Records: Thomas had brief jail stay
School board President
David Thomas fared better than many people when he was charged in 1998 with drunken driving. Several days later, a municipal judge told Thomas to simply
stay out of trouble for a year,
and the computer record of the charge would be erased.
Now it's clear that Thomas' experience with the justice system departed from the norm within two hours after a Mobile police officer spotted him -- as the officer described it -- passed out at the wheel of his vehicle, according to interviews and court documents.
Instead of sitting behind bars until he sobered up, like most people who a
re arrested for DUI, Thomas was freed less than an hour after he registered a blood-alcohol lev
el of .14, according to court documents.
Thomas also was allowed to sign for his release from the jail, which saved him the trouble and expense of securing bail through a bond company. That, too, isn't standard practice, according to Mobile County Sheriff's Department officials.
The jail would not have allowed Thomas to sign himself out early unless a judge intervened and asked that the school board member be treated differently, according to Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Christina Bowersox.
"There is no way that you can be released early without the C.O. (corrections officer) having been given instructions from a judge," she said.
In Thomas' case, it's not known which judge, if any, authorized Thomas' quick release. Nothing was written in the court file about it.
Presiding Distri
ct Judge Michael McMaken said he believes judges rarely intervene to have someone released from jail early.
Presiding Circuit Judge Robert Kendal
l could not be reached for comment.
Presiding Mobile Municipal Judge James Lackey said he can't recall if he's ever asked the jail to release someone early. "And in general, I wouldn't because I think they should stay there until they're sober," he said.
He said some judges will allow it, however, if they know and trust the person and are confident that the person will not drive after being released.
"I don't fault another judge for doing it," Lackey said, "if he knows the person isn't going to get out and get behind the wheel."
Donald Briskman, who is representing Thomas on a recent DUI charge and two traffic offenses, said he didn't know what happened in the 1998 case because he wasn't Thomas' lawyer then. Briskman also has declined to ask Thomas who,
if anyone, represented him at the time.
Thomas' 1998 arrest came to light after he was arrested Feb. 8 -- Fat Tuesday -- of this year on charges of DUI and leaving the scene of an accident. He was accused of driving
over the foot of an 8-year-old girl, bruising her foot and leg. The second charge was later upgraded to a felony because of the injury.
He faces an unrelated charge of leaving the scene of an accident stemming from an alleged collision with a pickup truck in mid-2004.
Thomas has not been tried on any of the charges, and Briskman has maintained his client's innocence.
In 1998, Thomas avoided a conviction and was ordered to pay just
$98 to the court, much less than he would have had to pay if he had been convicted.
Municipal Judge Wanda Rahman ordered that the case be expunged -- wiped off the computer records -- and also asked the state to reinstate Thomas' driver's license without a fee.
Rahman has said she didn't treat Thomas differently than any other defendant.
According to state law, adults arrested for DUI cannot be released from the jail until their blood-alcohol content drops below .08, the legal limit. Metro Jail also has a w
ritten policy stating that those people must stay for eight hours unless they take a blood-alcohol test later and register below .08, Bowersox said.
Thomas was spotted by the arresting officer about 11 p.m. on Dec. 11, 1998, according to the officer's report. At 11:44 p.m., Thomas registered a .14 on a breath test device. He was then taken to the jail, which released him at 12:39 a.m., according to the handwritten notation of a corrections officer on Thomas' bond sheet.
Despite that, Sheriff Jack Tillman said recently that "we don't let anybody out early on DUIs. ... I've got friends of mine who get arrested -- they've got to stay eight hours."
Tillman said he's not willing to
make an exception because he didn't want to "take a chance of them getting in another vehicle and killing somebody."
It should be noted that a computer record of the arrest, which would have been typed in by a jail employee, sets the beginning of Thomas' custody at 12:41 a.m., however, it doesn't n
ote a release time.
Even without the legal requirement, people familiar with the jail said it often takes hours to be booked in and released because of all the paperwork and activity in the docket room.
"It could take as much as three or four hours" on a busy night and one or two hours on a slow night, Tillman said.
Mobile lawyer Jim Byrd, who frequently represents people charged with DUI, said most people end up staying in jail until they're sober. Considering how busy the docket room usually is, "I would imagine that it's more likely that they would keep them longer than necessary rather than shorter than necessary," he sa
id.
And most people have to post a bond -- guaranteed by cash, property or a bonding company -- as a part of their promise to appear in court. Thomas guaranteed his appearance simply by signing his name, and that, according to Sheriff's Department officials, is not standard practice.
"We don't O.R. (release the arrestee on hi
s 'own recognizance') anyone on municipal cases," said Tillman, who took office in 1995. "Especially on DUIs."
Lackey said he generally doesn't allow people to sign themselves out, though he will in some cases. He noted that the point of making people post bail is to ensure that they will appear in court.
If he were dealing with "David Thomas or somebody prominent enough that I know is not going to run or stay away from court," the judge said, "then I wouldn't have a problem with them signing their own bond."
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Niggers can
9;t get a break in our racist society.
T.N.B.
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