Want to piss off a judge? Show up to court a little bit late.
A ruling handed down this morning by the Maricopa County Superior Court shows that judges are pissed, but not at those on trial. They're pissed at the cops who are supposed to get them to the courthouse on time.
Judge Gary Donahoe found MCSO Chief Deputy David Trombi liable for several instances where inmates were not delivered to court on time for various types of court appearances.
The ruling claims that the MCSO is legally required to have enough staff present to get inmates to court on time, and in many cases, it isn't living up to its end of the bargain, causing inmates to be late.
For example: On August 11, inmate Pedro Garcia caused at least 35 members of a jury panel, several lawyers, and other court officials to wait an hour for him to get to the courtroom while he sat in a holding cell in the same building.
The very next day, the same exact thing happened. Garcia sat in a holding cell, while court officials twiddled their thumbs wondering if a man, who was already in police custody, was going to show up for court.
MCSO Seargent Glenn Czapski, according to court documents, told the court that Garcia had in fact made it to the courhouse on time, but because of insufficient staff, didn't make it to the courtroom until nearly an hour after the scheduled appearance.
The most blatant slap to the court was on August 29, when "MCSO made a conscious command decision not to deliver nearly half of the inmates who had scheduled court appearances in the downtown RCC courts."
In other words, the Sheriff's Office just flatout didn't bring 25 the inmates to their court appearances.
The court has ordered Trombi and the MCSO to pay $100 to each inmate who didn't make it to court on August 29, $2000 to the court, and various fines to other inmates who were late to court.
Calls to Trombi's office were not returned in a timely manner. Is this guy on time for anything?
