The constitution also allows denial of bail altogether for the sixty-day period if the
defendant has been convicted of only one prior felony within the State, if the current charge involves a felony alleged to have been committed with a deadly weapon. The sixty-day limit may be extended to the extent that the trial has been delayed at the request of the defendant.
But rather than go to that extent of what it MUST do, the Magistrate Courts organize a deception of itself, rerouting arraignments on the same charges, and then again, and then again. Never giving a thought to the meaning of liberty or the Constitutional requirements of the State.
And how does Chad Redhouse deal with this? To save his soul and to preserve his sanity at the depths of this Kafkaesque nightmare, he files motions. The motions are denied. He filed one last week, asking that the charges be dismissed because he hadn't been arraigned for 110 days after his arrest, and the New Mexico Statutes say it must be done within 30 days. Judge David Segura denies the motion, and then arraigns him, as if the statutes somehow don't apply, how many days late? 110-30=80 days late. It seemed another example of surreal justice under a guise of law.
Then there are the questions of double docketing and triple docketing, filing the same charges in 3 different courtrooms with three different judges. And keeping him in longer because they have never been consolidated""or were they as the NM Courts website reports two orders to consolidate and then a reconsideration to deny consolidation. . In all twelve charges in 4 cases brought before 3 Judges based on two events.
There are constitutional limits to what the Court can and cannot do.
Excerpt from "UNFAIR PROSECUTION DENIES
BULLYING LEGAL TACTICS ON NAVAJO
ACCUSED OF BATTERY by Eliot Gould,
Sun News of Santa Fe, November 2007.
The District Attorney is not an agent of the Federal government. His duties and responsibilities to the discharge of justiceare unique under the constitutional system. It is from that office that the leadership necessary to take proactive compliance measures may undertaken. Learned lessons need not remain buried in silence.
"- While Mr.Redhouse was released and all charges dismissed, which is the point of a habeas, there is a sadness in that silence that now is. We have knowledge that the magistrates Court employs an inferior public defender system. We witnessed arraignment processes over 100 days late. And that "the 60 day " bond requirement was either misinterpreted or ignored as an obligation by the magistrates Court.The exactness may be better understood with an examination of the Courts calendar years rather than a single case which by now is a "given"- as an example of the badly broken system.
In 2002, the Santa Fe Magistrate Court had 843 misdemeanor cases filed. Based on the disposition codes entered by the Administrative Office of the Supreme Court, 29 resulted case trials.
In 2007, the number of misdemeanor cases had risen 1521, and the number of case trials had reduced to 8.
Of course there are several ways to interpret those figures; but the only reasonable conclusion that can be is that the "system"- is out of balance, lacking constitutional integrity. That conclusion becomes even clearer, with its underlying disparaging effect with some additional information.
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