No officer in court? Case dismissed

[CountDeMoney]

Still not surprising.
I never missed a court date, even after working midnight shift; called my witnesses myself, and even picked them up from time to time to make sure they were there.
Just disappointing.

No officer in court? Case dismissed
City police fail to show up hundreds of times a year, often ending a prosecution

It seemed like a slam-dunk case. Within hours of a car break-in downtown in February, a city police officer was shown a surveillance tape and recognized the suspect. Alexander Lawrence, who had seven previous theft convictions, was arrested with stolen jewelry and broken glass from the car window in his jacket pocket, according to the police report filed that night.

The two University of Virginia students whose Toyota was the target of the theft drove up the day before the case went to trial to observe justice firsthand. But the police officer failed to show, and prosecutors were forced to drop the case - one of 2,800 dismissed last year when officers didn't appear in court.

"We were pretty upset to know that nothing had happened to the guy," said one of the students, Giselle de Guzman, 19.

Law enforcement officials say the number of officer no-shows is too high, and data suggest an uptick to start the year. Although officials point to a recent 75 percent reduction of no-shows in serious gun cases thanks to increased scrutiny, officers' failure to appear remains the most common reason thousands of charges are dropped in District Court each year, the majority involving drugs.

"It's an area we've been trying to fix for a very long time," said Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III. "At least as it relates to guns, we're doing a pretty good job. We've ramped up the level of scrutiny on those cases."

Authorities point to a host of reasons officers cannot always make court appearances, from child care problems and approved vacation to a reluctance after working a regular shift to sit through cases that they believe are likely to be delayed or thrown out. Union officials say that's not a justification - just a reality of police work.

If such explanations exist, they often do not filter up to the prosecutors forced to drop the cases. The Baltimore state's attorney's office compiles monthly reports that note "no reason" given for officer absences in 90 percent of the cases that are dropped.

Some examples from the report:

• A traffic case involving a man with eight prior offenses and who was facing 45 to 60 days of jail time was dropped after the officer failed to appear.

• Charges of assaulting a police officer dismissed against a 23-year-old woman when the officer failed to appear.

• A 27-year-old man was acquitted of armed robbery, possessing a dangerous weapon with intent to injure, attempted theft over $500 and first-degree assault because the arresting officer failed to appear.

"You can't go forward if police don't come to court for cases that are dependent on them," said Page Croyder, a former deputy prosecutor who now blogs about criminal justice issues. "It's not always [the officers'] fault, but the bottom line is that if you're going to arrest someone, you need to be able to testify."

The city police union says the total is not that high given the tens of thousands of cases that flood the beleaguered court system. Fraternal Order of Police President Robert F. Cherry said officers spend hours each week in court outside of their normal work schedules, while trying to balance personal responsibilities.

"We expect and ask our citizens to come forward and testify, and we need to do the same thing," Cherry said. "But these officers have family lives and a lot of things going on. It's not that they don't want to go forward, but [those issues] catch up."

Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy said FTAs - failures to appear - had reached a "critical point" in 2001 with no-shows doubling to 2,182 over the previous year. Police sharply criticized that figure, skeptical of its accuracy and saying it lacked context.

Over the next several months, criminal justice leaders worked to come up with a solution, including exploring an automated phone service that would allow officers to call in and find out when and where they were needed.

A current proposal seeks funding for software that, among other things, would send court notifications to officers' BlackBerrys. About 70 officers are piloting the technology in the Western District.

Data show that instances of officers failing to appear have dropped in recent years, though so have the total number of cases dropped for any reason, as well as the number of total cases charged. A statistical gap makes it hard to discern long-term trends.

But all officials agree that City Hall's GunStat program has had a major impact on making sure officers are present for the most serious cases.

"There is no doubt that GunStat has helped in violence cases," said Margaret T. Burns, a spokeswoman for Jessamy's office.

