Mecklenburg criminal justice leaders support more NC judge control over setting bond

In March the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department arrested Akingbiwaju Opadele, a Fort Mill paramedic alleged to have sexually assaulted a 17-year-old girl in the back of an ambulance two months before.

He was charged with felony sexual contact under pretext of medical treatment, according to a news release.

About 37 minutes after he was booked, Opadele was released on a $15,000 unsecured bond, and walked out of the jail, police say. That frustrated family members and detectives on the case, said CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings.

“What message are we sending to the community when this individual gets out in just 37 minutes?” Jennings said. “That was very frustrating, all around, for many people, to know that we didn’t even get the opportunity for a judge to hear this (and to) set that bond.”

Concerns over bonds being either “too low” or “too high” are a constant topic of discussion across the state, University of North Carolina School of Government Professor Jeff Welty said in an email to the Charlotte Observer.

A new bill supported by multiple Charlotte-Mecklenburg officials could ensure more accountability and consistency from court officials setting bonds, Jennings and others say.

North Carolina House Bill 813, dubbed the “Pretrial Integrity Act,” passed in the N.C. House on May 3. signed into law, elected judges — not appointed magistrates — would set pretrial release conditions for a slew of more serious charges, including statutory rape and sexual offense, arson and human trafficking.

It would also ensure that judges receive a copy of repeat offenders’ criminal histories before setting pretrial release conditions, which can include everything from written promises to appear in court and bonds to referrals to mental health services.

If a judge failed to weigh in after 48 hours, the responsibility would fall back to a magistrate.

North Carolina judges already set pretrial release conditions for defendants charged with first-degree murder.

The bill is sponsored by multiple legislators, including Mecklenburg County Republican Rep. John Bradford, who said it came from discussions with local criminal justice leaders.

“If someone is raped — and, granted, these people are accused and not found guilty at a pretrial review — but the idea that they could be quickly released with no bond or very little bond because a magistrate quickly does it doesn’t seem to be fair,” he said. “It needs to get a true review. We can’t forget about the victims here.”

‘A direct line of accountability’

In North Carolina, magistrates are independent judicial officers who are overseen by chief district court judges. They set conditions of release and issue warrants, among other responsibilities.

Unlike with judges, there is not “a direct line of accountability to the performance of a magistrate,” Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather told the Charlotte Observer.

“Every single person can go in and know that I’m the DA of Mecklenburg County, and they can go in and look up my name and hold me directly accountable for the things that happened in court,” he said. “The same thing is true for our district court and superior court judges. But for some reason, it’s not true for… the magistrate component of our system.”

“My sense is that magistrates try hard to follow the law and to exercise sound judgment,” Welty wrote. “Of course, sometimes they make mistakes, but often a decision that seems like a mistake in hindsight — because a defendant was released on bond and did something terrible — was a perfectly reasonable decision based on the information available to the magistrate at the time.”

Carolina statute says that a judicial official must consider a wide range of information when deciding whether and how long to hold a defendant, including the nature of the offense charged, a defendant’s family ties and financial resources, length of residency in a community and more.

Magistrates have some discretion when setting bonds, though they are expected to set an amount that will ensure a defendant shows up to court.

Concerns over wait times

Giving the job of setting more bonds to judges would be one more setback for criminal justice reform, said Emancipate North Carolina Executive Director Dawn Blagrove. It could result in more people stuck in North Carolina jails longer than they should be, she said.

“In many jurisdictions across North Carolina, there may be weeks upon end when there is no district court judge available,” she said.

Someone forced to sit in jail for two days might lose their job, custody over their children or their housing, she added. People of color are at greater risk, she said

“The arbitrary nature of holding people in jail for any prescribed amount of time has a disproportionately harmful effect on poor Black and brown communities,” she said.

The bill passed in the House by a vote of 92-25. If it is approved in the state senate and made into law, it will go into effect Oct. 1.