RePath Round Up--Mystery Mugshots
$Billions with a B in Baltimore, Getting Away with Murder, and SBF gets his sentence
A new law in California forbids departments from posting mugshots, arrest photos, or line-up pictures online or in social media longer than 14 days. The Murrieta California Police Department “prides itself in its transparency with the community, but also honors everyone’s rights & protections as afforded by law.” So, the department leaves the photos up and photoshops Lego heads, Barbie heads, and even Shrek heads onto the suspects.
Big Lego is not happy. According to the department, “the Lego Group reached out to us and respectfully asked us to refrain from using their intellectual property in our social media content which of course we understand and will comply with, . . . We are currently exploring other methods to continue publishing our content in a way that is engaging and interesting to our followers.”
Big Money in Baltimore. While the world was captivated by the cargo ship collision and bridge collapse in Baltimore this week (and the attendant conspiracy theories), officials continue to work on the most expensive state funded project in the history of Maryland. It’s a new jail in Baltimore. The billion dollar jail project was originally set to cost less than $600M, but “inflation and supply chain issues” have vaulted the project into the 3 comma club ($1,000,000,000). While the price tag keeps going up, the capacity of the facility keeps coming down: 1,462 beds to 854.
In what may or may not be related news, 13 of 33 Baltimore high schools failed to have a single student test as “proficient” in math last year. 75% of the students in these schools received the lowest possible score. A Baltimore nonprofit called these results “educational homicide” that is “just opening up the floodgates to the school-to-prison pipeline.” Money does not seem to be the problem as city schools received $1.6B in funding last year plus another $800M in covid-related funds.
Speaking of Billions: Crypto Fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years yesterday—about 1/2 of the recommendation from prosecutors. For his part, SBF says he made “selfish decisions.” That is one way to describe stealing $8B from customers. The judge called him “remorseless.”
Updates on Illinois’ SAFE-T Act: The Illinois Supreme Court reports a “breathtaking” increase in appeals following the elimination of cash bail. The increase has been crippling for the appellate courts. In the decade before the Act took effect, the courts handled 17 appeals per year related to bond orders. They have now received 2,003 new appeals in the past five months.
To allow courts to continue to adjudicate the relevant matters under the Act, the supreme court has extended the order allowing for remote court hearings for another six months.
State republicans believe the Act is having a negative impact on public safety and they have introduced new legislation to provide judges with more discretion relating to pre-trial detention.
The Act is certainly having an impact in individual cases. On Monday, a man charged with first-degree murder in Rockford has been released over the objections of prosecutors with no bail after his “Pretrial Fairness” hearing.
Rinse and Repeat in New York:
From the NYPD Chief of Transit:
In calendar year 2023, NYPD cops made over 13,600 arrests in the subway system. Of these 13,600 arrests, 124 people were arrested 5 or more times in the subway system in 2023 alone. When looking further, these 124 people combined, have been arrested over 7,500 times in their lifetimes. So, in case you’re curious what your cops are doing … well … they’ve arrested these people over 7,500 times!
As Mayor Adams put it this week in relation to a murder of an NYPD officer and a subway shove murder:
It's the same people over and over again," he said. "These are bad people who are doing bad things to good people. It's the good guys against the bad guys and we have to recognize that.
Most authors certainly are nice to their husbands, but: The romance author Nancy Crampton is currently serving life in prison for murdering her husband. Jurors did not hear about her published blog post entitled “How to Murder Your Husband.”
“Grief author” Kouri Richins has been charged with murder for spiking her husband’s drink with fatal dose of fentanyl. She is also charged with attempted murder over a prior poisoning via a Valentine’s Day sandwich.
While both of these authors were caught, police across the country are clearing fewer and fewer murder cases.
Albuquerque says they are bucking the trend with double the homicide detectives, use of drones, and license plate readers. ABQ police claim a current clearance rate of 126%, which is up from 55% in 2021.
More Albuquerque: A fifth Albuquerque police officer has resigned in a widening scandal involving cops who conspired with defense attorneys to make drunk driving cases disappear in exchange for payoffs. One of the officers says this is not a case of a few bad officers acting on their own. No, the issue is far from that, the issues were “generational.” So far, no charges have been filed, but the FBI is involved and the DA’s office has dropped over 200 pending cases because it could not depend on the officer’s testimony.
New Laws:
In Michigan, Governor Whitmer signed a bill to expand access to drug treatment options and establish family treatment courts.
In Georgia, Governor Kemp is expected to sign a bail law that mostly outlaws the practice of charitable bail funds. It states that no “individual, corporation, organization, charity, nonprofit corporation, or group” may post more than three cash bonds per year.
The Pennsylvania house has passed a bill requiring the Department of Corrections to provide photo ID, work permits and other documents to people transitioning out of incarceration as part of the reentry process.
Stuff of the Week:
Like urine ain’t free: Shelby County, TN community corrections employee is arrested for selling urine to diversion program participants. No word on pricing.
The Big Easy: New Orleans police say rats are eating drug evidence because their buildings are teaming with rodents and roaches. "The rats are eating our marijuana . . . They're all high."
Creative taxes: “Literally, they want to tax the rain.” Under a proposal from the Toronto Mayor, property owners will not only pay for water they use, they will be taxed on water that falls on their land or, more accurately, the amount of hard surfaces that do not absorb water.
Big Mesothelioma: As we all know, the EPA banned asbestos in the early 1980s. Just kidding, the ban didn’t take place until this month. But at least that puts an end to the use of the lung-killing chemical that has been banned across the globe for years. Just kidding, it will take 2-5 years for the ban to be effective.
10 years: Maurice Jimmerson served 10 years in a Georgia jail, but was never convicted of a crime. He was released earlier this month after what is likely the longest pre-trial detention in living memory.
Show Me the money: Missouri wants to confiscate the $12,500 that an inmate received in insurance proceeds after the death of his mother. They call it “incarceration reimbursement.”
Chunky: A defendant’s chunky diamond earrings have tied him to a Brooklyn store heist. He should have worn the hoops.