Cherry, the union president, said too much of the blame falls on officers for the cases that are dropped. He said that if prosecutors feel strongly about a case, they should work harder to lobby judges for postponements. Defendants sometimes request multiple postponements but ask that a case be dropped the first time an officer is unavailable to testify, he said.

For example, Lawrence Antonio Mack, 48, was charged in September 2006 with 10 counts of traffic violations, including reckless driving and fleeing and eluding police. According to online court records, Mack failed to appear four times, each resulting in a postponement. The case came up for court again April 19, 2009 - 2¿ years after Mack was charged - but this time the arresting officer, who had retired, didn't show. The charges were dropped.

In another case, in which a juvenile was charged in an armed robbery, the detective had a second job as a wedding photographer and put in for vacation time to shoot an out-of-state ceremony. When the trial date landed on the day he would be leaving, prosecutors asked for a postponement. But Circuit Judge Althea M. Handy ruled there "did not appear to be good cause," and prosecutors dropped the most serious charge.

"It's easy to make police officers into punching bags and blame them for everything," Cherry said. "If the state's attorney really wants to make a case work, they should do everything they can to make it work."

The debate offers little solace for de Guzman. The University of Virginia student was in Baltimore with a classmate Feb. 21 for a sorority conference. Her 2002 Toyota Sequoia, parked at Redwood and South streets, had its driver's-side windows broken, and a friend's pink Coach bag, containing an iPod and jewelry, was taken.

According to charging documents, Officer Roger Nolan Jr. recognized the suspect from a picture captured on a surveillance camera. Nolan saw the man, Alexander Lawrence, as Nolan was on his way back to the police station and stopped him, locating the jewelry and shattered glass in Lawrence's coat pocket, documents say.

The first trial date was postponed because de Guzman and her friend had exams, according to court records. Judge George M. Lipman said it would be the last postponement granted to the prosecution. When the next trial date came, prosecutors said they placed three phone calls to Nolan, none of which was returned. Police say Nolan did not receive a summons and was on approved leave; prosecutors say they have no evidence of either claim.

"This case really illustrates tremendous police work to gather the evidence and apprehend a suspect," Burns said. "So there's frustration to not be able to successfully prosecute it."

District Administrative Judge Keith E. Mathews said all parties need to work to coordinate schedules. But, he added, judges are often upset when "the state has absolutely no idea why [the officers] are not there."

Mathews said it's an unfortunate reality that most of those who are released will be back in court.

"A lot of these defendants, especially in drug cases, they've had some contact with the court, and if for some reason the case gets dismissed, with the nature of drug addicts, they'll be back within a few months on another charge."

No officer? Case dismissed
Year   Cases dropped, officer failed to appear   Total cases dropped (all reasons)   %
District Court
2006   3,297   18,610   17.7%
2007   3,428   17,409   19.7%
2008   2,642   11,972   22.1%
Circuit Court
2006   416   4,831   8.6%
2007   273   4,474   6.1%
2008   191   4,554   4.2%
Source: state's attorney's office

[Scipio]

They'll always show up for some college kids DUI, but burglarize a house, and it's 50/50.  Why?  Because there's no fine money for broke ass dazzling urbanites who break into peoples houses to steal stuff for crack money.

[CountDeMoney]

They'll always show up for some college kids DUI, but burglarize a house, and it's 50/50.  Why?  Because there's no fine money for broke ass dazzling urbanites who break into peoples houses to steal stuff for crack money.

I never understood how cops would skip out on court when it was the easiest overtime to make.
What I reallly never understood was how there were never any disciplinary actions involved.

I mean, it's fucking court.  It's part of the job.

[grumbler]

I never understood how cops would skip out on court when it was the easiest overtime to make.
What I reallly never understood was how there were never any disciplinary actions involved.

I mean, it's fucking court.  It's part of the job.

