At what point did Atty Smith or other member of Pattisville reach out to Fd this am. Atty Smith was in Stamford well in advance of hearing so at what point might he have called Fd. Could Pattisville not have deployed an intern to pick up and deliver their client to Court? Where is Cowboy Hat person or Holy Cross Intern?
Also, where are the Court monitors in all this too? They knew the appearance was scheduled. They had to have approved the movement today to Stamford. The monitor tracks in real time. Did nobody from the monitoring company actually track their client in real time or verify that he left 4Jx and arrived in Stamford?
If you think about the idea that nobody seemed to be looking for Fd until about noon time today.
What is stunning is that instead of attempting to kill himself, had Fd gotten into a plane at the local airfield he could have been pretty close to Canada by the time anyone was looking for him for not showing up in Stamford. This I find stunning because it shows me that nobody is really watching these folks with the bracelets. What is the point of real time knowledge if nobody is watching it?
^^sbm
If he kept his monitor on, it would mean that although he wasn’t where he was supposed to be, he wasn’t in a place that he wasn’t supposed to be.
Those monitors signal if someone goes outside a pre-determined area, and he didn’t do that.
The monitoring company probably didn’t know he was supposed to be in court, and thought nothing was amiss.
He wasn't in a place that he wasn't supposed to be.
The reality is that only one party is concerned whether or not a defendant makes his/her court appearance: the surety. By definition, it's the surety that is
100% at risk to the state court if the defendant fails to appear. In FD's case -- that's $7 mil at risk if he fails to appear. Understandably, if anybody is going give a shout out or courtesy call to remind you of a court date, or provide transportation to court, it's going to be the surety -- all in the interest of protecting their investment.
The monitoring firm contracted to determine if the defendant is within the confines of where the court ordered the defendant to remain has no responsibility to see that the defendant keeps their court date. Their only legal responsibility is to report if the defendant is not where they're under court order to exist. They're never ever going call to ask if you overslept today, or inquire why you're not en route to court while you are in the very place that you're ordered to be!
A defendant's attorney certainly hopes that their client will comply with the terms of their bond release (i.e., miss court under threat of bond revocation and collateral forfeiture) and prefers to keep their court schedule as agreed but there is no penalty imposed upon an attorney whose client fails to appear for a given court date. The defense attorney (and the state attorney) will just have to calendar another hearing date-- albeit at the annoyance of the court. The defense (or prosecutor) won't be held in contempt for the actions of the client/defendant. And if the defendant's attorney arranges transportation, you can believe it's most likely a billable courtesy (pursuant to the signed representation agreement).
Naturally, the defendant's family would like the defendant to be compliant for various reasons including not risking the family fortune by failing to show and forfeiting the family's pooled collateral. However, like all of the above, the family is also under no legal obligation to guarantee the defendant's attendance in court.
Nope, only the Surety has a reason to see that the defendant makes any court appearance. It's on the defendant to put on his big boy pants, get to court, or face bond revocation, return to jail, and forfeit any collateral signed over to the Surety.
MOO
