Man spent five months in jail, not knowing his bail was $2
A New York City man spent five months in jail unaware that two dollars stood between him and his freedom.
Aitabdel Salem, 41, was sent to Rikers Island in 2014 after a New York City police officer arrested him for trying to steal a coat from Zara on Nov. 21, the New York Daily News reported. Salem was then jailed for allegedly attacking the officer and given a $25,000 bail.
But prosecutors could not indict him, and an order said he should be released a few days later. Salem, however, had two minor charges on his record, which commanded bails of a dollar each.
Salem’s lawyer at the time, Stephen Pokart of the Legal Aid Society, did not tell him his overall bail had been decreased to $2, Salem claims, according to the Daily News. So Salem remained in jail, not knowing for months that he could walk free if he could pay the $2, his new lawyers Glenn Hardy and Theodore Goldbergh said. (Pokart did not respond to a request for comment from the paper.)
Salem “was shocked and dismayed and frustrated that his case was unconscionably mishandled,” Hardy said, according to the Daily News. “There was no communication by his attorney telling him his bail was $2 which he could have made at any moment.”
Salem was eventually released from Rikers in the spring of 2015, but was arrested again when he did not show up for a police assault arraignment in May, according to the Daily News. His lawyers said in a hearing last week that the letter informing Salem of the arraignment had been returned to the sender and that he had never seen it.
“You can’t do what you don’t know and if you’re a defendant in a criminal case you certainly have a right to rely upon the system what your next court date is,” Goldbergh said in court, according to the Daily News.
But Salem, who was once a handful of quarters away from leaving jail, is locked up again after the court date confusion until further notice. His bail was raised to $30,000, according to court records.
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/nation-world/national/article81164752.html#storylink=cpy
Source: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/nation-world/national/article81164752.html
A New York City man spent five months in jail unaware that two dollars stood between him and his freedom.
Aitabdel Salem, 41, was sent to Rikers Island in 2014 after a New York City police officer arrested him for trying to steal a coat from Zara on Nov. 21, the New York Daily News reported. Salem was then jailed for allegedly attacking the officer and given a $25,000 bail.
But prosecutors could not indict him, and an order said he should be released a few days later. Salem, however, had two minor charges on his record, which commanded bails of a dollar each.
Salem’s lawyer at the time, Stephen Pokart of the Legal Aid Society, did not tell him his overall bail had been decreased to $2, Salem claims, according to the Daily News. So Salem remained in jail, not knowing for months that he could walk free if he could pay the $2, his new lawyers Glenn Hardy and Theodore Goldbergh said. (Pokart did not respond to a request for comment from the paper.)
Salem “was shocked and dismayed and frustrated that his case was unconscionably mishandled,” Hardy said, according to the Daily News. “There was no communication by his attorney telling him his bail was $2 which he could have made at any moment.”
Salem was eventually released from Rikers in the spring of 2015, but was arrested again when he did not show up for a police assault arraignment in May, according to the Daily News. His lawyers said in a hearing last week that the letter informing Salem of the arraignment had been returned to the sender and that he had never seen it.
“You can’t do what you don’t know and if you’re a defendant in a criminal case you certainly have a right to rely upon the system what your next court date is,” Goldbergh said in court, according to the Daily News.
But Salem, who was once a handful of quarters away from leaving jail, is locked up again after the court date confusion until further notice. His bail was raised to $30,000, according to court records.
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/nation-world/national/article81164752.html#storylink=cpy
Source: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/nation-world/national/article81164752.html