By The Vanguard Staff
LOS ANGELES, CA – The Presiding Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, Samantha Jessner, was alerted in November by a Loyola Law School professor there was a “pattern of serious misconduct” by Judge Tomson Ong, a Long Beach judge, according to information provided this week by Civil Rights Corps.
Civil Rights Corps, a non-profit organization fighting systemic injustice in the American legal system through litigation, said in a statement Loyola prof Priscilla Ocen “described her personal observations of Judge Ong repeatedly failing to inquire about the accused’s ability to pay.”
The judge’s actions, said Ocen, are despite the California Supreme Court’s precedential case, In Re Humphrey, that makes this practice unconstitutional, citing a “comprehensive memorandum by legal nonprofit Civil Rights Corps documenting similarly improper bail rulings by Judge Ong in other matters.”
Civil Rights Corps said the Court of Appeal’s “groundbreaking 2018 Humphrey decision dramatically reformed the way cash bail is set in California, ostensibly ensuring that poor people who are presumed innocent do not languish in cages pretrial for no reason other than a lack of funds.”
But, added CRC, “Shockingly, a 2022 UCLA report found ‘no evidence that Humphrey has resulted in a decrease in median bail amounts in California… [or] a decrease in the average length of pretrial detention.’”
Professor Ocen’s complaint, argues CRC, “goes to the heart of this crucial statewide issue, as the problem seems to be that while the law has changed, too many judges are not following it. Indeed, a study of three Bay Area counties revealed that judges were considering the defendant’s ability to pay in a paltry 0.5 percent of cases.”
The memo from Civil Rights Corps said, in its analysis of 11 arraignment hearings conducted by Judge Ong, it found 10 resulted in Judge Ong “imposing cash bail without stating any consideration of the accused’s ability to pay in violation of the Humphrey case.”
CRC said in one instance, Judge Ong made a “concession” to a Civil Rights Corps attorney: “I’ll be honest with you—I don’t know the resources. I know under Humphrey resources are supposed to factor in.”
CRC noted the complaint regarding Judge Ong includes one case where a woman accused of hit-and-run came to court for arraignment, her public defender asked Judge Ong to “allow her to continue coming to court out-of-custody, since she had never before failed to appear in court and was in her 50’s.”
Instead, the complaint noted, “Judge Ong imposed money bail, citing the bail schedule, and ordered her (the accused) arrested in the courtroom, calling her a ‘flight risk’ without inquiring into, or making any ruling about, the defendant’s ability to pay.”
When the accused asked, the complaint added, “Your Honor, please, can I just tell you something, please?” Ong allegedly told her: “Ma’am, you have a Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. I insist on it.”
“The law is clear: judges cannot hold people pre-trial because they are too poor to pay bail,” said Professor Ocen. “Judges, who are supposed to enforce the law, should not be permitted to systematically violate the law, especially when it comes to the basic rights of vulnerable people.”
CRC said Ocen’s letter asked Presiding Judge Jessner to “remove Judge Ong from arraignment hearings, investigate how widespread this conduct is in Los Angeles County by collecting data and transcripts of other judges’ arraignment hearings and sharing that information with outside researchers and collaborate” with Professor Ocen on the type of trainings and other mechanisms to ensure that every courtroom complies with constitutional rights at arraignment hearings.
As of this week, after 40 days, CRC claims Judge Jessner has “failed to respond or acknowledge receipt of Professor’s Ocen’s complaint.”
