An attorney said his client's case was bound to the Grand Jury by a General Sessions Court judge over a year ago, but it has never been taken to the Grand Jury.
Attorney Robin Flores asked that charges against Jeffery Thomas Beene be dismissed or he be given an OR bond.
The attorney said he obtained a "bound over" report from the Criminal Court Clerk's Office "listing hundreds if not thousands as 'bound overs.' A large portion of those matters are more than one year old."
Attorney Flores said Beene was required to bear the cost of an ankle monitor ($250 per month) and is prohibited from driving under orders from General Sessions Court.
He said his wife has to take him places.
Beene is charged with two counts of indecent exposure, reckless driving, DUI and having an open container. In a second incident, he is charged with DUI and a seat belt violation. His bond is $20,000 from his court appearance in April of 2023.
Attorney Flores said, "The charges at issue are not complex matters that require extensive investigation or inquiry by the state or the Grand Jury. The huge list of cases pending in the Grand Jury, one of which is the defendant, defies understanding. Why is the present matter taking so long?"
Criminal Court Clerk Vince Dean said he found that cases dismissed by the District Attorney at the Grand Jury level had not been removed from the "Bound Overs" list recently. He said that will be rectified.
He said the list of Bound Overs alluded to by attorney Flores is an office memo that is generally not distributed. However, he said the office releases documents when requested unless it is a privileged document.
Mr. Dean said that the DA's Office "brings us a pile of Grand Jury dismissals every week."
He and attorney Flores said they did not know how defendants and their lawyers were being notified of the dismissals of their cases by prosecutors. The defendant and lawyer in most cases are not part of the Grand Jury process.
District Attorney Coty Wamp said, "No bills (that in the past were issued by the Grand Jury) were simply cases that we were not recommending the Grand Jury indict. That’s been the case for decades. I learned that other judicial districts were simply dismissing cases pending Grand Jury instead of recommending no bills. It’s the more efficient and appropriate way to do it. The Grand Jury supported our decision to stop recommending no bills and instead dismiss them pending Grand Jury."
She added, "It is the absolute right of the DA and ADAs to dismiss cases at any point in time, and no one has any authority to prevent that. We would not ever want to indict cases that we believe we cannot prove or are a waste of resources for taxpayers."
District Attorney Wamp said with the use of filing of informations and vertical prosecution she is seeking to handle most of the low-level cases in the lower court and reserve Criminal Court for serious matters.
An information is an agreement on the disposition of a case between the prosecutor and defense attorney that bypasses the Grand Jury. Vertical prosecution is having prosecutors follow a case from its start to its conclusion through the various courts.
District Attorney Wamp said any attorney who has an issue with a defendant who has been pending Grand Jury for an extended time can come to her office and an accommodation can be worked out.
She said, "Attorney Flores doesn't talk to our office."
Attorney Flores said, "It's not the responsibility of an attorney to have to go to her office to get her to do her job."
DA Wamp said, "Attorneys don’t have to contact us to get action on a case. We indict hundreds of cases a month."
Attorney Flores said that after DA Wamp was informed of his motion "she sent me a Nasty-gram." He declined to release the message, but said he may use it in a future motion dealing with "vindictive prosecution."
District Attorney Wamp, concerning the list of Bound Overs, said, "It is not just that the clerk’s office isn’t removing dismissed cases from the CJUS system but also informations and some that have been indicted. Whatever system they are using isn’t working.
"I am glad to hear Vince will begin to fix his office’s inefficiencies. Next, maybe we will be able to request data from the clerk’s office and it will be accurate."
Mr. Dean said, "While, obviously, the internal report referenced by attorney Flores has no impact on his client’s case, as it is still “pending in the Grand Jury” we are appreciative that it has brought to light a deficiency in our current system. I am also pleased that any deficiency in our system has apparently not caused any negative impact on any case.
"One of the goals of our office is to provide accurate information to anyone that seeks it. We are grateful to those who bring any real or perceived inaccuracies to our attention. We always admit our mistakes and strive to correct them. Our goal is to never deflect or dismiss a shortcoming on others."