Christie, 54, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he conspired to sell drugs to school children for the benefit of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. He is also charged with a litany of other crimes,including street terrorism, embezzlement and filing false income tax returns.
In February, a Grand Jury indicted Christie and 27 other members and associates of Hells Angels, including Christie's adult son and daughter and his estranged wife. He has been jailed since the indictment with bail set at $1 million by Superior Court Judge Art Gutierrez.
Friday's hearing was an attempt to lower that bail to $250,000 so that Christie can see his ailing mother. But Superior Court Judge Barry Klopfer ruled the illness did not change any of the factors that contribute to setting bail amounts. Those factors are public safety, the seriousness of the current offense, the defendant's criminal history and whether he or she is a flight risk.
Christie sighed heavily after Klopfer's ruling and sat motionless until bailiffs tapped him on the shoulder and led him back to jail. Christie learned last Saturday that his 83-year-old mother, Georgia Christie, has been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer that has spread to her pancreas.
Christie's lawyer Anthony Brooklier said a doctor has given the elderly woman just a few weeks to a few months to live. "I'm disappointed with the ruling, but the judge gave us a fair hearing," said the Century City attorney after the bail hearing. "(Christie) is going through a lot right now -- he is close to his mother and not being able to take care of her is very hard. Her diagnosis was heartbreaking to him."
Brooklier would not say whether he intends to appeal, but did say he will continue to "do everything possible to get this bail lowered ... No one should forget these are just charges at this point."
He added that the typical bail for these crimes is $100,000.During Friday's hearing, Brooklier argued that because of Christie's close relationship with his mother, he was less of a flight risk because he wanted to be with her during her illness.
But Deputy District Attorney Kevin Suh countered that many people in jail have sick relatives."This is one of the adverse consequences of being in custody, but that has no bearing" on the factors a judge considers when setting bail amounts, Suh said. "No matter how sick his mother is, he will always be the leader, the patriarch of the Hells Angels. There's an enormous amount of power and influence that goes with that. ... And what happens when she dies? Then the incentive for him (to stay and stand trial) is gone."
Also, on the bail money, and them denying it (on certain cases) unless it can be proven it was not drug money put up for the bail. That again is plain assinine. If the system worked right, they (the prosecutors) would have to prove that it was money from drugs, (the burden of proof goes onto the prosecutors, and not the one indicted) not the other way around. The burden of proof, was never intended to be any different.
This is how corrupt and shameful our justice system has become. Mainly from people sitting in places they have no business even being. Our whole justice system has become unconstitutional to put it quite mildly. Bail was never suppose to be in excess for the party involved.
It would serve well for some to go back and re-read the laws of our country and what the justice system is suppose to represent. It is suppose to work the same for everyone, and not just the few it picks and chooses. When people are judged by who they are, and not the fact whether or not, they are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty (beyond a reasonable doubt) in a court of law, this country is no better than were any of the other slaughter house countries.
This so called war on drugs, is only a war on the people, and a great failure at best. It has become a warehouse of people for sale, to fill the prisons. Nothing more than human slavery. And if anyone can tell me it's had any impact at all on what it's so called purpose was intended for, then they too have their heads stuck into the sand, and have been blinded from the real facts.
They can go around accusing people of whatever they want, throw them in jails, hold them illegally by means of setting bond so high it's impossible to ever make bail, as when you do, then, they only bring in another lame excuse as to why that can't be done.
America better wake up. The war on drugs, is a sham at best. And, it serves no purpose other than to fill the prisons with non violent people. I've not seen crime drop by any of these so called laws. And neither has anyone else.
Yet, I have seen a warehouse full of people being no more than sold into prisons, just as surely as the people were sold into slavery. Remember! The old saying is: "History always repeats itself." Yet it is doing so at this very moment, and people have no eyes to see it with. This saddens me.
Our justice system, is a failure at best.
Sincerely,
"Wheels"
