Not long after a spate of San Antonio police officers were shot (five in two weeks) and San Antonio Police Chief William McManus pointed the finger at District Attorney Joe Gonzales and what he called lenient bail, County Judge Peter Sakai, hoping to calm the high-profile feud, reached out to longtime criminal district judge Ron Rangel.
He asked him to take a look at the public safety system and give feedback on if there was any truth to the claims and how the system could improve. The response that came at the end of last month was a laundry list of improvements as well as a resounding rejection of McManus’ off the cuff statements.
“I want to emphasize that this issue has been mischaracterized by some as a ‘bail issue.’ It is not,” he writes in the letter to Sakai without ever mentioning McManus.
The last five to seven years of bail amounts have not been lowered as alleged by the chief but have been stable for violent offenders he stated.
Rangel’s analysis spans six pages of wide-ranging observations, gathered from the judiciary, the DA’s office, magistrates, the criminal defense community, the Bexar County district clerk, and community advocates.
The letter is here, but here are five of the more interesting suggestions from what is self-described as a holistic analysis.
1. City magistrate judges should not be involved in the arrest pipeline
Two bullets in the letter refer to bringing those arrested directly to the Justice Intake Assessment Annex (JIAA) and county magistrate judges. This matters because currently SAPD officers/ i.e. city police often transport the arrested to city judges for magistration — the preliminary hearing process for a crime.
The problem is that county judges deal with misdemeanor and felony infractions. City judges aren’t legally allowed to magistrate them. This led to people being magistrated twice. This process confuses the arrested and defense attorneys.
“It’s a pretty strange deal,” said John Rightmyer, a member of the San Antonio Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Association when I asked earlier this year. “Like most things here, there seem to be a lot of questions that should be answered, but no one making decisions is willing to ask.”
Now those arrested are still often being brought before city magistrates but those judges don’t make a ruling — and they are then sent to the county. Many have complained that the current system is a waste of both money and time.
The letter suggests as much as six hours could be shaved from the arrest process if they went directly to the JIAA.
2. The district attorney needs to keep good lawyers and continue to tackle its indictment backlog
Much has been written about Joe Gonzales’ inability to keep a staff. Several seasoned lawyers have exited and he has argued salaries to attract new lawyers are too low. The county gave him additional funds and he has increased recruitment efforts. The letter notes the backlog left as a result of exiting people has only exacerbated an already full plate of pre-indictment cases. The letter points to the DAs recruitment efforts as well as his reassigning lawyers to get cases indicted — so that felons aren’t released.
“The strategic move has resulted in a notable increase in the number of indictments filed in recent weeks,” said Rangel in the letter.
This temporary reassignment was made a permanent fixture. The High Risk Intake Team was agreed to by the County judge and commissioners, allowing the DA to redistribute funds from vacant positions. The move was announced in a press release shortly after the letter.
3. Parts of the system aren’t keeping up
Aside from DA’s struggling to maintain staff, Bexar County Adult Detention has also been singled out as well by media for scrutiny. But multiple departments seem to need more staff or adjusted staffing to keep up the letter implies. The Bexar County Crime Lab has lagged in getting vital lab results to attorneys and investigators and at times have led to out-of-county cases being dropped.
The private vendor for the the county probation department's GPS ankle monitoring system is not 24/7 and violations on a weekend meaning that criminal violations go unresponded to at times for days. This can be a danger to victims and communities.
4. Technology upgrades are needed
From intake to the jail to the DA to SAPD, incongruent technologies, lack of tech and out of date processes are ill prepared for the current challenges.
The technology platforms the DAs office and SAPD use don’t play together, making it difficult if impossible to share data and evidence in a timely way. This adds to the already documented issues around evidence sharing.
For the JIAA and Jail its a lack of technology that has hampered efforts.
“The paper-driven process currently utilized to book arrestees creates ongoing issues such as physical documents being lost,” reads the letter.
Court orders have at times been lost in the processing of inmate at the jail as well. TPR documented one man who was in the Bexar County jail for an additional 5 months after the court had ordered him to be released.
5. Successes have occurred
The letter has a long list of successes along the way. COVID-19 backlogs resulting from months of closed courts have been dramatically reduced by the courts and DA. SAPD and the DAs office have mended fences since the public dispute. More police reporting and digital evidence solutions are being introduced.
The letter goes out of its way to dismiss any claim that one department is to blame for five police being shot, choosing instead to focus on the system and its component parts. Whether or not the members of some of those component parts will embrace its message remains to be seen.
