Sidney Powell of Dallas, TX is an experienced former Asst. US Attorney. She is the attorney who convinced the US Dept of Justice (USDOJ) that their prior prosecution of Lt. General Michael Flynn needs to be overturned. Powell’s best seller book Licensed to Lie exposes the grave injustices of the US Department of Justice by putting hundreds, maybe thousands, of people in prison because their prosecutors have been trained to lie, to break the law (Brady violations) and withhold critical evidence from the defense counsel – evidence that can often acquit (find ‘not guilty’) the accused. Powell makes a strong case that prosecutor’s power is now ‘unchecked.’
She writes that what the USDOJ has pioneered, nationwide, has also worked its way down to state and county prosecutors. She exposed how federal law enforcement agents (FBI) routinely falsify their key witness “302s” interview reports. A federal judge was so angry in one rare case that he ‘set aside’ (overturned) a prior guilty verdict and appointed a new special prosecutor to investigate the original prosecutors. Then, with the tables turned, one of the original DOJ prosecutors, Nicholas March, committed suicide.
Judicial abuse used to be almost exclusively a grassroots Democrat agenda. Even radical leftist George Soros has been funding prosecutor races in large metros. Why are they targeting the election of prosecutors? Because as a Democrat activist says in the Soros article, “The prosecutor exercises the greatest discretion and power in the [judicial] system.” The understanding of the unchecked power of prosecutors is now moving onto the landscape of grassroots conservative Republicans.
What Does Powell Have To Do With Lincoln County’s Jail Proposal?
Her appraisal of what has happened to the office of elected prosecutors across the nation and how, with only a few exceptions, prosecutors today are not accountable to anyone – not even to the Judges nor the Bar Association – is alarming. How can this be?
In Powell’s newest book Conviction Machine she writes,
“Prosecutors have unlimited discretion in what kinds of offenses to charge and how many, as Robert H. Jackson, the attorney general, (and former US Supreme Court jurist) pointed out in his speech to United States attorneys in 1940. They can “stack” so many charges against anyone that one act of misconduct can result in charges that could imprison someone for the rest of his life.”
That is why, Powell reports, that 95% of guilty verdicts in federal court today are done by plea agreements. So much for one’s right to a trial by jury. The system is rigged for prosecutors, she argues.
We would add that then the taxpayers must pay for the jails that are needed to house those guilty of one such act of misconduct. We’ll consider further below if this stacking of charges is a concern in Lincoln County.
Lincoln County Judge Doug Hoffman Speaks
As we pointed out in our April flier (Here) the average length of stay of prisoners in Lincoln County’s custody exploded by 47% from 2017 to 2018. Judge Doug Hoffman spoke out before the Minnehaha County Commissioner’s voted to build their $46 million jail as to the harm such extended jail stays has to the individual and community. He was quoted in a Sioux Falls Argus Leader’s story Here. Judge Hoffman said,
“A few weeks behind bars is all it takes to derail a life. Jobs are lost. Bills pile up. Homes are jeopardized. It’s a toll often paid long before a person is found guilty. There’s a cost to taxpayers, too, for every night spent in jail.” [Italics and bold face added.]
The first question Lincoln County Commissioners need to ask is how many of those being held in our custody have not been convicted of anything yet? How many later lose most everything and end up becoming welfare recipients, especially those who had jobs before their single act of misconduct?
Eighty Percent!? Yes 80% Have Not Been Convicted of Anything!
As many know South Dakota has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. (Oklahoma and Alaska have higher Native American populations than we do but have lower incarceration rates.) But now consider what Judge Hoffman said about the Minnehaha County jail population just five years ago,
“Four out of five prisoners in the Minnehaha County jail are not convicted of anything.”
Four out of five? 80%?! This is unconscionable. Something is terribly wrong!
Then the Argus reported on his policies,
“People in his courtroom who are accused of non-violent drug offenses are now less likely to wait for their day in court behind bars, he said. His goal is to keep locking up violent offenders but not disrupt the lives of those who made mistakes and found themselves on the wrong side of the law. Given the fact that the jail has been full to overflowing recently, it seemed to me that it made the most sense to get moving on this,” Hoffman said. By going it alone, though, Hoffman is taking on a political risk. If people he releases skip town or commit new crimes, the judge or his new method for setting bond could be blamed.” (Underline added.)
