Author Topic: Judge abused discretion, violated due-process rights, by revoking probation w/o a hearing: Will he b  (Read 605 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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Grits for Breakfast 6/30/2019

Judge abused discretion, violated due-process rights, by revoking probation w/o a hearing: Will he be sanctioned?

A misdemeanor DWI case out of San Antonio deserves broader attention, with interesting and important implications on several levels.

Wayne Christian - a Republican county-court-at-law judge in Bexar County first elected in 1996, who ran unopposed in the 2018 election - has routinely inserted himself on behalf of the state in lieu of county prosecutors in probation revocation cases, often refusing to allow testimony and deciding them with no evidence. But thanks to appellant Allison Jacobs, her attorneys, and perhaps most interestingly, new Bexar DA Joe Gonzalez, that practice will now be revisited.

According to columnist Josh Brodesky of the SA Express News, Judge Christian's court "leads all County Court-at-Law judges in what’s known as MTRs - motions to revoke probation. He also leads other judges in jail bed days."

In Jacobs' case, she'd been a model probationer but failed three urinalysis tests toward the end of her 14-month probation period. Her attorney wanted to argue that this was a false positive caused by a diet pill she'd been taking, which long-time readers know is not an implausible scenario, particularly in Bexar County.

But Judge Christian refused to hold a hearing and based his decision to revoke on a brief conversation with the court liaison from the probation department. This violated Jacobs' due process rights, which should have entitled her to challenge evidence against her in a hearing before she's revoked to jail. But Christian went even further. Reported Brodesky:

    Not only did Christian sentence her [to jail], but court records show he also denied her appeal for reasonable bail. He then modified a district court judge’s order of bail for $1,600 to make conditions more onerous. Another district judge lessened those conditions, and when Jacobs was finally released from the Bexar County Adult Detention Center in November, Christian responded.

    According to court filings: Upon release on bail, Jacobs was scheduled for a pretrial services orientation on Nov. 19, 2018. But Christian called pretrial services and had the orientation changed to Nov. 13, 2018. Pretrial services was unable to notify her about this change, so she missed the orientation. The next day Christian revoked her bail, issuing a warrant for an arrest.

    What gives? This is a defendant who was two weeks away from completing 14 months of probation for a serious, but misdemeanor charge.

More: http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2019/06/judge-abused-discretion-violated-due.html

Online roamer_1

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I don't know.
I have stood in front of a judge and laid word with him with an eye toward mercy.

I knew dang well, and the judge made it clear, that if I broke my word with him, he'd come raining down on me like an apocalypse.

The signed agreement for that mercy held language with regard to his unbridled abilities if that contract was broken in any way. That was the cost of the mercy, which I did receive.

No exceptions. Hard and fast.

And on occasion, when circumstances dictated a different outcome, and when that predicted apocalypse came raining down, there was nothing left to do but the time.

That's fair, and even if I didn't mean to, I had it coming. It says so right in that agreement.

Offline 240B

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Probation is a scam. Like this person, most people on probation wind up back in jail anyway for some reason or another. When I went before a judge they offered me probation and I turned it down. Told the judge that I would rather just do the time and get it behind me. When he asked 'why?', I told him. When I am on probation, I pay you. When I am in jail, you guys are paying for me. It's that simple.

I just wanted closure to get the issue behind me for good. Never liked to have something hanging over my head like with probation. You never know every day when you wake up, if today is the day you go to jail. Who can live like that? Not me.
You cannot "COEXIST" with people who want to kill you.
If they kill their own with no conscience, there is nothing to stop them from killing you.
Rational fear and anger at vicious murderous Islamic terrorists is the same as irrational antisemitism, according to the Leftists.