s release policy. Marketed as a general community safety discussion, the meeting arose out of criticism of the jail’s policy to release inmates detained for being drunk in public during late-night hours — but passions were clearly still high over the killing of Father Eric Freed, who was named by multiple community members and remembered in a moment of silence following the meeting.

◼ Grant Scott-Goforth on Twitter

◼ Public calls for change to jail release policies: Local law enforcement and Humboldt County officials address growing safety concerns - Will Houston/Times Standard

◼ link - Lashay Wesley/KIEM News Channel 3

◼ Photos From Yesterday’s Public Meeting on Jail Release Policies - Hank Sims/Lost Coast Outpost

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Paul Gallegos

The Humboldt County Grand Jury found that "Weak leadership and poor managerial practices" have undermined the office... Implicit in all evidence gathered by the Grand Jury - including interviews with the D.A. (Paul Gallegos) - is the unfortunate truth that the D.A. (Paul Gallegos) exhibits a limited understanding of how things are done in the department" Gallegos "lacks the global perspective needed to keep the department operating efficiently," and quotes an unnamed staff member as saying, "The D.A. (Paul Gallegos) does not fully understand the functionality of many of the things we do here" - Years later, in his own words: "I’m not an administrator, they didn’t elect me to be an administrator, they elected me to make sure this office runs..."

Douglas & Zanotti

CASE TOSSED The district attorney misrepresented the law and failed to provide evidence of former Eureka Police Chief David Douglas' and Lt. Tony Zanotti's innocence during a criminal grand jury inquiry into the 2006 shooting death of Cheri Lyn Moore, defense attorneys argued in court documents filed Thursday... ”Our judicial system stands as a real and necessary check on the grand jury indictment process,” one of the documents states. “This court has the authority and the means by which to halt this prosecution, which is justified neither by the undisputed facts, nor by the law.”

Gallegos has taken what was "arguably the state's best small DA's office, with a cutting edge CAST program that "trained the trainers"... into a bunch of time serving bureaucratic wannabee brown nosers, lightly sprinkled with a couple of earnest learners who are sure to split as soon as possible.

One weeps for Max Cardoza who won Angellel, and for Maggie Fleming who won so many impossible victories. Mired in Humboldt for personal reasons, they have to suffer the ignominy of working for Paul, with Yougo, yes, yougo who has freed more people as a prosecutor than he did as a defense attorney. As has Paul. Anonymous comment

Gallegos has answers for everything. I’ve never met anyone whose answers came so quickly, with such polish - except about his law school(s). He likely sounded the same way when promising to get prosecutors off their anachronistic “at will” status and onto civil service status. It never happened. Indeed, he told them, “Disloyalty will not be tolerated” – a real morale builder.

He sounds great. What progressive doesn’t want to believe in him? But it’s a myth. He’s an intellectual lightweight and self-aggrandizer who tries to please everybody with glib answers. Jim Fahey for The Arcata Eye

The Humboldt County DA's office is one of the most exciting prosecutorial
offices in California.

Its District Attorney, Paul Gallegos, is willing to charge anyone who commits
wrongdoing--no matter how wealthy, sacrosanct, or ruthless. He believes in total equality before the law. He also plans to be innovative in promoting programs of prevention and treatment. He wants to make it the best prosecutorial office of its size in the nation.... Gallegos' Help Wanted ad

Gallegos' OWN Quotes

★ ...District Attorney Paul Gallegos said he believes the statute of limitations clock, even on misdemeanors, doesn't start running until law enforcement knows or reasonably should have known of the offense. In this case, Gallegos said, that means the statute of limitations would not run out at least until Feb. 8, 2009, or one year after Gundersen's arrest and the discovery of the photographs in question...

★ "...some people actually molest out of different feelings, some times out of feelings of love....” DA Gallegos explaining why Child Abuse prosecutions were down

★ “I never said that the information was not available under the Freedom of Information Act. Quite the contrary, I informed you that our use of force policy is not a public record.” Paul Gallegos to the Times Standard 5/25/07

★ ...“One is that I do everything to make people happy which means I don’t stand for anything except for just something,” he said. “The other is I stand for something and I try to be a leader and take some people, a group of people, a community someplace and I say guess what folks, this is who I am. I stand for your beliefs. We share these beliefs or we don’t. You get the option to judge that. This is who I am and I am committed to leading us this place, wherever it is...." Eureka Reporter Gallegos defends record, looks ahead 7/3/2005

★ Note the difference between what he SAID, and what he DOES..."...So what are these issues? Top on Gallegos' list is the proliferation of "garbage cases," small-time crimes and overcharged cases that he said are clogging up the court system.

Garbage cases, said Gallegos, come in two forms: Cases that would lose if actually brought to trial and cases that are overcharged for the crimes committed. The idea behind filing both kinds of garbage, he said, is to get the defendant to plead guilty, netting a conviction without having to go into court.

Again, the IRONY is astounding! Look at what he SAYS, and then think about what he DOES! "Probably 95 percent of the cases that are filed plead guilty. In fact, there are a lot of cases that are filed on the assumption they will plead guilty, because of the time and expense involved in defending them. But these cases shouldn't even be filed in the first place, because if they were challenged, they would lose," Gallegos said. Better yet: If they weren't filed at all, it would save the county time and money...." North Coast Journal 2/21/02 Too bad he didn't take his own advice.

★ “Tim’s a stud,” he said. “He really is; anyone would be stoked to have him.” Gallegos on his second in command right hand man Assistant District Attorney Tim Stoen. (Former second in command right hand man to Jim Jones/People's Temple.)

NOTE:

"Helping Crush Progressivism" - ie: exposing the predatory litigious orgs and those who seek power for power's sake.... The original purpose of watchpaul is to post important documents relating to Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos and his handlers who seek to gain power through the acquisition of political offices. This includes, but is not limited to, the manipulations of "Humboldt Watershed Council," "EPIC," "Baykeeper," and other activist groups - the unregulated orgs. It also includes the master manipulators, such as Richard Salzman and Ken Miller.

Links to key stories and documents are also included in the sidebar, so that you do not have to try to scroll back through what has become a lengthy series of posts. I encourage you to use the Search and Labels features as well.

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Thursday, February 27, 2014

Meeting on Jail Release Policies

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