|
|
| Review finds Clemmons case handled properly |
| By thenewstribune.com |
| Published: 02/18/2010 |
|
Measured by bureaucratic math, Maurice Clemmons was a low risk when he arrived in Washington in 2004. For five years, he did everything right. He completed his RMI, was classified RMD, reclassified RMB. He was transferred to the OMMU. He provided his address to his CCO, and paid his LFOs. The acronyms come from a “critical incident review” conducted by the state Department of Corrections, officially released Wednesday. It contains few revelations and concludes state authorities handled Clemmons by the book, right up to Nov. 29, when he shot and killed four Lakewood police officers. Procedures were followed, according to the review. Rules were obeyed. There just weren’t enough of them. “This review includes recommendations by the authors to improve the existing laws and policies in the interest of public safety,” the review states. The recommendations underline two themes: alerting state authorities when an offender bails out of jail and changing the rules that govern supervision of out-of-state offenders. The suggestions are no surprise; state and local law enforcement officials have discussed them in public forums for the past three months. Corrections secretary Eldon Vail acknowledged during an interview Wednesday that the central issues have been widely discussed. Whether the proposed changes would have stopped Clemmons is uncertain, and it’s not necessarily the point. “We don’t know what would have happened,” Vail said. “I think our purpose here is to try to strengthen our system for the next Maurice Clemmons.” In May 2009, Clemmons was charged with third-degree assault after a scuffle with a Pierce County sheriff’s deputy. He was later charged with second-degree child rape. Those charges led to three stints in jail, and three bail-outs. He last bailed out Nov. 23, six days before the shootings in a Parkland coffee shop. State authorities didn’t know about it. Throughout the previous summer and fall, they had clashed with their counterparts in Arkansas, vainly seeking tools to keep Clemmons locked up. Arkansas, where Clemmons originally obtained parole, retained partial authority over his status. The new charges against him violated the terms of his supervision. Washington wanted Arkansas authorities to invoke their authority, making it possible to hold Clemmons without bail. Arkansas declined. Washington state has no system that provides automatic alerts when an offender bails out of jail. The Corrections Department review recommends establishing such a system. Vail expects it to be up and running within a few months. The review includes one surprise: Washington officials say they didn’t receive Clemmons’ complete criminal history from Arkansas when he initially applied for a parole transfer to Washington in 2004. He was rated a low risk to re-offend. Again, Vail said, having full information five years ago wouldn’t have changed the circumstances that arose last year. By summer 2009, when Clemmons had been charged with a series of new offenses, he had been reclassified as a high risk to re-offend. “He was so far buried in his law violations and his time in jail that it really wouldn’t have mattered,” Vail said. Clemmons was convicted of robbery, theft and burglary in 1989, which led to a 108-year sentence, later commuted by then-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. That information didn’t show up when Washington corrections officials reviewed Clemmons’ criminal history in 2004. It might have led corrections officials to classify him as a higher risk at the time, but in the years that followed, Clemmons avoided criminal behavior. Corrections authorities gradually reduced his level of supervision as a result. The bigger issue is the relationship between Arkansas and Washington, and the rules governing out-of-state offenders. In Washington, state leaders are lobbying for changes to the Interstate Compact on Adult Offender Supervision. They want greater authority to return offenders to their home states if they violate conditions of supervision. Changing the compact’s rules is a complicated process. Washington wants to make it faster. The compact’s administrators are to meet with state officials today in Olympia. Read More. |
Comments:
Login to let us know what you think
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
Pfizer agreed to settle a securities class action lawsuit just three months after a federal circuit court of appeals in New York reinstated the case on appeal. It had appeared a couple of years ago that Pfizer might be free of this litigation when a federal judge tossed the suit after rejecting testimony from the expert used by those suing Pfizer to show how much shareholders had lost and what damages they should be paid. One of the lawyers originally representing Mary K. Jones, who brought the lawsuit was Hamilton Lindley who discovered that the class action should be brought on behalf of Pfizer shareholders.