THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 7, 1994 TAG: 9409070005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Norfolk General District Judge Charles R. Cloud is distressed that Commonwealth's Attorney Charles D. Griffith Jr. and City Attorney Philip R. Trapani ``have consistently refused the few requests of mine that (they) participate in particular trials for administration of justice and fair trial purposes.''
The judge notes that he must by law appoint lawyers to represent some indigent defendants. He believes the commonwealth's attorney or the city attorney ought to respond to his pleas for a prosecutor's participation in some serious misdemeanor cases in which poor people - African Americans and women, mainly - allege harm.
Prosecutors are needed, he says, in cases involving possible violation of constitutional rights. He asserts that the absence of a prosecutor for many serious misdemeanor cases undermines the administration of justice and creates a perception of bias against blacks and women.
So the judge, in a letter buttressed by a document roughly 200 pages long (including appendices), has asked state Attorney General James S. Gilmore III whether he can compel the commonwealth's attorney to supply a prosecutor upon request.
Griffith says he would like to accommodate Judge Cloud, but that his office lacks resources to provide a prosecutor for the judge's court. Judge Cloud is one of several Norfolk General District Court judges. Tens of thousands of defendants annually pass through their courtrooms. Nonetheless, the judge, a former prosecutor himself, argues that daily perusal of the docket in his court by an assistant commonwealth's attorney could be accomplished within an hour.
The judge reasons that prosecutorial screening of the docket would save money because ``the public prosecutor will be experienced to exercise prosecutorial discretion and suggest whether a possible jail sentence should be considered in each such case.'' The prosecutor's ruling out of jail sentences in selected cases, leaving fines as the maximum alternative punishment upon a finding of guilty, would avoid the necessity of appointing defense attorneys for poor defendants and thus save money.
More prosecution of defendants charged with crimes of violence would certainly be welcomed, as is the avoidance of unnecessary expenditure of public funds. But given the language of the relevant Virginia law, it would be surprising if Attorney General Gilmore tells Judge Cloud that he can command the commonwealth's attorney to assign a prosecutor to his court or to certain cases.
Local prosecutors set their own priorities, and are answerable to the voters for the way they employ their resources. And local observers of the criminal-justice system who are active in programs to protect the rights of women and African Americans have agreed with Griffith that staff shortages, not prejudice, are at fault.
The judge undercuts his case by the way he has chosen to highlight it. The judge is part Cherokee and active in tribal affairs. He recounts a ``vision,'' while traveling on an airplane, in which Sitting Bull appeared amid multitudes ``dressed in the regalia of Native America.''
These multitudes, the judge says, ``agreed that thereafter I was to be known as `Thunder' Cloud.'' The multitudes commissioned him to ``seek a commitment from all that they must live each day and night with an overriding concern that gender and racial bias and its preception must be removed from the land, as well as its justice system.''
A few weeks ago, Judge Cloud, wearing his Indian headdress, broke from tradition ``(to) speak out about the anguish of crime victims in his court.'' His forum was ``the roadside vegetable stand,'' as his press release stated, in the 600 block of East Virginia Beach Boulevard in Norfolk.
The forces and institutions of law and order are everywhere overwhelmed, to the detriment of all. The ratio of police to serious crimes was three to one a couple of decades ago. Now it is one to three. Courts, jail and prisons are jammed. Public fear of crime is high, as are violent-crime rates.
Judge Cloud is troubled by a genuine problem. That he has addressed his concern in ways that draw unflattering attention to himself is unfortunate. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
JUDGE CLOUD
by CNB