Editorial Advisory Board: Tuggle’s claims on judges are off-base

Acting Baltimore Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle’s Dec. 14 and 17 opinion piece published by The Sun and republished by Gov. Larry Hogan was highly critical of Baltimore City Circuit Court judges for imposing light sentences on violent criminals; Tuggle continues a pattern of Baltimore police commissioners blaming the courts for the sins of the department and for Baltimore crime.

Less than 15 months ago we took then-Commissioner Kevin Davis to task for making essentially the same false accusations that Baltimore City Circuit Court judges are to blame for light sentences for violent criminals. Judges are prevented by the Canons of Judicial Conduct from responding to attacks such as Tuggle’s most recent one, and the Maryland Judiciary has a policy of not commenting on individual cases.  But, the facts of the Raytawn Benjamin case, the case that Tuggle used as his one example to support his generalized conclusion that judges hand down lesser sentences than prosecutors seek, paints a very different picture than the one that Tuggle claimed occurred.

The acting commissioner’s assertion that the state asked for an eight year sentence in the case is incorrect; the state asked for 18 months of incarceration. Benjamin had no record when he appeared before Baltimore City Circuit Judge Jeffrey Geller; this was because an earlier conviction had been vacated as it was based on the testimony of the BPD Gun Trace Task Force officers. When he appeared before Judge Geller, the state sought a sentence of three and five consecutive years on two counts (neither for crimes of violence) with all but 18 months suspended.  Benjamin had been in jail since July waiting trial and if he was sentenced to 18 months he would have had a record and would have been immediately eligible for parole.  Instead, Judge Geller from the bench called Project SERVE and got Benjamin into a job program and made completion a condition of his probation, violation of which could result in imposition of the full eight years. Hats off to the judge.

The Daily Record Editorial Advisory Board analyzed the statistics from 2016 and 2017 that Davis used to support his claim that judges in Baltimore imposed lenient sentences on violent criminals. Of the 605 convictions Davis’ office used to support his assertion, we found that a full 90 percent of the sentences he cited were a direct result of plea bargains between the state’s attorney and defense lawyers, or they were due to a few Alford pleas. In other words, even before the case was called before the bench in a court of law, in almost 90 percent of these cases a deal for sentencing was worked out in advance by the defense lawyer and the state; the judge was asked to agree.

Absent the plea agreement, and its acceptance by a judge, the defendant would likely not have been brought to trial; there is a strong feeling among the defense bar that the state does not want to try cases, and when it does, witnesses refuse to appear out of fear, juries refuse to find police witnesses credible and the state’s attorney refuses to prosecute some cases because the witnesses are police officers charged with crimes.

Baltimore suffers from significant crime problems.  Although it may not be a root cause of those problems, the repeated instances of misconduct and lying by Baltimore Police Department officers are serious impediments to correcting those problems and instituting justice.  The courts are not the problem.

The crime problem in Baltimore is hardly fixable by the judges and worse, Tuggle’s arguments to the contrary, and his inaccurate assertions of blame, stretch the credibility of the Baltimore Police Department even thinner that it now is — if that is even possible. And he kicks sand on the judiciary. Acting Commissioner Tuggle should get his own house in order instead of attacking the courts that have to deal with the messes his officers create.

Editorial Advisory Board member James B. Astrachan is married to Judge Julie R. Rubin. Board member H. Mark Stichel chairs the Baltimore City Sitting Judges Committee, of which Mr. Astrachan is a member. 

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS

James B. Astrachan, Chair

James K. Archibald

John Bainbridge Jr.

Wesley D. Blakeslee

Martha Ertman

Arthur F. Fergenson

Nancy Forster

Susan Francis

Michael Hayes

Ericka King

Stephen Meehan

C. William Michaels

Angela W. Russell

Debra G. Schubert

L. Mark Stichel

The Daily Record Editorial Advisory Board is composed of members of the legal profession who serve voluntarily and are independent of The Daily Record. Through their ongoing exchange of views, members of the Board attempt to develop consensus on issues of importance to the Bench, Bar and public. When their minds meet, unsigned opinions will result. When they differ, majority views and signed rebuttals will appear. Members of the community are invited to contribute letters to the editor and/or columns about opinions expressed by the Editorial Advisory Board.

Find out more about the members of the Editorial Advisory Board.