Councilmember Cabán questions Judge Zayas on bail increases at Supreme Court arraignment
Cabán raises the issue of judges increasing bail at Supreme Court arraignment for defendants who appeared as required, asking what OCA is doing to stop judges from abusing bail power. Zayas says he cannot direct judges on individual cases but notes indictment may bring more serious charges.
Next, we'll hear from Councilmember Cabana.
Thank you.
Before asking questions, I just want to state that it is shameful, but also really clarifying to see that the DAs aren't here, because the subject of this oversight hearing is improving court operations, and you would think that the prosecutors would have a vested interest
in improving court operations, especially to reduce jail populations.
You would think that they have experiences to bring to the table to talk about, to be a partner in doing this work.
So it's unacceptable that they're not here.
And Judge, thank you for being here.
The last sort of preamble thing I'll say is, we're both lawyers.
Lawyers like to be verbose.
I'm going to try to be succinct because I've got a lot of questions, but I'm going to ask you to try to be succinct too.
Sure.
Thank you, Judge.
So, you know, this is something I saw when I was practicing, and it's still continuing today.
We are seeing that at Supreme Court arraignment, a client who was either released or made bail shows up to their Supreme Court arraignment.
Court arraignment to get charged post-indictment.
And either at the request of the DA or based on the arraignment charges, the judge there increases or sets additional bail conditions.
Now, bail is simply to ensure that somebody shows up to court.
The best proof of that is that they showed up to the Supreme Court arraignment.
What are you guys doing to stop judges from abusing their power in that scenario?
They shouldn't be increasing bail.
They showed up to court.