The much bigger question is why was Judge Hoffman going it alone five years ago? Minnehaha and Lincoln County are the sole counties that make up the South Dakota 2nd Circuit Judicial Court District. It is very likely that the prisoner statistics are similar in makeup. Lincoln County Commissioners/taxpayers need to hear from the other Judges in our county to see if they’ve changed their bail-bond approach in the last five years. Meanwhile, it’s obvious that Judge Hoffman isn’t driving this increase in the Average Length of Stay of our prisoners. So, what is? Who is?
What percent of Lincoln County’s non-violent prisoners have not been convicted of anything, yet? And why are we housing them? Sheriff Steve Swenson should give those numbers to the Commissioners and to the public! Why is giving non-violent drug possession users a low bail bond along with their court date such a risk? Even if some skip out and get arrested later for another non-violent drug offense, is any harm worth building a massive wasteful jail in Lincoln County?
Finally in the Argus,
“Judge Hoffman said he thinks the national conversation is moving toward the type of system he’s implementing. “It will be the norm here, it will be a norm statewide and across the nation,” Hoffman said. “A lot of people are struggling, and they are fairly compliant with the process once they have been charged.””
To the poor ‘saps’ who had one act of misconduct and who are struggling due to multiple charges and high bail-bonds, we can now add the many taxpayers who are also struggling (though in a different way) and who can’t afford the cost of a massive new jail. May the majority Commissioners stop and hear from all their constituents!
After Johnson County, Iowa’s voters turned down two bonds for a new jail in 2012 and 2013 they reduced their jail population by 44% by changing their pre-trial detention policies, apparently along the lines of what Lincoln County Judge Hoffman recommended in the Argus article.
In a May 12, 2020, handout by the Commissioners, it was reported that the Lincoln County Sheriff has visited in and out-of-state Public Safety Centers (PSC). What PSC’s did Sheriff Swenson visit? Where were they? What kind of bail-bond policies did those counties have? If he didn’t get to Johnson County, Iowa, the Lincoln County Citizens for Real Progress Committee would be willing to raise money to pay for Swenson’s trip there and to have him learn how they dealt with their jail population without building an expensive new jail.
Win-At-All-Costs Prosecutors
Is charging people with an excessive number of offenses playing a role in the three Commissioners’ projected growth in future jail population? First consider what Sidney Powell said in her book Conviction Machine. She used to train young prosecutors to pick four or five of the best charges against most defendants and stick with them. This makes for shorter trials and with drug cases and mandatory minimum terms of imprisonment, many serious offenders were looking at 25 years in prison anyway. But she writes,
“…that wasn’t sufficient for a new breed of win-at-all-cost prosecutors, who instead of drafting reasonable indictments began piling on as many charges as they could.” (p 86)
She writes on how many prosecutors began doing this because they love seeing their name in the media or to move up the judicial ladder as fast as they can (often becoming heavy-handed judges themselves) or to beef up their personal political goals. At such a point justice yields to the personal career goals of unaccountable prosecutors. Again, in her book Powell shows that this policy at the Federal level has been pushed down to the state court system as well.
With high dollar bail bond amounts here in South Dakota, these multiple charges can often accumulate into bonds which the non-violent defendant cannot afford. So off to jail he/she goes, and they can easily become a part of the 80% of those sitting in the other 2nd Judicial District jail that have not even had their day in court yet.
Lincoln County’s ‘Charging’ of Criminals
Only six weeks before the February 18, 2020, meeting where the three Commissioners voted on a Resolution to enter into a $50 million Lease-Purchase Agreement (that Tuntland was personally drug into court over, but was rescinded by the Commissioners in July), State’s Attorney Thomas Wollman announced on KELO that felony charges are up 70% in 2019 from 2016 in Lincoln County. (Note in the story his starting point of 2016 was just before the Average Length of Stay started to explode In Lincoln County.) We wouldn’t be surprised if Wollman’s ‘scary’ report was on their minds when the three Commissioners voted. But read the article carefully. Notice we are not told how many felony charges are filed per act of misconduct, nor by class of felony. Further notice the State’s Attorney’s statement to KELO,
“Predominately our increase is driven by the drug methamphetamine, whether it be property related crimes which is burglaries or storage unit thefts, garage burglaries, things like that, a lot of those are driven by methamphetamine,” Wollman said.
