Report, Research, Eritas Conclusions and Opinions by Robert A
Editor’s Note: It is time for the NEW Cleveland County Budget for 2025-2026 to be rolled out and the Commissioners have been called out on their reckless and feckless spending sprees. Headed up by the New Justice Center Project that has been a budget buster from the git-go. Besides being unnecessary and way under-estimated by Hundreds of Million$ of Dollar$. And requiring major tax increases that are as historic as they New Justice Center is unnecessary.
Part 1. Cutting the number of new Jail Cells by 65.
The Courthouse rumors are the reckless and feckless commissioners are about to cut the number of jail cells in the New Justice Center by 65. Not eliminating any jail cells, just NOT finishing 65 jail cells to cut construction costs.
However, Robert A AND the Commissioners have just received new information that there are many jail cells in the old Jail housing many inmates for up to almost 6 years with no bond and no Court Trial. In fact, there are 79 inmates in the Cleveland County Jail that have been in Jail from 200 days to 2,039 days Under No Bonds or bonds that are too expensive for them to make bail. And NO trials are in sight. Read the other document attached to this document for the full accounting. Which includes the inmates name, charges, how long they have been in Jail, who the DA handling their case is and who the inmates Appointed Attorney is.
Also note that the DA with the highest number of inmate days is Richard Shaffer, who seems to specialize in Murder charges, but apparently just leaves them in jail without ever going to court to try the case and sending the guilty ones to prison or to the hangman.
As for the Cleveland County District Attorney Mike Miller; he apparently doesn’t try very serious cases at all. DA Miller had Zero cases on this list.
Part 2: Reduce the Courtrooms from 10 to 6.
Such an idea as this appears to be totally obvious. If the District Attorneys don’t try the cases, who needs that many Courtrooms. Allegedly the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Department, who supplies the bailiffs for the Court Rooms, has stated as a fact that there have never been more that Four Courtrooms operating at the same time. So, why have 10 Courtrooms in the NEW Justice Center Project when you only ever use four??? And, most of the time you could get by with three or even two. If you properly scheduled the trials or other Court actions.
It has been Robert A’s observations that a lot of the time NONE of the Courtrooms are in use for actual trials. Especially for the lesser offenses such as simple larceny, etc. A common scenario is a trial date is set and the prosecuting witnesses are present in Court. But the defense attorney asks for a layover and the Judge grants it. A new court date is set and the Prosecuting witness shows up again, and the case gets laid over again. Then the prosecuting witness realizes he has wasted so much time coming to Court that it would be cheaper for him to just drop the case. And when the case comes up again and the prosecuting witness is not there, the defense lawyer asks the judge to dismiss the case and the Judge dismisses the case. It is an old trick. But only one of many “old tricks.”
Just like the previously noted list of Jail inmates who have been in Jail so long without a trial. Years even. Finally, after so much time in jail without a trial, the DA offers the inmate a Plea Bargain. If the inmate will plead guilty, the DA will ask the judge for a trial that will never be tried. The Inmate pleads Guilty and the Da will recommend the inmate be set free because the time already served in jail is equal or more than if the case had been tried and the inmate is found guilty.
Folks, let all this sink in for a while. And stay tuned for Part 3. Robert A will then clearly explain why the reasons for needing a new jail were phony in the first place. That this $400 Million to $500 Million New Justice Center was not needed in the first place.
