Councilmember Cabán presses Judge Zayas on OCA guidance on bail statute compliance

I mean, I think it's a good question.

Let me try to succinctly answer two parts of it.

The first is, you know, I don't tell, the system we have is I do not tell judges what to do in their particular cases.

So they are given discretion.

Judicial independence is important.

But you give guidance on the law.

And the bail statute is clear.

Like that is that, I mean, that's an area that's actually not really gray in that sense.

You don't tell them how to make these hard, you know, decisions, but.

The legal, the codified purpose of bail is to ensure somebody shows up to court.

And they're standing there.

So there are some judges who believe that once, if there are just criminal charges and a felony complaint,

that, I mean, I don't know the cases you're talking about.

We don't know the details.

But sometimes when a defendant gets indicted, that defendant is indicted.

now getting indicted for more serious charges than the person, the original bail that was set.

And maybe things happened in between those two dates.

And so there might have been...

Listen, I'm saying they didn't pick up any new cases.

They're not showing up with...

It's an indictment based on the original facts that they were arraigned on in criminal court.

I'm going to...

I think what I'm taking away from here is that OCA is not holding their responsibility to not just advise, but lead the judges to follow the bail statute.

I'm going to move on to another question, but I do think that that's pretty unacceptable.

They're showing up to court.