I went to the North Court in Fullerton on Friday with a client for a “possession with intent to sell dangerous drugs”. The client was there with his mom and a few other members from his family. He was trying to get into rehab and had already coordinated with a rehab center for the next available bed which was to be available that day or sometime over the weekend. The public defender asked for a copy of the letter from the rehab center so as to help reduce bail from $250,000 to something more manageable. Rehab emailed it to me and I forwarded it on to the court and his PD. I also informed the PD that the family was prepared to post bail but not at $250,000 but up to $50,000.
I asked the PD if the client should just be released on his own recognizance since he was going into rehab. I asked why should he have to post bail since we have a letter from the president of the rehab center that he was next on the list for a bed. I don’t really understand the judges logic making the family post a $100,000 bond when all this guy was going to do was go within the next 2 days to surrender to rehab. He wasn’t in custody and had been appearing at all of his court dates prior to Friday. Why didn’t the judge deem the original $20,000 bail sufficient?