Plea deal avoids jury trial

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On September 12 I posted an article titled "No time to be nonchalant", and today a reader sent this comment to that article. The comment is too good to be missed.

"Well today...a career criminal, 2 time felon who should have been put in prison last year...arrested on close to 30 charges in 3 years. Go to the County Public case Access site and look up case 10CM002397, and for further info look at the perps name and do a check on his history on the same site. Amazing. The whole neighborhood is once again let down by the office! This last time he should have been revoked for the last set of conditions they placed on his 3rd felony charge 2 years back. He was set to go to trial tomorrow on 5 counts. 3 assault and 2 resisiting arrest where the police suffered the punches. The states \Attorney let this guy plead out...again! And guess what he got? he gets 24 days jail to be served on 12 weekens. And a $250.00 fine! Now, they DID place more conditions...however conditions have been set in several of this mans cases prior and he has broken them all pretty much. So what do they do in spite of the promises that this time they would make no deals and allow no pleas? They make a deal and allow more conditions. And each time this guy gets away with something, he escalates into a more agressive and dangerous stance. So, I agree. This should have gone to tril tomorrow ( the victims by the way ahd NO say at all ) and were told they had no clue of the legal system or law when they emailed to complain! They still have a slight chance to revoke his last parole...but I highly doubbt it. My opinion is...that maybe this was part of the back room deal? Only time will tell... "

Case No. 10CM002397 was filed October 9, 2010, with a Charge Date of October 8, 2010, by the Oakwood Hills Police Department. The defendant was Charles E. Braun, now 49. Braun was originally appointed a Public Defender, and the case meandered along with the usual continuances and jury trial demands, and then in February 2012 Braun retained a private attorney, David A. Ullrick.

A jury trial was scheduled for today and, as often happened, everything ground to a halt with a plea deal.

The rest of the story will be available tomorrow, after the Circuit Court online records are updated.

The charges in the court record do not reflect assault on a peace officer. There are two counts of resisting arrest and three charges of assault.

When are the court's going to put a stop to this nonsense? Why should two years of continuances pass and preparation for a jury trial, and then a deal is made at the 11th hour? Almost every defendant demands a jury trial, which clogs the court calendars. Then they deal on the day a trial is to start.

Judges should say, "Decide if you want a jury trial. If you ask for one, then you are going to get one. Period." And then no deals at the last minute.