Notice, no mention of violence? So how many charges have been filed per incident each year since 2016? That is the critical number the Commissioners and taxpayers should be told. Wollman concluded,
“We are trending up right now significantly and I don’t foresee that changing.”
How can Wollman be so confident of this growth in felony charges? Is it growth in incidents of crime or is his projection driven by his own ‘charging’ policy? Possible stacking of charges? Commissioners and taxpayers should know if these projected jail population increases are connected to a policy State’s Attorney Wollman has adopted (that only he and his staff are aware of) or are the incidents of real crime going up.
Such a policy, former Asst. US Attorney Powell argues, is making many prisoners into welfare dependents, provides little hope for their future after they’ve paid their penalties; and for some who don’t care about their future, it is providing them free lodging and meals. And for the average Lincoln County taxpayer, we’d add, this policy could be a driving force behind an attempted dramatic increase in property taxes on them.
Commissioners Need Hard Data Before Deciding On Future Jail Needs
The Commissioners need to know what impact any ‘citation and misdemeanor summons’ policy (for minor offenders) that Sheriff Swenson may have adopted since Covid-19 has had on jail populations. This policy would reduce holding any minor offenders (I.e. drug possession) which they may previously placed in jail. – part of that 80% Judge Hoffman was talking about.
Early the Thursday morning before election day in the Market Grille at a major grocery store on Minnesota Ave. Commissioner Schmidt was ‘holding court’ for about 15 to 20 older men as to why the jail was needed. Here he is below.
An associate of LCCRP present that morning could tell most of the men with him were not buying his arguments, several complaining about high property taxes on their homes and one objected to the size of the proposed jail. Soon, like a good politician, Schmidt switched gears and started talking to the members of his coffee-clutch about the great program they have for ankle bracelets on non-violent prisoners out on bail and how closely the Sheriff can track them. We encourage Commissioner Schmidt to now bring this same topic up in the Commission meeting as one part of several alternatives to a massive jail proposal.
Finally, we strongly recommend that the Lincoln County Commissioners request State’s Attorney Wollman provide data on incidents of felony crimes, number of charges per incident, and the average jail stay per incident. We drafted a sample table that could be used, below. The Commissioners need to see the trends to determine where Wollman’s bold prediction is coming from.
Stop Introducing The Kids To Drugs
As to any growth in the incidents of drug-related crimes it’s time to stop the government-funded drug ed courses. Now-retired Sioux Falls Police Captain Greg Vande Kamp was a DARE drug-ed officer in the Sioux Falls schools 30+ years ago. He admitted to an associate of our Committee, back at the time, that the drug-ed courses were introducing the entire drug world to many kids for the first time, kids that otherwise knew nothing about it. Drug-ed courses presented drug use as a ‘choice’ to many kids who did…well, what kids often do, and they chose to do drugs for the first time after DARE.
School drug-ed courses ended up taking advantage of rudderless kids by introducing them to the “relief” of emotional pain via drug use. Sidney Powell agrees that much of the federal laws of the 1980’s “drug war” have only made the drug epidemic worse.
The police and others need to think ‘outside the box’ and stop creating more drug criminals by teaching young children about drugs. It has only made matters worse over the last 40 years. Those addicted to drugs need more treatment and rehabilitation measures. Judge Doug Hoffman is pointing us the way and another huge jail is not the solution!
Finally, even President Trump is leading a bi-partisan effort to reduce county, state and federal jail populations when he signed his First Step Act into law on April 1, 2019, when he said, “The First Step Act serves as a model for criminal justice reform….through out many states that are following our lead and already moving similar legislation forward…” The Lincoln County Commissioners need, again, to get to the bottom of Wollman’s bold prediction on felony charges, follow the lead President Trump has taken and seek any advice Judge Doug Hoffman may have to offer.
Conclusion
Clearly Chairman Poppens, here, is trying to ignore the voters. The other Commissioners need to take charge of this agenda and get answers on charging policies, incident volumes, ankle bracelets, and the bail bond policies for non-violent offenders from our County Sheriff and our State’s Attorney.
Note: If there are any in the law enforcement community or judicial system who might be able to point us to where we could research this further, please feel free to anonymously email us any factual tips that you think may help.
David Tuntland, Exec. Director
Lincoln County Citizens for Real Progress
Ph: 605-670-8731
Email: lccrprogress@yahoo.com