Transport driver in jail after bail change
Judge raises $1,500 amount to $350,000, settles on $10,000
A Brown Deer business owner who had been free on $1,500 bail since he was charged in May with sexually assaulting a passenger of his medical transport service found himself in jail this week when a judge suddenly increased the bail to $350,000, an amount his attorney called excessive and challenged on Friday.
The case provides one of the sharpest examples of a frequent conflict between a policy of reducing the number of people in jail awaiting trial and some judges’ more historic views about the function of bail.
According to a criminal complaint, Chukwuemeka Nathaniel Uduh, 45, had been transporting an adult woman with disabilities
to a work center three times a week since January, via his business Patec Medical Transport. On May 2, he instead took her to a motel in Franklin where they had sex.
Uduh, 45, was charged with second-degree sexual assault because the victim “suffers from a mental deficiency” that makes her unable to appraise her conduct, the complaint charges. Udoh admitted going to the motel for sex, but disputes that his passenger was unable to consent.
At Uduh’s initial appearance May 6, Court Commissioner J.C. Moore set a bail of $1,000 and ordered Uduh put on GPS monitoring through Justice Point, the agency that administers pre-trial detention for the county. But if GPS was unavailable, he could be released without it by posting $1,500 bail. He posted the higher amount and was released.
According to court records, Uduh, who has no prior record, kept at least 18 appointments with Justice Point so far and had no violations. But he also kept driving other clients to various appointments, and that set off Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Conen on Wednesday, prompting him to jail Uduh via the huge bail. At a hearing Friday, Conen expounded on why he was frustrated and “blew a gasket” Wednesday.
Conen called it “beyond ridiculous” that Moore had let Uduh an option of avoiding GPS monitoring. “For an extra $500 he gets a ‘get out of jail free’ card,” Conen said.
Uduh’s attorney, Hazel Washington, filed motions over the summer to obtain the victim’s diary and her medical treatment records, which a prosecutor opposed. Though the case had come before Conen a couple of other times, it wasn’t until Wednesday that he expressed concerns with Uduh’s bail conditions.
Without any request from the state, he raised the bail to $350,000 and told Washington to bring information to Friday’s hearing about the extent of Udoh’s transportation contracts.
On Friday, Conen insisted he wasn’t “trying this case pre-trial,” and said the $350,000 was like a “temporary detainer” until he could figure out what was going on.
Washington said her client would agree not to drive any more clients and wear a GPS bracelet if the bail was adjusted back to the original amount. The prosecutor asked for $2,500 bail plus the other conditions.
Conen set the new bail at $10,000, which Washington said her client cannot afford. After the hearing, she was asking Uhuh’s family if they could get a mortgage on their home to raise the money and said he will lose his business if he can’t drive until after his November trial, if he is acquitted.
Data and algorithms
When Moore set the bail in May, he was following the suggestion of a Public Safety Assessment, a new analytical tool adopted by the county earlier this year. The calculations rely on data like a defendant’s age, past record, degree of violence, history of past court appearances and other objective factors to determine, through an algorithm, their risk of failing to return to court for future hearings. It is meant to ignore race, gender and wealth.
Court commissioners — appointed by the chief judge and who set most initial conditions of bail — are strongly urged to follow the PSA score’s suggestion but can deviate if they make a record of why they may be imposing a richer bail or extra conditions.
Advocates of pre-trial detention reform say the PSA is a better, less biased way to detaining only those most at risk, and keeping others out of jail pending the resolution of their cases.
Ensuring defendants’ appearance at future court hearings is the key purpose of bail, but in practice, unaffordable bails keep many people jailed — sometimes on even minor charges — for weeks or longer. It costs counties money to house them, and often leads to escalating problems for the defendant when they lose a job, can’t care for family or continue other obligations.
Though the data-based approach is growing nationwide, there have been situations where someone out on a lower bail commits a new crime, prompting more critique of the change.
Release on bail usually comes with a host of other conditions besides coming up with cash, like drug tests, meetings with pretrial services, no contact with victims or co-defendants, or being on GPS monitoring, staying out of certain places, avoiding the internet and others depending on the offense.
State law addresses pre-trial release this way:
“If bail is imposed, it shall be only in the amount found necessary to assure the appearance of the defendant. Conditions of release, other than monetary conditions, may be imposed for the purpose of protecting members of the community from serious bodily harm or preventing intimidation of witnesses.”
Critics of the new approach say it underweights the public protection factor. In the traditional calculation, the more serious the charge, the higher the bail amount was set. Reform advocates say not only did that cost money and disrupt lives for those held unnecessarily, it released some very dangerous people, regardless of their charged offense, if they could come up with the bail money.
Conen felt that given the nature of the charge, it was possible Uduh could take advantage of other cognitively impaired or otherwise disabled and vulnerable passengers he met as their van driver, who might not be aware of the charge he faces.
“Even if no one requested it (the restriction on continuing to drive clients), doesn’t common sense tell you” that should be a condition, he asked Friday. “I’m not trying to be flippant, but this has really bothered me.”
He was unimpressed with the fact Uduh had kept all his appointments and check-ins with Justice Point.
“It’s easy to be compliant with nothing more than showing up in court,” Conen said, again questioning why more non-bail conditions of release — like not driving other vulnerable passengers — weren’t imposed on Uduh.
Uduh did not appear for Friday’s hearing. He will remain in the Milwaukee County Jail until he can come up with the extra $8,500 to meet his new bail. The hearing on his motion to obtain the victim’s diary and treatment records was rescheduled for Oct 23.