Article: State Victim Advocate: Too Many Plea Deals

By CHRISTINE DEMPSEY, cdempsey@courant.com

The Hartford Courant

More than 95 percent of cases in the state's court system over the past four years were resolved without a trial, meaning too many end with plea bargains built on watered-down charges, the state victim advocate said Friday.

People have died as a result, specifically in domestic violence cases, said the advocate, Michelle Cruz.

Cruz outlined her concerns in a four-page letter to the state Office of Policy and Management Thursday. She asked for a study of the number of criminal trials in the state, how long it takes to prosecute them, how many cases are resolved with plea bargains and why.

"There's something seriously wrong," Cruz said.

Her letter said the Danbury judicial district had the lowest percentage of trials over four years: 21 trials from July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2010, only 0.87 percent of its dispositions.

The highest percentage was in the Waterbury judicial district, where 122 trials accounted for 8.68 percent of dispositions, she wrote.

Although some sentences arise from plea deals for valid reasons, Cruz wrote, "the plea bargain process has been exploited."

Defendant often agree to plead guilty to a lesser charges in order to avoid a trial. There are times when plea bargains are legitimate, Cruz said — such as if the state lacks evidence or wants to avoid having a child testify against someone who has sexually abused him or her.

But there are too many "administrative" plea bargains, she said.

"After three years of being in Connecticut looking at cases, what I see is a pattern of defendants who are allowed to plea to a more lenient charge that often doesn't resemble the conduct," said Cruz, who was a prosecutor in Massachusetts. The lesser, substituted charge "doesn't reflect the seriousness of the offense," she said.

Her letter also said too many undeserving defendants are put in programs that keep them out of jail, and that, in general, court cases take too long to resolve.

Cruz cited some specific examples of what she considers improper plea deals:

--Charges in a manslaughter case stemming from a double-fatal, drunken driving crash on I-95 were reduced to driving under the influence and evading responsibility.

--A man who was put in a diversionary program after a domestic violence case later killed his wife and then himself in West Haven.

--A charge of violation of a protective order in a domestic violence case was reduced to breach of peace; the defendant has since been charged with killing another woman.

--A home invasion charge was reduced to burglary.

Rhonda Stearley-Hebert, a spokesman for the state's judicial branch, said court officials just received the letter and statistics and need time to review them before commenting.

State Rep. Michael Lawlor, chairman of the legislature's judiciary committee, said he agrees that there are not enough trials and that it is a problem.

He said that he has spoken with Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane about the lack of trials — which he said is mostly a problem in lower courts where less serious cases are handled — and that Kane agrees there has to be more of an effort to bring cases to trial.

Lawlor, a criminal justice professor who also is a former state's attorney, said prosecutors who don't often take cases to trial get "rusty" and become more and more reluctant to try cases. Good defense attorneys can sense this and will push for a better deal for their clients in exchange for a guilty plea, he said.

"I do think the end result is plea bargains are more lenient than you want them to be," Lawlor said.

Changes to encourage more trials, such as moving staff around and providing extra training, may happen in the next few years under the leadership of Gov.-elect Dannel Malloy, himself a former prosecutor, Lawlor said.