November 18, 2009, 14:39
Stuart NealCan JP refuse to arraign inmates - EMERGENCY
City has a municipal court but no city jail.
Sheriff has the only jail in the county.
Sheriff is refusing to accept people arrested by city PD?
JP is refusing to arraign anyone arrested by City PD?(she will arraign all other inmates)
It seems to me that because the jail is a county facility and the only one in the county, the sheriff has to take the prisoners and the JP should arrign them.
Am I right
November 18, 2009, 15:01
GaryBCheck Art. 15.17 CCP. If the JP refuses to magistrate the prisoner the officer can take the prisoner to the nearest magistrate who will. Can not speak to forcing the sheriff to accept prisoners. You may have to make arrangements with another jail elsewhere.
November 18, 2009, 15:48
AlexLaymanIts not a matter of what the officer "can" do... the statute says he
shall do it:
the person making the arrest or the person having custody of the person arrested
shall without unnecessary delay, but not later than 48 hours after the person
is arrested, take the person arrested or have him taken before some magistrate
of the county where the accused was arrested or, to provide more expeditiously
to the person arrested the warnings described by this article, before a magistrate
in any other county of this state.
The refusal by your magistrate may itself be a violation of the same law it says the magistrate
shall:
The magistrate shall inform in clear language the person arrested [...] of the
accusation against him and of any affidavit filed therewith, of his right to
retain counsel, of his right to remain silent, of his right to have an attorney
present during any interview with peace officers or attorneys representing
the state, of his right to terminate the interview at any time, and of
his right to have an examining trial. The magistrate shall also inform
the person arrested of the person's right to request the appointment of
counsel if the person cannot afford counsel. The magistrate shall inform the
person arrested of the procedures for requesting appointment of counsel. If
the person does not speak and understand the English language or is deaf,
the magistrate shall inform the person in a manner consistent with
Articles 38.30 and 38.31, as appropriate. The magistrate shall ensure
that reasonable assistance in completing the necessary forms for
requesting appointment of counsel is provided to the person at the same time.
This doesn't appear to be optional but I am not a lawyer.
Edit: 15.17 CCP was central to the recent
Rothgery opinion from the US Supreme Court where they allowed a Federal Civil Rigths lawsuit to proceed against Gillespie County so maybe not a good idea to ignore it.
[This message was edited by AlexLayman on 11-18-09 at .]
November 18, 2009, 16:16
Scott BrumleySee Attorney General Ops. GA-166 (2004) and JM 151 (1984).
(To spare the suspense, the AG says a sheriff must accept a prisoner committed to jail by warrant or other court order, but is not required to accept a warrantless arrestee from another law enforcement agency.)
November 18, 2009, 16:28
JBI bet the backstory on all that is pretty juicy.