Lamonte Mims, 19, formerly of Patterson (Stanislaus County), was arrested and charged with the murder of a 71-year-old film scout and photographer on San Francisco’s Twin Peaks last month.
According to a report by SFGate…
Mims “had been given a faulty risk score for the defendant that understated the danger he posed on the street, officials said Monday.”
“The mistake was made by the Pretrial Diversion Project, a city-funded nonprofit group in charge of calculating “public safety assessment scores,” or PSA scores, that San Francisco has been assigning to jailed defendants for more than a year, according to the San Francisco district attorney’s office.”
Despite Mims criminal history and gun charge, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation developed risk assessment tool (PSA) determined that Mims was not a danger to the community or a flight risk and therefore should not be subject to any accountable release – just a “promise” to appear. FREE TO GO.
Days before the murder, Mims (a convicted felon) had been arrested for possession of a gun on July 7 after he was found in a car, along with another individual, with a 9mm Ruger pistol and a .38-caliber revolver — a violation of his probation on a prior burglary charge.
Miscalculated ‘score’ said to be behind release of alleged Twin Peaks killer
(reported by SFGate – Aug 14 2017)
A judge who released a 19-year-old man just days before he allegedly murdered a 71-year-old stranger on Twin Peaks had been given a faulty risk score for the defendant that understated the danger he posed on the street, officials said Monday.
The mistake was made by the Pretrial Diversion Project, a city-funded nonprofit group in charge of calculating “public safety assessment scores,” or PSA scores, that San Francisco has been assigning to jailed defendants for more than a year, according to the San Francisco district attorney’s office. The goal is to improve on the state’s traditional bail system.
The error apparently contributed to Judge Sharon Reardon’s release on July 11 of Lamonte Mims of Patterson (Stanislaus County), who had been jailed on suspicion of being a felon with a gun. Five days later, police said Mims and 20-year-old Fantasy Decuir of San Francisco killed photographer and film scout Edward French in a robbery on Twin Peaks.
Reardon had been given a score for Mims that indicated he posed a medium risk of committing crimes or fleeing if released before trial, but the score was too low, officials said. It wasn’t immediately clear how the mistake was made, and representatives of the Pretrial Diversion Project did not respond to requests for comment.
The risk assessment relies on a computer algorithm created by the Texas-based Laura and John Arnold Foundation, which advocates for criminal justice reform and opposes the traditional system in which bail amounts are tied primarily to a defendant’s charges, regardless of his ability to pay.
The tool weighs factors such as prior criminal history and age to determine an offender’s public-safety and flight risk, but in the case of Mims, “It appears certain factors were not accurately entered, and this resulted in a miscalculation by the agency that generates the scores,” said Max Szabo, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office.
As result, the program recommended that Mims be released on what is known as assertive case management, which requires routine check-ins with authorities. Judge Reardon was not obligated to follow the recommendation, but apparently did do. She cannot comment on the case due to judicial ethics rules, according to a court representative.
The revelation of the error came on the same day that the two defendants pleaded not guilty to murdering French, a San Francisco resident. Their defense attorneys declined to comment on the allegations.
https://www.usbailreform.com/san-francisco-ca-six-months-using-risk-assessment-tool-staggering-35-criminal-defendants-failed-appear-committed-new-crime/