On Monday, August 26, 2024, The Mercury News reported that two civil rights organizations, Bay Area-based Silicon Valley De-Bug and Washington D.C.-based Civil Rights Corps, had filed a complaint against the San Mateo County Superior Court. In the complaint, the organizations allege that the court is failing to properly apply a California Supreme Court ruling on pretrial detention and bail.
The 400-page complaint centers around observations made by a team of court watchers, including Stanford University undergraduates, during criminal arraignments between 2022 and 2024. The watchers attended proceedings overseen by three court commissioners—Ernst Halperin, Cristina Mazzei, and Hugo Borja—and found issues with how they applied a defendant’s bail rights under the Humphrey ruling.
The Humphrey ruling, affirmed by the state Supreme Court in 2021, mandates that courts consider a defendant’s ability to pay when setting bail. It also directs judges to favor non-cash release conditions like electronic monitoring over pretrial detention whenever possible. According to the complaint, the observations revealed that the commissioners either misapplied or failed to properly apply a defendant’s rights under this ruling.
Specifically, the complaint alleges that transcripts from 26 arraignment hearings show the commissioners routinely ignored arguments about a defendant’s inability to afford bail amounts. In multiple cases, Commissioner Halperin is said to have set bail that defense attorneys argued was unaffordable, dismissing calls to consider non-cash release options. The complaint asserts this is out of step with practices in other Bay Area counties.
Additionally, the organizations claim that aggregate data shows the San Mateo court has set higher median bail amounts after the Humphrey decision—directly contrary to its intent. Professor Lara Bazelon, who co-signed the complaint, expressed alarm at what she sees as the court’s “disrespect” for the binding state Supreme Court ruling.
In her response to the complaint, Presiding Judge Elizabeth K. Lee acknowledged receiving it and said a full response could take 90 days due to its length and scope. When contacted by the newspaper, the court declined further comment at this time.
De-Bug organizer Jamilah Rosales Webb expressed concern that even short pretrial detentions can destabilize indigent defendants’ lives and families. The complaint further notes that five deaths have occurred in San Mateo County jail since 2023 while individuals awaited trial.
Civil Rights Corps attorney Carson White argued that if allegations of judges blatantly refusing to apply constitutional law prove true, it represents not just a lack of integrity but a “crisis of legitimacy” in the criminal justice system. The organizations are calling for immediate changes to ensure the Humphrey ruling is properly applied going forward.
Source: The Mercury News
