Zabdiel R. Vargas-Soto, 22, of Newark, was charged with aggravated assault and weapons offenses in February in connection with an incident where Vargas-Soto allegedly stabbed a woman outside a bar.
Vargas-Soto was later released and FREE TO GO under NJ Bail Reform after the Arnold Foundation’s “Pretrial Risk Assessment” tool determined that he 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.
Vargas-Soto is now charged with the double murder of two men stemming from a shooting in the Adams and Walnut street section of Newark.
Newark Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose had this to say in a report by NJ.com…
“A serious review of bail reform is needed,” he said. Ambrose and other police executives have criticized the changes as allowing criminals who should be behind bars to be released based on faulty public safety assessments.
“I keep asking people responsible for bail reform to come up with solutions to a flawed system,” Ambrose said in an interview. “There has to be a better solution. We have two young lives that were lost.”
More “validated pretrial risk assessment” Failures.
New Jersey Bail Reform, Risk Assessments, and Pretrial Release Services…
- ZERO Accountability
- ZERO Deterrent
- ZERO Supervision
- ZERO concern for victims
- ZERO Bail…just a “pinky promise” to return
- Bail Reform – Dangerous, Reckless, and a Taxpayer Burden
RELATED:
Man freed with electronic monitoring now accused of double slaying
(reported by NJ.com – Sept 15 2017)
When Zabdiel R. Vargas-Soto was released ahead of trial with an electronic monitoring device for allegedly attacking a woman, he had no record of criminal convictions, and was found to be a low risk for future violent crime.
But months later, Vargas-Soto stands accused of fatally shooting two brothers in Newark, slayings that he allegedly committed while awaiting trial for the earlier alleged assault. Now city’s public safety director is once again blaming bail reform for allowing a defendant to go free and commit crime.
Vargas-Soto, 22, was charged with the murders of Jose Castillo-Granados, 25, and Francisco Castillo-Granados, 22, near Adams and Walnut streets in Newark’s Ironbound section in an Aug. 27 attack authorities say stemmed from an unspecified dispute.
The murder case was his second run-in with police in the city, according to law enforcement and court records. The Newark man was arrested earlier this year on aggravated assault and weapons charges, which stemmed from a Jan. 28 incident where he allegedly stabbed a woman he knew in an argument outside an East Ward bar, a police report stated.
Under state reforms that eliminated monetary bail for most defendants, a judge ordered Vargas-Soto to be released from custody at a Feb. 8 hearing after a computer algorithm, called a Public Safety Assessment, did not flag him for being likely to commit future violent crime. Police records show Vargas-Soto was released from the city lockup Feb. 10.
After his arrest in the fatal shootings, Newark Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose issued a sharp rebuke of bail reform, and called for state judiciary officials to revamp the system.
“A serious review of bail reform is needed,” he said. Ambrose and other police executives have criticized the changes as allowing criminals who should be behind bars to be released based on faulty public safety assessments.
“I keep asking people responsible for bail reform to come up with solutions to a flawed system,” Ambrose said in an interview. “There has to be a better solution. We have two young lives that were lost.”
You’ve been LIED to New Jersey…NJ Bail Reform is RECKLESS, DANGEROUS, and YOU are PAYING for it.
Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
https://www.usbailreform.com/hoboken-nj-man-facing-kidnapping-gun-drug-charges-free-go-nj-bail-reform/