Joe Perez spent 663 days in the McLennan County Jail awaiting disposition of his case that, as it turned out, he could have served in four months.

Perez was charged in a July 15, 2008, incident at the Proctor Springs area of Cameron Park.

Police said he struck a man in the leg with a baseball bat and threatened another while taking their jewelry.

Joe Perez served more than 600 days in jail awaiting disposition of his case which, it turns out, he could have served in four months.

The two-time felon was indicted on two counts of aggravated robbery, which could have landed him in prison for life.

Instead, prosecutors grappled with uncooperative witnesses and other complications that caused delay after delay in the case.

Finally, prosecutors offered to reduce the felony robbery charge to a misdemeanor in exchange for Perez’s guilty plea in June and a year in jail.

Because he had been in jail so long, Perez was able to walk out of the county jail the same day he pleaded. Inmates serving misdemeanor jail time typically serve three days for one, meaning Perez could have discharged his sentence in about 120 days had his case turned out differently.

It’s not typical in McLennan County’s two felony courts.

But Perez’s case and others, who recently resolved their cases after an unusually long jail stay, highlight the intricacies, complications and myriad of methods by which criminal cases are resolved.

Judges Matt Johnson and Ralph Strother handle 60 percent and 40 percent, respectively, of the county’s felony docket.

Johnson’s court is exclusively criminal, while Strother also handles family court matters.

Johnson said 65 to 70 percent of his cases are resolved within six to eight months of indictment.

“I’m sure every county has situations like this. It’s just how many do you have in proportion to your overall docket? If you have half the people sitting in jail over 18 months, then that is a problem; the system is broken. But I don’t think we have that here,” Johnson said.

One defendant was tried within three months of being indicted, the judge said.

“He asked for a speedy trial and his day in court, so we gave him a speedy trial and his day in court,” Johnson said.

Locked-up stepbrothers

Stepbrothers Jose Aldan Olivera, 38, and Henry Andres Cortez, 43, were not as lucky.

They remained jailed 415 days before charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child were dismissed against them July 30.

They maintained their innocence the entire time, rejecting plea bargains that included a reduction of the felony charges to misdemeanors.

The men had come to Texas from Nicaragua when they were young because their family was involved in political unrest there.

Both men went to school in Waco and made their homes here when they were accused of sexual assault — allegations one of their lawyers claimed were spawned by a bitter domestic dispute and custody fight.

Immigration officials were alerted about their illegal status when they were jailed.

Officials placed an immigration hold on them, meaning no matter what happened in their criminal case, they would be deported.

After a prolonged investigation, the district attorney’s office dismissed charges against the pair July 30 and they were deported.

“These guys sat in jail for well over a year to get the charges dismissed,” said Waco attorney Sam Martinez, who represented Olivera. “Obviously, that is not justice. It is just wrong. If not for their arrests on these bogus charges, they would be free now, not back in Nicaragua.”

“I don’t think the system is working as it should when someone sits in jail for almost two years,” Judge Johnson said. “There are certain cases that involve complex evidence or a complex fact pattern. . . . But, without commenting on any particular case, if a case gets indicted, barring some remarkable circumstances or situations, even complex cases should be tried within a year to 18 months.”

McLennan County District Attorney John Segrest agrees, and said his team of prosecutors does what it can to keep the court dockets rolling.

“There are two felony courts and everyone is working as hard as they can to resolve these cases,” Segrest said. “We are doing the same. But there are only five days in the work week. Ten years ago, we had half as many felony cases as we are getting now. So I think the system works pretty well considering the challenges the system creates.”

According to McLennan County court records, Johnson and Strother combined to dispose of 2,376 felony cases in 2009, while 2,127 new felony cases were added to their dockets. At the end of 2009, both courts had a total of 1,226 felony cases pending.

In 1999, when retired Judge George Allen presided over the county’s sole felony court, 1,290 cases were disposed of while 1,287 new cases were added to the docket. At the end of 1999, there were 847 felonies pending.

Case delays

Cases can be delayed for a variety of reasons.

Reasons include missing or hard-to-locate witnesses, waiting months for the results of forensic testing, inmates who want new court-appointed lawyers, defendant competency or sanity issues or prosecutors or lawyers simply not being ready because they had a recent trial which occupied most of their time.

“There are as many reasons for resets as there are defendants and lawyers who represent them,” Segrest said. “A skilled defendant or defense lawyer can delay justice, and really, they have more incentive to do so than anyone in the courthouse.

“If a defendant knows that he has a lengthy prison stay ahead of him, he has many reasons not to cooperate, not to go to court and to delay the final resolution as long as possible,” Segrest said. “People do not want to go to prison and will stay in the county jail as long as possible.”

Judge Ralph Strother
Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald, file

Waiting on evidence

Both judges place a high priority on disposing of the oldest cases first. Both also started recalling reset cases every two weeks instead of every six to eight weeks to try to clear older cases from their dockets.

“Usually, when you have defendants in jail for extended periods of time, there are some combination of circumstances that no one agency or entity has control over,” Strother said. “I have several on my docket right now in jail a year or more, but it is not the state’s fault or the defendant’s fault because they are waiting for DNA lab reports or drug reports.”

Segrest said the alternative to keeping someone in jail while the state and the person’s lawyer prepare the case for trial is to release them back into the public.

“That is not acceptable. We have jails for a reason,” Segrest said. “This is the system, and once the system loads up, it is a challenge to push cases through. This ain’t fast food. You can’t expect to place your order, leave and have justice satisfied before you get home. It is a long, drawn-out process that has many facets and issues. It works, but it just takes time.”

Abel Reyna, a criminal defense lawyer who is seeking to unseat Segrest in November, said many of the delays in cases could be avoided by more cooperation between prosecutors and law enforcement officers before arrests are made.

Many of the forensic or scientific tests should be ordered before indictments are sought, Reyna said.

Reyna, who has asked for his fair share of trial delays as a defense attorney, said most cases should be disposed of in nine months or a year.

twitherspoon@wacotrib.com

757-5737

LONG WAITS IN THE COUNTY JAIL

Court officials say the average felony case in McLennan County is disposed of within six to eight months of indictment.

Here are defendants jailed more than 400 days awaiting disposition of their cases.