Agreed.  Here in Warrenton they even tried to make each cop have a "court day" like the sherriffs do, so that all of an officer's cases (where possible) would appear that day, which would be a regular workday for the police officer, only his assignment was court.

The police opposed it successfully, because it cost them overtime hours.

[Barrister]

They'll always show up for some college kids DUI, but burglarize a house, and it's 50/50.  Why?  Because there's no fine money for broke ass dazzling urbanites who break into peoples houses to steal stuff for crack money.

I never understood how cops would skip out on court when it was the easiest overtime to make.
What I reallly never understood was how there were never any disciplinary actions involved.

I mean, it's fucking court.  It's part of the job.

We don't have much of a problem with officers missing court.  Now I have called, woken officers up and told them to get their ass down to court, but never just refusing to show up.

What I don't get is the apparent indifference of some officers (far from all) to doing any additional work or follow up once the arrest is made.  Guys - the file is closed and your work is done once you get a conviction, not an arrest.

[Syt]

Guys - the file is closed and your work is done once you get a conviction, not an arrest.

But crime shows on tv ALWAYS end with the arrest of the guilty.

[Eddie Teach]

Guys - the file is closed and your work is done once you get a conviction, not an arrest.

But crime shows on tv ALWAYS end with the arrest of the guilty.

Not Law & Order.

[Josquius]

So...the key to getting out of a fix is to have your friends delay the police?

[Razgovory]

Not Law & Order.

Indeed.  Especially not in Law and Order: Special chicken unit.

http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/67097/detail/

[CountDeMoney]

What I don't get is the apparent indifference of some officers (far from all) to doing any additional work or follow up once the arrest is made.  Guys - the file is closed and your work is done once you get a conviction, not an arrest.

Just laziness.

[DontSayBanana]

This totally doesn't surprise me. I'm right off of the two main streets here in town (around the corner from our municipal building/police station and even just watching the number of cops who pull stuff like flashing their lights to beat traffic on their way back to the station... I've seen so much childish behavior from cops that there's no big surprise here for me.

[Barrister]

My trial today both officers showed up. 

But now that I think about it, for as many times as I get an officer to not show up, there are probably more times when I get officers showing up which were never on my witness list to begin with.

Personal pet peeve of mine is when officers call me up to ask me "do I really need to attend for this trial"?  I go and dig up the file, carefully go through it - only to find that the witness list we sent them has the officer who called me listed as "not required".

[Darth Wagtaros]

I can't remember the name of the site but there was a big one for police officers dedicated to getting their relatives out of traffic offenses.  The site administrators would contact police departements if one of their members reported an officer ticketing a cousin or brother for some offense or other and bitch about it to the cop's bosses.  They'd publish his badge number, home town, and full name. Not just normal traffic stuff.  One guy was bitching about another cop taking his wife in for DUI.  Another was bitching about his brother getting nabbed for speeding and running red lights.  Fucked up.

[Neil]

I can't remember the name of the site but there was a big one for police officers dedicated to getting their relatives out of traffic offenses.  The site administrators would contact police departements if one of their members reported an officer ticketing a cousin or brother for some offense or other and bitch about it to the cop's bosses.  They'd publish his badge number, home town, and full name. Not just normal traffic stuff.  One guy was bitching about another cop taking his wife in for DUI.  Another was bitching about his brother getting nabbed for speeding and running red lights.  Fucked up.

Yeah, it probably isn't there anymore.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I can't remember the name of the site but there was a big one for police officers dedicated to getting their relatives out of traffic offenses.  The site administrators would contact police departements if one of their members reported an officer ticketing a cousin or brother for some offense or other and bitch about it to the cop's bosses.  They'd publish his badge number, home town, and full name. Not just normal traffic stuff.  One guy was bitching about another cop taking his wife in for DUI.  Another was bitching about his brother getting nabbed for speeding and running red lights.  Fucked up.

Yeah, it probably isn't there anymore.

That would be nice.  Buncha fucking scumbags.